I'm talking about how this is the year of the Holy Spirit.
And that's why I read Joel chapter two.
And if you go look at Joel chapter two,
just have a look at Joel chapter two.
Joel chapter two.
Joel is so hard to find.
Do you know where it is?
Old Testament, where?
After Hosea.
Ah, sure.
Okay.
So if you look at Joel,
the first part of Joel from verse one to 11
is basically how difficult and disastrous the times are.
Disastrous the times are.
That's verse one to 12.
One to 11.
Around verse 12, you see things changing.
What happens with Christians is
we go straight to Joel 2.28.
We usually go to Joel 2.28.
And so if you go to Joel 2.28, it says,
and afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all people
your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
That's usually where most Christians go.
But it says, and afterwards, after what?
And to find out after what, you got to go to verse 18.
And then when you go to verse 18, you see, it says,
then the Lord will be jealous for his land
and take pity on his people.
The Lord will reply to them,
I'm sending you grain, you wine and oil.
Strange thing, eh?
That God sends provision before he sends the Holy Spirit.
We always think that the Holy Spirit
has to come for provision to come.
And we connect the Holy Spirit again
with supply of provision,
where God is already saying,
that let me send you provisions first.
And then after sending you provisions,
after that, I'll pour out the Holy Spirit upon you.
We'll talk about that another time.
So then in verse 18, it says,
then the Lord will be jealous for his land
and take pity on his people.
So the question is, what happens before then?
And so then you got to go to verse 12.
Because if it says then, then there's a question when.
And so you got to go to verse 12.
In verse 12, it says, even now declares the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning,
rend your heart and not your garments,
return to the Lord your God
for he is gracious and compassionate.
So that's where it starts.
Say, you live in a time of disaster and tragedy
and great trouble,
but if you rend your heart and not your garments, Jacob,
then I will begin to first restore provision to you,
give you a new grain and new wine.
And by the way, after all that is done
and the years that the locusts have eaten have been restored,
I also want to say to you that after that,
I will pour upon you the Holy Spirit
and the Spirit of God will cause the young men
and the old men, the young men and the old women
to prophesy.
So today what I want to deal with is this whole idea
of rend your hearts, humble yourself,
rend your hearts, humble yourself,
because there is a direct correlation
between humility and the Holy Spirit,
humility and the Holy Spirit.
There is a direct correlation.
And one of the things that affects us in this world
is the spirit of this age, as I was talking about,
and the spirit of this age is a spirit of pride.
Man is proud.
I don't think man has ever been as proud as he is today.
With the accomplishments that we've had,
with the way we function, like Dano was saying,
between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs,
they can provide us everything that we need from God.
It's just that we don't know them.
The spirit of this age is a spirit of pride.
And it's not surprising if you go to 1 John 2.16,
1 John 2.16, if you go to 1 John 2.16,
you will see in 1 John 2.16,
three things mentioned that we have to be careful about.
It says in 1 John 2.15 and 16,
I'm reading from verse 15,
do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in them.
Verse 16, for everything in the world,
the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes,
and the boasting of what he has and does
comes not from the Father, but from the world.
As in, there are three things
that work against us in this world,
and that defines the spirit of the age
in every generation that has stood upon this earth.
The pride of life, the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes.
Today, we only talk about the pride of life.
Yeah?
And so guys, when it comes to pride,
it's literally a spirit.
You read about it in Job 41, verse 34.
Job 41, verse 34.
Job 41, verse 12, kind of mentions the name of the spirit.
You may call it by other names,
but one of the names that's given to this ruler
over those with haughty hearts
is the name Leviathan.
In Job 41, verse 12, it talks about the Leviathan.
And in Job 41, verse 34, it says that Leviathan rules
over those that have a proud heart.
Leviathan is ruler over the children of pride.
Now, I'm not saying that we are a proud stiff-necked people,
but I am saying that we are susceptible
and often operate under the spirit of the age
where we begin to take pride in ourselves.
And I'm saying that that must go
if the Holy Spirit is to have his way,
because there's a direct correlation between humility
and the ways of the Holy Spirit.
Any questions?
We are not a proud and stiff-necked people.
I do not believe so.
If that were the case, we wouldn't be where we are today.
But even though we are not a proud and stiff-necked people,
I'm talking about us gathered here right now,
I would like to say that the spirit of the age
is a spirit that lends itself to man being proud,
and that we are susceptible to it.
I am susceptible to it.
And we often come under the sway
of this really wicked spirit called Leviathan,
who is ruler over the children of pride.
And may I suggest to you that you have that problem
and I have that problem.
Any questions?
Can I have some pens, man?
Oh, I got them.
Any questions?
Guys, someone said this line, I really love it.
This person said,
humility follows God like a shadow.
