Foolproof Humility [Part 1]

Allen Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless. Pride doesn't want you to learn from higher wisdom.

And when you have pride and you aren't teachable for this reason, you can become stubborn and it can go before a fall. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Foolproof, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper if we're happy to send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. We'll have more on this special offer later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Allen Wright. Okay, you ready for some good news? The invitation to humility is the invitation to the abundant life. Humility is not some onerous, difficult task or some attribute of your personality that you're supposed to develop, and it's really hard.

And yet, if you'll do that and really make sure you humble yourself, then God will bless you. What I want to show you is the life of humility is the abundant life. We are looking at one of the most familiar Proverbs today in our study of Proverbs that we call foolproof. We come to Proverbs chapter 16, and we're learning in Proverbs about wisdom. And Christ is the ultimate expression of wisdom, so we're learning about Christ.

And in the midst of it, we're gaining really what wisdom is—skill for living. This is God's Word to us, and the Proverbs themselves are not just these pithy maxims that give us some good advice, though that they certainly do, but they are something that collectively is an expression of the very wisdom of God. And so today, we look at this very familiar verse, Proverbs 16, at verse 18 and 19. Proverbs 16, verse 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

This is where you get your famous saying that pride goes before a fall. Well, there was a turtle who wanted to spend the winter down in the warm climate of Florida, and he saw the geese flying south every year, and he wanted to go south, but he knew that he could never walk that far. So he came up with a very clever idea. He convinced two of the geese to get a piece of rope, and each one would hold one side of the rope in its beak, and then with his vice-like claws, the turtle clamped to the middle of the rope, and they flew up in the air and started flying down to the warmer climate. And the flight was going just fine until a crow happened by and said, wow, that sure is a clever idea.

Whose idea was that? And pride swelled up in the turtle, and he said, mine! Pride goes before a fall, sometimes literally. The fairly well-known story during the Battle of Spotsylvania in the Civil War, it was May of 1864, and Union General John Sedgwick had come and was with his troops, who he noticed were ducking down behind their defense barrier as Confederate soldiers were shooting at them from a distance of about a thousand, about a thousand yards away, and he thought it was silly of them to have to duck.

He said, finally, he said they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance, and as that last bit of the sentence came out of his mouth, Sedgwick fell to the ground, mortally wounded. Sometimes pride goes before a fall, literally. Sometimes it's a little more figurative. You can't make this kind of thing up, and it's true.

2012, November, Cornerstone Bank in Waco, Nebraska was robbed of some $6,000, and though the bank employees were able to give a pretty good description of the bank robber, the investigators didn't need it because the thief recorded a YouTube video shortly afterwards titled, Chick Bank Robber, boasting of her criminal prowess, and she held up a sign said, I just robbed a bank, and then she fanned out the cash that she had stolen and said, I'm rich now, I'm going on a shopping spree tomorrow, but the police came and arrested her instead. Pride goes before fall. Actually, the text says, pride goes before a destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall, and the word for pride and the word for haughty spirit have the same derivation. They both have to do with an exalted type of idea, something that's lifted up, and this is just a huge subject in Scripture, the whole issue of pride and humility.

It is, after all, the likely beginnings of evil itself. A heavenly being named Lucifer who wanted to rebel, didn't want to remain in submission to the Creator, and so it seems that Lucifer, this fallen angel, becomes the leader of a whole demonic host that is in a furious battle, and when Adam and Eve sinned, essentially it was pride, the pride that said, we don't need to listen to every word that has proceeded from the mouth of God, there are some things maybe we could decide better for ourselves, and in so doing they were disobedient. So maybe the whole story has to do with the collapse of our relationship with God being built upon pride, and then there's just this invitation to humility, and so it's woven into the sweeping metanarrative of the Scripture, and then there are many, many individual Scriptures.

So literally it's one of those you could preach a sermon series on, and it's hard to wrap your arms around all of this, but let me just see if I can focus on three questions today. First, why would pride often lead to a fall? Let's just think about that together for a moment, and then what really is the difference between toxic pride, which is something God disdains, and just a more healthy sense of confidence, our sense of worth in Christ, and I think that's just something that's so important.

I mean, I think I had a lot of confusion about this for much of my life. The first place I didn't even know until I was way into my adulthood that I had shame-based thinking in my life. I didn't even know what that was until I was an adult, and I realized that some of what I had, it was wrong thinking, had gotten linked in even after I was a Christian to some of the notions about what humility was, and actually some of that can become a form of self-rejection and self-denigration, and so you see it's complicated question, and I want to try to address that some, and then the third question is what is so wonderful about humility?

Why is it linked to such wonderful things? So three questions are all big questions, and it could be a sermon series, but it's never stopped me before from trying to do it all in one sermon, so here we go. Let's just first talk about this question. Why would pride go before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall?

And here's the first reason I can think of is that thinking that you're more capable in some area than you actually are puts you in peril. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back, as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. When you give this month, you'll not only receive the best-selling book, but you'll also receive a free five-session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book.

The video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. We found a wonderful hiking trail in the mountains when we were up there a couple weeks ago that I'd never known before at Old Fort. You can go off and hike about a mile and a half and come to the lower Catawba Falls. It's a great hike and it's not too strenuous and you get there and there's probably a hundred feet of cascading waterfall. It comes down into a pool that's about four feet deep that's just freezing cold mountain water. It's just like worth driving up there on some 95 degree day and just jumping into that little pool.

And it was just wonderful. And read online about it and it said that this was the lower falls. It said it also is an upper Falls. And it said that while the hike to the lower Falls is not too strenuous, the hike to the upper Falls was perilous and required something pretty close to actual technical rock climbing skills.

And a couple people had actually died this year on that on that climb and we read this online and I just said to the kids I said listen we're not going up that hill. Let's just establish that right now because you know we get out there we're gonna feel tempted to go up it when we get there. And I said I'm like and especially my kid you know I'm like you know you're gonna want to climb up this waterfall. And so we go and absolutely thing was just beautiful and and and you could see over to the side it was pretty steep you could see this thing going up. And first Abby she said well you want to try to go up it a little bit I mean it doesn't look that bad. And and and part of me said I started walking towards it I was like you know it it doesn't somebody's coming down and said what's it like they said well they got some ropes that are already in place and everything.

And I'm like well you know got ropes. And I said no what am I talking about no no no we're not doing that. We got people counting on us in this world and we're not going to go see the Upper Falls. So it was just a moment of wisdom right.

I don't know how to climb mountains and I'm not as young as I used to be. And so I said it no the Lower Falls is fine with me. But so often in life if you have pride and it says to you that you know more about something than you actually know or you're more skilled at something than you're actually skilled at it puts you into a position of peril and you can just literally or figuratively fall right. So that's that's one of the reasons. I think another reason that pride can go before fall is because pride doesn't want you to learn from higher wisdom.

And when you have pride and you aren't teachable for this reason you can become stubborn and it can go before a fall. Maybe you've heard of the old story preachers favorite of the captain of a ship who looked into the dark night and saw a light in the distance so he immediately immediately told his sink sink signal man to send a message alter your course ten degrees south. And so they did and promptly received a signal back that said alter your course ten degrees north. And the furious captain sent another message and said alter your course ten degrees south I am a captain. And the reply came back alter your course ten degrees north I am seaman third-class Jones. The captain sent back a final message said alter your course ten degrees south I am a battleship.

And the reply came back alter your course ten degrees north I am a lighthouse. Pride can go before destruction when we're not teachable. We think we know it all, right?