Humility follows God like a shadow.
Like a shadow.
If that is the case, we can infer then
that where God is, humility is.
And when God goes, humility goes.
This is such an important equation.
I was quite surprised at how easy it is
to slip into this place of pride.
Humility follows God like a shadow.
If that is the case, we can infer
that where God is, humility is.
When God goes, humility goes.
And if you wanna define redemption differently,
then here's one way of defining redemption.
Redemption is the regaining.
Redemption is the regaining or the restoration.
Redemption is the restoration of lost humility.
Or in other words, an entire dependence
on God.
That's another way of defining redemption.
Redemption is the regaining of lost humility
or an entire dependence on God.
So here's the thing, guys.
Man left alone will always be proud.
When man is present with God, humility is present.
When man is left alone, pride is always present,
which then means that in a 24-hour day,
if God is not present in some hours of your day,
pride will be present.
The Bible tracks this.
There was a time when even Adam
were not present with God, pride came in.
There was a time in Hezekiah's life where God says,
I left him alone for a while to test his heart.
And Hezekiah begins to go into pride
and calls the envoys from Babylon
and begin to show them everything that he has.
Nebuchadnezzar was given his riches by God,
but he denies the presence of God
and becomes like an animal who's running around
for seven years in the wilderness,
claws grown long, nails grown long like claws,
hair grown like a wild animal till he acknowledges God.
It is strange how when man is left alone, pride is present.
When man is present with God, humility is present,
which then means that every moment that I spend alone,
pride seeks to have me.
Jesus put it this way, apart from God, I can do nothing.
We say this, apart from God, I am something.
Strange how this works.
When man is present with God, humility prevails.
When man is by himself, pride abounds.
Pride seeks and finds you when you're apart from God.
It always has.
You see it with Adam and Eve, you see it with Hezekiah.
You see it with this guy called Uzziah.
Uzziah was a marvelous king.
Very few accomplished what he did.
And then it says pride got him.
Pride gets you when you are a man or a woman on your own
when God is not present.
But here's the problem.
We are in the same situation as Jacob in Genesis 28,
where Jacob, I know you've heard this many times,
but I'm saying it for the sake of the tape.
When Jacob was at Bethel with his head resting
on a stone, he gets up and he says,
this is the gateway of heaven.
God is present, but I did not even know it.
I wanna say to you that every time in my life,
when God is present, but I do not recognize it,
then the only other person I recognize is me.
And whenever I recognize me, pride is present.
The only way to beat it is to be highly aware
of the presence of God.
Because when God is absent, pride is present.
When God is present, humility prevails.
Any questions?
Man left alone, pride seeks you.
And when I say man left alone,
man has to find himself alone by separating himself from.
Any questions?
First Peter 5, 5 and many other scriptures,
James chapter four, it says,
clothe yourselves with humility.
Clothe yourselves with humility.
It's a deliberate putting on,
clothe yourselves with humility towards one another.
Why?
Because God resists or God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.
It's the spirit of the age guys.
Where do you find humility in this world?
But where Christ dwells?
Where does Christ dwell but in a people?
Where do you find humility in this world?
Where?
Even in the most altruistic of acts
where people are giving themselves,
you go back to 1 Corinthians 13,
even if you laid your body down for sacrifice,
yet you will find pride there.
The only place you don't find pride
is when God is radically present.
Sometimes the need to acknowledge, recognize
and dwell in his presence is just so that
you can continue in this place called humility.
And there's a direct correlation between humility
and the Holy Spirit and we'll talk about that.
It doesn't matter whether it's politics,
whether it's pastoring, whether it's church,
or whether it's the world,
the one thing that's constantly present is pride.
And remember, it is natural for pride to be present
because pride came before fear.
The first sin committed was pride.
The first evil thing that entered the cosmos was pride.
The second evil thing that entered the cosmos was deception.
The third evil thing that entered the cosmos was fear.
The fourth evil thing that entered the cosmos
was working to earn one's wages.
But the first evil that entered the cosmos was pride.
It entered in heaven's backyard.
Then it was brought into Eden
and there was deception that caused one.
Deception as in lies.
And then the next thing that entered the cosmos was fear.
But the first one was pride.
It's ancient.
When I read this thing that,
Jacob, every time you're left to your own,
pride will try and seek you.
I brought up two thoughts.
One, dwell in the presence of God to walk humbly, Jacob.
And two, there will be times when God will leave you alone
to test your heart, just as he did Hezekiah.
Where he'll say, Second Chronicles 32, verse 31,
or 21, I'm not sure, 31.
Second Chronicles 32, verse 31 says,
and then God left Hezekiah alone to test what is in his heart.
One of the things I've since got saying
when I was preparing this was,
he said, Jacob, as you're preparing this,
don't think of anybody else but yourself.
So unfortunately, I couldn't think of any of you.
That's proud.
I could only think of myself.
Though I'd have loved to put you in picture.
But it didn't work out.
So as it says at first, Peter,
I'm not sure if you're ready to be a part of this,
but I'm sure you are.
So as it says at first, Peter, five, five,
clothe yourself with humility,
especially as you deal with each other.
Because God opposes or resists.
The idea of resist or oppose,
I was just checking what the picture of that word is.
It is a hostile military stance.
So God actually gets into this hostile military stance
when I'm proud.
And by the way, guys,
besides you being someone who walks in humility,
know that when you associate with people that are proud,
it'll get you, eh?
It'll get you.
You think that by associating and kowtowing
and hobnobbing with people who are proud,
you can escape?
You can't.
Because Proverbs 16, 18 says that pride comes, Jacob,
with destruction,
and a haughty look will always precede a fall in your life.
Every time, Jacob, you are proud,
know that the destroyer is at work
because destruction is just an inch away.
And every time you look at things with haughty eyes,
know that you are just preparing yourself for a fall
because you're too blind for it.
And therefore, Jacob,
be careful how you associate with ones who are proud
because the same thing will happen to you.
I love what 1 Corinthians 4.7 says.
1 Corinthians 4.7 puts it this way.
I'll read it, but as far as I can remember,
it says, hey, Jacob,
what do you have that you actually created yourself?
Anything you have comes from me.
So what are you boasting about?
1 Corinthians 4.7.
For who makes you different from anyone else, Jacob?
What do you have that you did not receive, Jacob?
And if you did receive it,
why do you boast as though you did not?
For who makes you different from anyone else?
Who makes you different from anyone else?
What do you have that you got yourself,
that you created yourself?
Everything that you have came from me.
So what are you boasting about?
It's very hard, guys, to derive your value
and your greatness and your beauty and your glory
and your worth from God alone.
It's very hard.
That's what I've been trying to do
through the time of worship today.
Can we make God big enough so that we see our smallness?
That's why it makes sense to hear what Dan was saying.
Because my God,
He's the only God who can make us big enough
to see our smallness.
That's why I'm saying,
it makes sense to hear what Dan was saying.
Because my God,
what if that is the only thing He offers
and that is the beginning and the end?
Salvation and that is all.
Sometimes you need to consider,
sometimes I need to consider my flawed,
filthy separateness
before I consider my forgiven sin-free holiness.
Problem with churches like ours is we are so into,
you are as holy as God,
you are a much loved child,
you are precious to God,
He loves you,
you are sin-free because Christ took all your sins.
We are so into that,
that we forget that our actual condition on any given day,
except for the blood of Christ,
is flawed, filthy separateness
that cannot even approach someone
who is just remotely holy,
leave alone God.
So we don't acknowledge that enough
because we come from a Christian viewpoint
where those things are taken care of by the blood of Christ.
But sometimes I need to consider that
before I can realize how sin-free, forgiven,
and holy I am.
I have to consider how actually filthy,
separate, and unholy I am.
And that doesn't happen
till I keep seeing God as a very, very big,
very, very holy, very, very self-separated God
who cannot be approached.
The mind cannot comprehend it.
Something has to happen to my spirit.
And so I'm not trying to create an image for you
where I make you feel like filth
and make him look like super holy.
Because even if I did that,
it doesn't do you any good.
It's just an image in your mind
and all our images will be different.
So that doesn't help.
But in my spirit, I need to understand
the bigness of God and the smallness of Jacob,
because if not, Jacob will walk as a man.
And if he walks as a man,
pride will seek him and will find him and get him.
Any questions?
No questions, no thoughts?
It depends.
What's your last name?
Okay, you go first.
Here's a theory.
Yeah.
So.
With what part do you think that the concept
that you're doing is a big, big, big, big, big, big, big,
Jacob, you're always aware that,
Jacob has no pain, he's just a person with an edge.
He's always there.
How can he be a part of it?
He doesn't.
But sometimes he...
Sometimes God will let something really good happen to me
and check how I will respond to that really good thing.
Or sometimes God will bring a lot of applause
and recognition my way, and then check and see
how I will respond to that applause and recognition.
Sometimes God will bring plenty of provision
and blessing into my life,
and then see how I will respond to it.
And he won't tell me how to respond to it.
He'll just sit back and look and see,
so how's Jacob gonna handle this?
You do that with your children, you know?
You give them something and then you watch and see
how is this person going to respond?
I do that with you.
One on one, I do that with you.
Where I will either give you something
or hold back something from you to see how you will respond.
And God does that.
Because God knows what Jacob's fallings are
and what Jacob's non-fallings are,
and he wants to see, has this boy learned
over the last couple of years?
Will he be any different this time than before?
And if I am not, he'll start all over again
to help me get to a place
where I look more like Jesus Christ.
It's not that, it's not earth shattering
if I don't get it right, it's just time shattering.
It means I'll require more time to work on it.
But God will see, how does Jacob respond?
How does Jacob respond?
If there's anyone who has the right to test my heart,
it is God, not the devil.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from.
There is no recurrence like Job's anymore
in the new covenant,
but there is a testing that comes from God.
Everything that you believe you have learned will be tested.
Because it's only in testing
that what you have learned is proven.
So Abraham was called the father of faith.
But then he was called the father of faith in Genesis 15.
But when was Isaac asked of him?
Later.
So know that when you are being taught something by God,
he will test you so that you can prove
that you have learned well.
Oh, I can swim, really, yeah.
Where have you swum?
Ah, any ocean, you just throw me into the ocean
and I can swim, really?
Okay, let me just push you into this pool.
This is not God, this is just me doing it to you.
So, but there is a proving of what you say you have learned.
Any questions on that?
And he does it in a very fatherly way.
There's not some, that usual sergeant you see
in most American movies who shouts and hollers at you
and wakes you up at five in the morning.
No, there's a very fatherly God.
And so he will sometimes leave you alone
to see how you will respond to the things he gives.
Firi?
Hottie eyes.
Hottie eyes, you don't really see them.
Christians know how to disguise pride like crazy.
Christians have become experts at disguising all such things.
So, hottie eyes is when,
hottie eyes is when,
when he says that,
you know, I just got a new house
and I disguise my haughtiness and think to myself,
she's only got three bedrooms, I got four.
That's hottie eyes.
You won't say it, but in your heart,
you begin to despise, you hold in disdain,
you do not hold an equal value.
Or, hottie eyes can be the other way too.
Where, wonder where he got his money from.
He's 34, where did they get their money from?
Goes either ways.
Pride is something that is so subtle.
C.S. Lewis put it this way,
pride is the subtlest of vices
where one can be proud of Christian things
without even having Christ factored in.
It's the subtlest of vices.
If you read the screw tape letters,
what the devil tells the little demon to go
and do to the guy in the stories,
he says introduce pride and do it so subtly
because these Christians do not know when pride has entered.
It is the subtlest of vices, you can get them.
Another time he says this about pride,
pride should be,
humility is when you can build a cathedral
and everybody is applauding you for it
and then someone else goes,
builds another cathedral that is as good or better
and you don't feel bad at all
but you actually applaud the person
who built the other cathedral.
And that's my paraphrasing it but that's what he says.
You have just sung a song,
people have just come and told you how wonderful you are
and just before the applause stops,
up comes Jane and she sings
and they start applauding her
and you feel happy for Jane.
Not sad that while you were singing,
she came up and sang and stole your thunder.
Pride is very subtle, eh?
I got to leave you alone to test your heart.
Why am I bringing this up?
Because the spirit of the age encourages pride.
Your children are encouraged to be that at school.
When they come home, you encourage them to do it.
Pride spawns rivalry, pride spawns competition.
Pride spawns one-upmanship, pride spawns,
look at how the other lady's son is doing.
Pride spawns, you got to practice more,
you got to be better than them.
Pride is behind most of the evils that presently persist
and this spirit of the age is so strong, so strong
that it is very hard to walk free of it
unless I decide that I will be present with God
and God is so big that I will be so small.
Any questions?
Why is pride when you don't care about
how people are proud of you?
Sorry?
Because you haven't just used it
about people are proud of you and then you even talk
and then now you're saying it's good for her
because she's better, how's that?
I'm saying it's not pride when I applaud Jane, yeah.
Any other question?
Yep.
Is there any scripture that says something similar
to the pride of the Salamence on the site?
No, except for C.S. Lewis who is not scriptural
but based on scripture.
Yeah.
Pardon?
Yeah.
Go ahead, Firi.
Surprisingly, both pride and humility are not recognized
by the person who has it.
It's recognized by people around.
Both pride and humility are not easily recognized
by the person who has it.
When you are proud, you are usually not the one
who recognizes it.
When you are humble, you're usually never the person
who recognizes it but whether you are proud or humble,
people around you recognize it.
Do you have pride in your pride, for example,
like you praise God or any other way?
I would say that every time I acknowledge and derive
my value, my greatness, my beauty, my glory, my worth
from God alone, then it is okay.
But if I derive my value, my greatness, my beauty,
my worth from any other source,
then it goes into this evil place called pride
and God takes a hostile stance against it.
It is very hard for us humans to get to a point
where everything I do, let's assume this teaching
was really good, I must accept your applause
but I must also derive the absolute fact
that anything I say that affects your life,
the words that I speak, the way I say it,
the knowledge that is behind it,
the revelation that may come with it,
all comes from just one source and that is never Jacob.
Even the hard work that Jacob puts into a sermon
comes because of the grace of God.
Why is this important?
Because if we go down this route, I'm saying to you
that the year of the Holy Spirit will be far more effective
in this church because corporately,
if a people can walk with great humility,
corporately, a people will experience
the jealous yearning of the Holy Spirit.
This must then begin to affect how you deal
with your children, how you deal with your family affairs.
Everything has the same thing going in again and again.
I really hate the spirit of the age
because of what it is doing to the church.
Another thing the spirit of the age has done to us,
I'm not talking about any other church but us,
it has smothered us into silence
and we become politically correct inside church.
This church suffers from this evil attack
of the spirit of the age which has silenced us.
We do not speak and even the ones who used to speak
when they come to Acts 29 will stop speaking.
I'll give you an example.
You see that lady there sitting next to Jason?
That's Jason's mother.
When she used to first come to Acts 29,
she used to, during the middle of worship,
during a between songs, praise the Lord, hallelujah,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
It was like a stone in a pebble in your shoe.
Because the rest of us were pretty decently behaved.
And she would just keep doing this between songs.
I remember this very clearly.
Guess what has happened to her now that she comes
to Acts 29 regularly?
You won't hear it much.
We have the ability to smother the voice
of people in this church.
We do not speak.
We have our own reasons for it.
This is for next week's sermon.
We have our own reasons for it.
But my God, the spirit of this age knows
how to silence the voice of praise.
And it has affected this church dramatically, drastically.
I don't know how to break it.
It requires more than teaching.
What bothered me is that it silenced her.
Why?
Because what do you do when you keep coming to a church
and nobody speaks, you have to lower your volume.
And you may have your own good reasons.
I'm not giving the drama.
The Holy Spirit is.
That's for next week.
So here are some things that
pride does to me.
Pride makes me offended easily.
Pride gets me upset easily.
Pride makes me disheartened easily.
Pride, my pride doesn't allow me to face criticism easily.
Pride gets me offended easily.
I cannot think of you.
I wish I could.
Then I could think of one or the other of you
and try to put it on you.
But I'm not going to put it on you.
I'll try to put it on you.
But unfortunately, this is about me.
Pride makes me offended easily.
You say something and it just, I'm all offended.
And once I'm offended, you know how difficult it will be
to reach me or to connect with me.
Pride makes me disheartened easily.
Pride makes me wither away in criticism.
Pride makes me get upset easily.
You know how difficult it is to run a church
with the people who take offense easily?
You know how difficult it is to counsel someone?
Counsel me if I'm offended by you easily.
Even a couch won't help.
Next one.
I hadn't read this story for a while
and it really bothered me.
It was from Second Kings, chapter five.
It's a story of Naaman.
Some of the things we read in Sunday school
become so blasé that we don't read them anymore.
Naaman had to be cured of his pride and offense
before he could be cured of his leprosy.
Second Kings, chapter five, verse 11 says,
that Naaman said to himself, who does he think he is?
I'm the general of the Syrian army.
I come here and he doesn't come out to see me.
He doesn't come out and wave his hand over me.
And he tells me to go dip myself seven times
in this river.
Aren't there better rivers like Farpar in Syria
than for me to come to the Jordan?
I wanna say to me and to you that sometimes
to be cured of something incurable,
you have to be cured of your pride
and your easy ability to take offense.
This goes back to the African violets.
That we talked about earlier today.
You can take Benadryl and keep healing your hives
or you can remove the African violets from your room
and your hives will disappear.
Third one, pride refuses to trust
and tries to secure things by one's own strength
because of past experiences.
Pride refuses to trust.
And tries to secure things by one's own efforts
because of past experiences.
This is something that prevents us from coming back to God
when we think God has failed.
Like Dana was saying,
there are areas in our lives where we have fired God
because he doesn't seem to come through.
I've waited for a week, a month, a year, two years.
All right, father, in this area of my life, you're fired.
In this area of my life, I'll do things on my own.
I don't know how Abraham managed for 25 years, man.
But it is pride that prevents me from going back to God
in the areas where I haven't experienced
what I thought I should be experiencing from God.
Matthew 25 verse 24,
the servant, the third servant, he was given one talent,
comes back to the master and these are his words.
He says to the master, I know you're a hard man,
that you harvest where you haven't planted
and knowing that you're a hard man, here's what I did.
I went and buried the talent so that I don't lose it
and I give back to you, what is yours?
We might think it's just that my experience
does not allow me to trust God.
True, your experience may prove otherwise,
but my God, it's pride that prevents me from going back.
There is a humility to saying,
oh God, I don't know why this happened.
This just happened last Monday,
where after a rather difficult trip,
I remember going back, I spent Sunday talking to God
about how I was not happy and I was just whining
and then on Monday morning I woke up and said,
don't know why all this happened,
but please, I just come to you and wanna start again
because you are absolutely God and I'm absolutely Jacob.
So let's just start again.
What choice do I have, man?
I have choice, but what choice do I really have?
Knowing who he is, what choice do I have?
Knowing how he is, not who he is.
Didn't have a choice.
Any questions?
I hope some of this is hitting home, eh?
Cause it hit me and I hope it hits you.
Fourth, pride is satisfied with where you're at.
Pride is satisfied.
Trust is always humbling, guys,
just to go back to the last point.
To trust somebody when you haven't seen any results
and in this case, God is humbling.
The next one is pride is satisfied with where you're at.
Hosea chapter 13, Hosea chapter 13.
Hosea is again somewhere near Joel, which is near Hosea.
Hosea chapter 13.
Verse four to six.
But I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.
It goes back to what Dan was saying.
You shall acknowledge no God but me.
No savior except me.
I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat.
When I fed them, they were satisfied.
When they were satisfied, they became proud
and they forgot me.
There's something about satisfied and pride.
When you're satisfied with where you're at
and it leads to pride and pride then leads to satisfaction.
As in I have done well enough, this is good enough.
Some of these things I don't know well enough
to explain them except what the scriptures say.
I don't fully understand it,
but there is something to being satisfied
with what you have received, which is nowhere near
who God is and what he can provide.
But that satisfaction gets you into a place
where you now become, strangely, you become proud.
This is why I kind of appreciate what Francis Chan has done.
Francis Chan has a mega church and he's had it for a while,
but he was not satisfied with a mega church
because he knew there was more to God
than a huge church that is thriving.
And so he resigns from the church and moves to Hong Kong
to start things from scratch and run households.
That is what dissatisfaction does.
Satisfaction has the ability to look at
what you have achieved and be quite proud
of what has been done.
Dissatisfaction has the ability to always look
for the next thing that God wants to give you.
You're not greedy, you are hungry.
There's a difference between greed and hunger.
Yeah, mediocrity and complacency.
It's one of the most violent things in Christian lives,
complacency and mediocrity.
Violent, because it destroys you.
The complacency of fools will kill them.
Mediocrity will kill them, Proverbs 1.32 or thereabouts.
Meaning it kills you.
Mediocrity has the ability to kill you.
Killing is to destroy you, it's violent.
Fortunately it is violent but you'll be happy with it.
There's a lot of pressure on visual
that can be left unscathed.
struggles to receive anything from God for free, especially love. Struggles. One
who is proud... One who is proud struggles to receive things from God
that are free. Struggle to receive love. Because pride makes me self-reliant. One
of the things I've... I try very hard and I'm not making a statement
immodestly. I'm saying it just to help. Is that Jacob, you must not get to a place
where you don't need Acts 29. You must not get to a place where you don't need
the people of Acts 29. You must not get to a place spiritually. You must not get
to a place financially. You must not get to a place physically where you do not
need to depend on the people of Acts 29. Because if I do, then I will get to a
place of self-reliance. Like I always say, you have to be God reliant and body
dependent. God reliant and body dependent. As in the body of Christ, you
have to be God reliant and body dependent. And as you get spiritually
it is so easy to be God reliant but not body dependent. If I get a million dollars
tomorrow and there's always a chance that I could get it tonight, I would
still receive what you give me to honor. I would still take it gratefully and I
will still be in a sense obliged and free. But I would still take it from you.
I could do with it whatever I wanted now that I have the million but I would
still take it and receive it so that I would be obliged to you in a sense and
yet not obliged.
Next one. You want to look at Deuteronomy 8. Just as a scripture
before Sam asks for a scripture. This one is not by C.S. Lewis. It's in the
scripture, Sam. Deuteronomy 8, chapter 11 to 17.
Guys, it's good when God is big and you need him.
It is a scary place when you have gotten all you want. It's a scary place
because when God is absent, pride is present. When God is absent, pride is
present. Never become a man or a woman on your own. Never because pride seeks you.
It's like a guided missile. We will survive but not for too long when we
stand alone. What that means is that in a 24-hour day period, do you realize that
our actual awareness of the presence of God is hardly four or five hours. The
rest of the time we are on our own.
Okay, next one. Pride animates your relationship with your possessions and
can turn into an idol. Pride animates your relationship with your possessions
and it can turn into an idol that you will have to serve. Pride animates as in
pride gives life to. I don't have a scripture for this one. Not because there
are no scriptures but because I couldn't find one before I left. Pride animates
the possessions you have to the point that it becomes an idol. Once it
becomes an idol, you'll have to serve it. As in, let's assume that I have a nice
car. Pride can animate that car to a point where it now becomes an idol, where
I look at it with great love, where I look at other cars and compare, where I
look at it and think to myself, aha, where I look at others who should have it and
think, huh. Now pride begins to animate the possession I have and makes it an
idol and once it becomes an idol you will have to serve it. The moment you see
pride begin to animate your possessions as in give life to your possessions, my
God, kill it immediately because anything inanimate that is animated by pride will
become an idol. And by the way, it doesn't have to be a thing. It can be your
education. It can be your doctorate. It can be a thesis. It can be your wife or
husband. It can be your child. How did it go, Betty? So everything was fine? Okay.
Just in case you were wondering why she came late, she had reasons because the
way she walked in it almost looked like church was just starting. Yeah. Next one.
Ah, guys, don't let this happen to you. I must not let this happen to me. Pride
does not take instruction. Pride does not take instruction. Pride does not take
instruction. It cannot be instructed. It stubbornly refuses to be taught. It
stubbornly refuses to be taught. That's okay. If you stubbornly resist to be
taught, that's okay. At least everybody knows that you're stubbornly resisting.
What is scary is this. Pride has the ability to choose which truth to accept
and when to accept it. That is super dangerous. Pride cannot take
instruction. There have been many times where people come and tell me things
that I will not take it because I'm too proud. I've made a decision. God may have
said something to me. I don't want you to add anything to it. This is the way I'm
going to go. And so I don't take instructions. That's one part. The second
part is that pride makes you stubbornly refuse to be taught. Doesn't matter how
hard a person teaches, you stubbornly refuse to be taught. Jesus went through
this. He went through this when he came to Israel. The stubbornly refused to be
taught and he was an ace teacher. So it wasn't the problem with the teaching. But
here's the thing that really bothers me. That pride allows, pride affords you the
license to choose which truth to listen to and when to listen to it. That will be
the end of you. When you decide when you will listen to the truth and you decide
which truth you will listen to because your pride will not allow you to be
instructed. Have that fits you because it occasionally fits me. Don't wear it
proudly. Bend your head.
Your will and agency should come under the word and if the word being spoken
is true and you are not always the right assayer or discerner of that which is
true, you will have to trust that sometimes those set over you, if they
actually reflect the father, may have an insight into something that you do not
have and that you are not to assay it and discern it but to receive it. James
1.21 puts it this way, receive meekly the word that has been grafted so that you
may grow in it. When you become the assayer, as in the discerner or the prover
or the filter that decides what is good for you and what is not good for you, you
have just become the chief authority in your life. And there's another word when
one becomes an authority unto oneself. You know what that word is? Witchcraft.
Witchcraft may be simply designed as being an authority unto oneself.
Don't ask me why because that will take another 25 minutes.
Two more and we'll stop. Pride owns what God does and basks in it. Pride owns what
God does and basks in it. Pride owns what God does and basks in it. Herod did it.
Herod spoke well. They started clapping and said what an orator and he was eaten
up by worms. Daniel chapter 4, it happens again where Nebuchadnezzar falls into
that trap. Matthew chapter 23 verse 6, Jesus puts it this way, there are these people who go
for banquets. They sit at the chief tables, the chief places of honor and so pride, I mean it
will be so easy for me to be so full of myself in terms of the things that I do. And so what then
happens is God does it, Jacob owns it and Jacob begins to bask in it. When Jacob begins to bask
in it, then what happens is that he's found in a place of pride and when he is found in a place of
pride, destruction and a fall is just inches away. The last one is a very odd one. I found
this scripture and it really challenged me. Pride is afraid of the future. Pride is afraid of the
future. Pride is afraid of the future. Pride is afraid of the future. Just look at this scripture.
Isaiah 51, look at what God is saying. Isaiah 51 verse 11, verse 12. Just look at the scripture,
I've never read it before even though I've read it before. God is saying in Isaiah 51, 12,
I even I am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal man, the sons of men who are but
grass, that you forget the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations
of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor
who is bent on destruction. So here is what God is saying. Who do you think you are Jacob to be
afraid? I am your comforter. I'm your protector. I'm the one who stretched out the heavens and the
earth. I am Lord. Who do you think you are to be afraid after I am all that to you? Who do you think
you are? It's almost questioning my right to be afraid because of who he is. How strange is that?
I've never seen it before. How dare you be afraid is what he's asking when I am who I am and you are
who I said you are to me. How dare you be afraid? Who gives you the right to be afraid?
It's an affront to the king. It would be like you were in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain and you're
walking next to the king and a policeman comes towards you and you start shivering in your pants
and you begin hiding and you begin crying and the king looks at you and says what's wrong with you?
I'm the king of this land. You see a policeman in khaki coming towards you and you begin to
shudder and shiver like who gives you the right to fear like that when you're walking next to me?
Who do you think I am? Because it's an affront to him that you are walking with the king of that
country and a mere policeman who is dressed in khaki comes towards you and you get afraid though
you're walking next to the king and now God is saying who do you think you are to be afraid?
I gotta wrap my head around the scripture man. It's almost taking my right away. Now what is my
right? I have the right to be afraid and God is saying who do you think you are to be afraid?
You don't have that right. Don't ask me any questions on it. I just read the scripture
one day ago so I won't be able to answer you. Pardon? Isaiah 51 verse 12. Pride makes you
afraid of the future. Humility makes you not afraid of the future. Let me finish. Make war
on every iota of pride in your life. Make war on every iota of pride in your life. Make war on it.
Make war on it. Make war by laying your fig leaves down. Make war by laying your crowns down. Fig
leaves are the things you protect yourself with. Crowns are the things you have achieved. Make war
by laying your fig leaves down. Make war by laying your crowns down before his feet as in
Revelation 4, 10, and 11. That's what it means to be humbled under the hand of God. Humble yourself
in the sight of the Lord. That's what it looks like. Laying your fig leaves down saying oh God
these are the things I've used to protect and cope. I lay them down and oh God these are the
crowns that I've achieved that I take great pride in, strength in, derive much worth in. I lay them
down. I lay them down oh God. Fig leaves are anything you use to hide your deficiencies.
And we all had them. This is one of the first times guys you won't believe this but this is
one of the first times in the last 31 years that I have led worship without a guitar. Why? Because
a guitar is my security blanket. I always like it around my neck so that I can play it and do
whatever I want with it but to not have anything and be at the mercy of someone else on the piano,
no thank you. One by one we lay things down. The great thing about the Holy Spirit is when
he gets Jacob without any pretense then he can be the Holy Spirit without any pretense.
The more the layers he has to work through the less the treasure is seen. The more the layers
that he has to work through the less he is seen. Treasures in jars of clay.
James chapter 4 verse 5 and 6 I'll end with that or Psalm 25 9. James chapter 4 verse 5 and 6.
It says do you not know that the Spirit yearns jealously over you and then it says humble yourself
in the sight of God so that he may lift you. Go to James chapter 4 verse 5 and 6.
James chapter 4 verse 5 and 6. But he gives us more verse 5 or do you think the scripture says
without reason that the spirit he causes to live in you envies intensely or jealously yearns over
you but he gives us more grace that is why scripture says God opposes the proud but gives
grace to the humble. Guys humility and the jealous yearning of the Holy Spirit over me
are connected. God gives grace to the humble and opposes the proud. The Spirit of God is called
the Spirit of grace. Humility the humbler Jacob is the more powerful the work of the Spirit of
God through him is. The humbler Jacob is the more powerful the work of God through Jacob is. The
humbler Acts 29 is the more powerful the work of the Holy Spirit through Acts 29 will be. Psalm 25
verse 9 is so beautiful so beautiful it says Psalm 25 verse 9. Learn it by heart it'll remind you
of how you should be. It says that to him who is humble God teaches his ways and guides. To him who
is humble God will guide and will teach his ways. Both. God will not just guide you if you're humble
God will teach you his ways when you are humble. Psalm 25 verse 9. Any questions? I'm done. Any
questions? Yeah go ahead. When am I going to use the hammer? I saw the hammer and I wanted it
because I felt like this is a stronghold we needed to break but I didn't know who to break
it on and I didn't want to break it on my own head so I decided to leave it alone so yeah but
you know it's like you got to take this and break it brick by brick man because my greatest takeaway
because all of us have different takeaways from this teaching my greatest takeaway was this that
that humility follows God like a shadow where God is humility is where God is absent pride is present
therefore Jacob when you are on your own when you are just man pride will seek you out but when you
are present with God humility you will wear and so I have to learn how to be present with God because
apart from God I become something and I don't want to be anything one of the ways that what's
his name CS Lewis defined humility was you are a jolly beggar you're a jolly beggar you're a
beggar but you're a happy beggar you're a jolly beggar that's one of the ways he defined it and
another thing he said about humility I like quoting him on this because I read about his
read read read him on this topic another thing he said is Jacob humility would be nothingness
and self-forgetfulness nothingness and self-forgetfulness where you don't think much
of yourself you think nothing of yourself that's one and then two even when you are applauded you
go into this place called self-forgetfulness where you savor for a moment the applause and then you
forget again self-forgetfulness beautiful places to live yeah