So it can cause a fall. And then amongst all the reasons we could list let's also be forthright about this that when you have so much pride that you don't believe that you need God and you don't want God and you want to do it your own way sometimes God lets you. Jesus said Matthew 23 whoever exalts himself will be humbled but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Now there's something that God can do, right? James 4 and Peter 5 say the same thing which echoes another proverb God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. There are not many places in Scripture where it says God's going to oppose a particular kind of person. I really think it's like this that in fact all really I understand you know it is distasteful to even think about the judgment of God but this is I think CS Lewis has come the closest to this and help me understand understand this. CS Lewis said there are only two kinds of people in the end those who say to God that I will be done and those to whom God says in the end thy will be done. You know what he was saying is that people choose their own hell and I really think that that's part of what this means if you have so much pride that you don't want to be submitted to God then what judgment ultimately is is God letting you have what you want and the great divorce CS Lewis said all that are in hell choose it without that self-choice there could be no hell no soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it those who seek find those who knock it is open God is so good and he's so loving he relentlessly patiently mercifully pursues you and he pursues you more than you have any idea of and he is so slow to ever let you have your own folly but sometimes God in a fatherly layaway will allow us in our pride to see our own folly and experience momentary pain for learning something that's more important you know as parents we know how this goes that sometimes our child's just insistent on something and you can't convince them otherwise and you finally just let them do it even though it's foolish because you know it's not going to cause their death it's not going to cause too much harm and they'll learn a lesson from it once they see that it didn't work but there are other times where you just can't let your child go that way because the consequences are too devastating I think God's like that and when he loves you he wants to teach you and pride goes before a fall because when we're not submitted to God we're missing out on his direction and we need his direction so there are a lot of other reasons maybe pride goes before fall but those are some I think of and here's the second question what and this is the bigger question what is the difference between pride which is toxic to us and what I would just say healthy confidence or a healthy sense of self-worth that comes to us when we know who we are in Christ and all this whole discussion what does it have to say about how we think about ourselves and how we think about our lives and how are we to be humble well we start feeling like a worm and lose our sense of confidence and the scripture speaks of Christians as being the head not the tail and how is this how is this possible there's a lot of confusion about this and I think some people approach and say well maybe the answer is just don't get too high don't get too low that was sort of the myth of Icarus famous Greek myth Icarus was the son of Daedalus who was the master craftsman who had built the labyrinth and when Icarus and his father Daedalus were trying to escape from Crete Daedalus crafted some wings that he used some kind of structure and wax to hold the feathers to it and they put on these wings according to the myth and they were gonna fly and the father instructed his son Icarus he said don't fly too low towards the sea lest the moisture of the water come and weigh down the feathers and cause you to plunge into the sea he said but don't fly too close to the sun because lest the wax melt and the father and the feathers fall out and Icarus according to the myth did not listen to his father and got into the sky and we felt so exhilarated and felt that he could do whatever he wanted and he flew too high and got too close to the Sun and the wax melted and the feathers fell out and he plunged to his death in the sea that's where we get the saying don't fly too close to the Sun and so it seems to be saying don't fly too high don't fly too low and some might think that that's the biblical answer to this is don't don't get too elevated but don't get too lowly either and yet that's not really the picture of Scripture as it speaks about our life in Christ in fact it almost seems that we have two extremes that are mentioned to us for example let me just give you two of them from the same person the Apostle Paul this is Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves that's a sort of troubling line isn't it count others more significant than yourselves let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross well if you only read that scripture you might think that the key to the Christian life is flat low count others more significant than yourself and it sounds to me like if that's your whole motto of life you could be perilously close to the direction of unhealthy psyche one that would if you misunderstand this text say that my life is not important but others are and that I exist to meet the needs of other people psychologists call that codependency that's a form of shame it's not healthy based living at all because listen beloved understand this who you are matters infinitely Alan Wright today's teaching from the series foolproof this one's foolproof humility and Alan is back with us in the studio as he shares his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything is there someone you love who seems stuck you'd like to help them but how what's missing blessing we all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book the power to bless which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation when you give this month you'll not only receive the best-selling book but you'll also receive a free five session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book the video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion make your gift today and discover the power to bless the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty or come to our website pastor alan.org thank you're in the studio to share Alan's parting good news thought for the day and it's like the guy I know who who won the badge for most humble person in town and they took it away from him when he wore it so what do you do how do you improve your humility here Alan? Well I think actually Daniel is one of the most confusing issues for Christians so often we as Christians hear about the importance of being humble and we interpret that to mean that it's wrong to have a high regard of love and acceptance of self in Christ and that's not the case at all that's what we're gonna be learning is really really important humility is not seeing yourself as undeserving worm it is instead seeing infinite worth in your life and yet knowing where it came from humility is not thinking less of yourself it's thinking about yourself less and so we've got a lot to learn and it's really important today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries