Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Deep honesty is foundational to all healthy living. Being deeply honest and knowing God and knowing yourself is foundational to all human health.
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 Alan 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 PastorAlan.org, that's PastorAlan.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 Alan Wright. You could take Paul's words to the Philippians and misunderstand it and build your whole thing, and it wouldn't be right that way. Because listen, what Paul also said, let's just take this as one example. You could go to many places in Pauline literature, but Romans chapter 8, verse 28, the famous verses.
We know for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.
And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? We move on down.
No, he says, what are we to say? So anything separates from the love of Christ, and it moved out. No, all these things were more than conquerors to him who loved us. That we are conquerors, more than conquerors. The Greek language here is hyper-conquerors, uber-conquerors. That's what it literally is. We are uber-conquerors.
Well, wait a minute. I thought we were these lowly, you know, servants that count other people better than ourselves, and we're just. So he's obviously not saying that humility means thinking of your life as a worm who's crawling through with nothing significant about it. No, because Paul is the one who said, I can do all things Christ who gives me strength. He's the one who speaks of us as being brothers and sisters to Jesus, and therefore heirs of a royal kingdom. He says, we're already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. He says that we reign now with Christ. These are all things Paul said, who also said that we are to be humble. So how do we understand this?
Well, in the first place, any biblical and godly understanding of this matter depends, as it always does, on understanding truth. That deep honesty is foundational to all healthy living. Being deeply honest and knowing God and knowing yourself is foundational to all human health. So if you're good at something and pretend that you're not, that's not humility. That's dishonesty. And if you aren't good at something and pretend that you are, that's just pride.
And that's another form of dishonesty. Now think of it this way. If I needed a complicated surgery, I wouldn't want to go to a doctor who hung his head and said, well, I can operate, but I don't know. I just don't regard myself as that good of a surgeon. There are better ones than me, and I don't see myself as much more than a lowly worm in the scheme of life.
When would you like to schedule the surgery? I'd rather be a little bit arrogant, if anything. Like, you know, I'm the best, I've done 100 of these, and I can do this, and I can. On the other hand, I definitely wouldn't want a surgeon who said, oh, I'm the best.
I can do that. I'm highly skilled at it. And yet come to find out he'd only done one such procedure, and it had been botched. You see, health is honesty. It's not prideful for an excellent athlete who's just won a contest in the interview afterwards to say, I'm very happy with my play today.
I feel like I've reached a new level with my game, and it feels really good. But it would not be humility if an athlete said, I'm actually not that good, when they had just won and beaten everybody. There's a lot of discussion, and you'll see an increasing amount of literature about this, about narcissism. It's a term that's become more and more popular. It's been around for over a century, the idea of a psychological personality. It's been around for over a century, a personality disorder called narcissism. The narcissistic personality disorder is a form of really mental illness. But the term narcissism comes from the Greek mythological figure Narcissus, who was so handsome that when he first saw his image in a still body of water, he fell in love with his own image and ultimately perished because of it. So this is the term that is used for the self-absorbed person. And a lot of study about what makes people self-absorbed and what leads to the narcissistic personality disorder. And the question that psychologists ask is essentially, is narcissism caused by an elevated view of oneself? Do they really deep down think that they're more superior to others? Or is it a personality disorder actually caused by an unconscious, unhealthy view of oneself as inferior?
So you see that's obviously a really important question. And I really think, and this probably just goes also for boasting itself and pride itself, that the real answer to this is that most of our pride, and if you see somebody boastful, it usually is an indication that down deep, they actually have an impoverished view of self and are trying to mask it. Authors Lisa and Robert Firestone have written vanity as a fantasized image of the self, a fantasized image of the self, right? So it's like replacing reality with a fantasy that is formed when parents substitute empty praise and a false buildup for real love and acknowledgement that they failed to provide. They said such parents leave their children feeling unseen and with a sense of pressure to be someone they aren't. On the other hand, parents who are attuned to their children and genuinely responsive to them leave their offspring feeling seen and validated. And these children grow up with an accurate sense of who they are and healthy self-esteem.
What are they saying? They're saying that it is absolutely vital that as parents that we love our kids and affirm our kids in a way that is beautiful, unconditional, and powerful because it's authentic and that we are absolutely attuned to our kids, and this goes for all our relationships, such that when we see that our children are gifted in an area, we can really affirm that. And when there's an accomplishment, we can celebrate it. But what we don't have to do is pretend that the kid is good at something that he or she's not good at and that everything is always about you're better than other people because what does that do? It creates the impression within the child's soul that I exist to be superior to everybody else. And that's toxic because you're not going to be superior to everybody else at everything.
And it is loaded with anxiety. And what they're saying is that this is probably the root of narcissistic thinking. Is it that this is what I'm supposed to be and I'm supposed to just be perfect all the time in this crazed culture of ours that wants to hurry our kids along and everybody's got to be great at everything and everybody's got to do everything in order to get into the great college, in order to get the great job, in order to get the great salary, in order to get the great retirement, in order to... What we're actually doing is we're creating a requirement that says you either have to measure up to all of this or you're going to have to create a false fantasized view of yourself that you are that great and it leads us into destruction. But instead what God invites us into is authentic living as a people who are loved. We're loved by God and we're loved by one another in the church of Jesus Christ.
Not because we're superior to other people but because we are infinitely valuable. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Seen as Jesus sees. Pastor Alan Wright's newest book just released. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book and as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week companion video series from Pastor Alan along with a study guide and a daily reading plan.
You'll start seeing as Jesus sees and you're going to love the view. We're happy to share it with you at our cost of only $15. Visit pastoralan.org to get your Seeing as Jesus Sees product bundle.
When you're there, you'll notice that you can opt to make a donation above the cost of the bundle and we would sure appreciate your support. This broadcast that shares the power of the good news of Jesus Christ nationwide every day is only possible through the generosity of listeners like you. Visit pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org or call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. I like the words of another secular psychologist, Dr. Sheldon Solomon said, our kids are taught at a very early age to adhere to a set of values that is not realistically attainable for the average individual. And so it shouldn't surprise us that a third of the American population is depressed and another third is addicted to drugs and alcohol.
And he says with a smirk, I'm sure the final third is watching television or shopping. So whether the ultimate expression of pride of narcissism stems from a deep belief in one's own superiority, be it fantasized or not, or actually just from a lack of self-confidence that this grandiose behavior is masking, the problem is still the same, a wrong belief. Because if you think that you are better than you are, you're deceived. And if you think that your worth depends upon you being the best, you're deceived. And what makes the gospel so wonderful is that your worth isn't dependent at all upon you being superior.
And the question of your acceptance is not even on the table. That's what happens when you really get the gospel, when you get the presence of the Holy Spirit confirming to you that you're a child of God, a co-heir with Christ. It leads into the life of humility because now you're secure.
C.S. Lewis famously said, humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less. That's why humility is a gift.
It's the greatest vacation you could ever get is to not have to think about your own ego all the time. Tim Keller described it well, and he said, you know, you don't go around thinking about your big toe unless it's hurting. If it's hurting, you think about it all the time. And you don't have to think about your own soul's ego unless it's hurting. And if it is, if it's hurting, if it's wounded, you're going to have to think about it all the time.
If it's wounded, you're going to have to think about it all the time. And I'm saying the answer to this is the healing mercies of Jesus, the radical acceptance that we have in Christ. It is the power of the gospel to know yourself loved and accepted so deeply, so limitlessly that then you can think about your life as one that serves and loves and gives. It is out of that spirit that Paul says you can count others as better than yourself. It is out of that spirit that you can become a servant. It is out of that spirit that you can see your life and the expression of your marvelous gifts as something that glorifies God, impacts the world and changes lives for good. Humility is the gateway to abundant living. Humility is life-giving. Pride is toxic.
And a haughty spirit goes before a fall. I got to play in the backyard with my little two-year-old great-nephew Wesley for a little bit by myself this week. Now we had him over and they come over, but I just scooped him up, just turned two.
He's so cute. Oh my goodness. And just went out and played in the backyard for just a little bit. I mean, all we've got is a Frisbee and some green grass, and that's all you need.
That's all you need. We could have stayed out there all night where I just get the Frisbee and I go one, two, three. Whee! And he would laugh until he almost fall over, which made me laugh to almost fall over. And I'd say, let's march down there and get it and do a silly march.
And he'd almost fall over laughing. And I go pick it up again and we do it again. Whee!
And this went on until his mother came and said, we got to go home and go to bed. I'm just looking at it and I'm just like, man, I miss, I miss having a two-year-old. I mean, I just, I'm looking and I'm going, he's happier than everybody else.
I've been out all week driving on the streets, looking at people, people driving around. People are mad. People are upset. People are frustrated. People don't have enough money. People don't have enough this. People's relationships aren't good.
I've been mistreated. And Wesley's the happiest person on earth. Matthew 18, at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to Him a child, He put them in the midst of them and said, truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now listen to this, that whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I realized that Jesus did not rebuke the disciples for asking what does greatness look like in the kingdom? They didn't rebuke them because they were saying, what's abundant life really like?
Who's the ones who got the most abundant life? And He uses a teachable moment to say a little toddler. I wrote my first book on this subject because I was so fascinated when I started realizing that the humility of the little child to humble yourself like a little child is not Jesus's invitation for you to do so much self-abasement that then once you've done that and proven yourself to God, then He'll come over and He'll bless you.
I don't think that's what it means at all. Instead, what He's saying is that the humility of a little child is that child's secret to the abundant life. All the stuff that makes childhood so great, the fact that they have no dread because they don't know what tomorrow holds, the simple childlike trust because they know they're not in charge of the world, somebody else is. The wonder and freedom of an imaginative life where their heart is able to be unencumbered by a sense of I have to be the one who's superior to everyone.
They can try and fall and giggle about it and so they don't live a life of shame. A little child is the model of all of this and humility is the gateway. So in other words, there's something, it's such a paradox.
You are so big in who you are in Christ, but the key to being so big in Christ is knowing how small you are. It's a paradox. I read that William Beebe, the naturalist, used to tell a story about Teddy Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill after an evening of talk. The two of them would go out on the lawn and search the skies for a certain spot of star-like light near the lower left hand of the great square of Pegasus. Then Roosevelt would recite, that is the spiral galaxy in Andromeda. It's as large as our Milky Way. It's one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of 100 billion suns, each larger than our sun. Then Roosevelt would grin and say, now I think we're small enough.
Let's go to bed. I'm just saying that the smallness of Little Wesley is the secret to abundance and you don't ever want to lose that because you're a child of God and He's wonderful. He's bigger than you could imagine and He made all of this that exists and you're not in charge. It means that you can rest in what Christ has done for you. Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He'd emptied Himself and took on the form of a servant and became obedient even unto death on a cross. In so doing, He saved the world. You understand, you were saved by the humility of Jesus Christ. How much more so will abundant life spill into our lives when we live a life of humility? And that's the gospel. Alan Wright and today's teaching, Foolproof Humility. Alan is back with us in the studio sharing a part in good news thought for the day.
I encourage you to stick with us. Seen as Jesus sees. Pastor Alan Wright's newest book just released. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan.
You'll start seeing as Jesus sees and you're going to love the view. We're happy to share it with you at our cost of only $15. Visit PastorAlan.org to get your Seeing as Jesus Sees product bundle.
When you're there, you'll notice that you can opt to make a donation above the cost of the bundle, and we would sure appreciate your support. This broadcast that shares the power of the good news of Jesus Christ nationwide every day is only possible through the generosity of listeners like you. Visit PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Back here in the studio, Alan, parting good news thought for today on humility. And really, you can't look any further than Jesus Christ. He didn't have to be, right? Right.
King of all and yet modeled it perfectly. Yeah. Well, yes, we're born in sin. Yes, without Christ, we are lost and without hope. Yes, we are undeserving of any good thing from God. And that's the beginning point of every type of good theology that's really Christian. But to be a Christian means to be one who is made in God's image and then recreated by the gift of God in Jesus Christ, such that we are made into very heirs of Christ and seated with Christ.
So it's this, Daniel, is holding all this together. And I think that the key here is to understand that humility is this deep security that comes when a person knows how radically accepted he or she is in Christ. So you don't have to go around thinking about yourself all the time. You don't have this wounded inner ego that's always needing attention. That's what puffs us up. And where pride comes in is we think, well, I just have to focus on myself. So the real gift of humility is not you putting yourself down or thinking lowly of yourself, like you're not worth much, but instead knowing how much you are worth and how much that gives you a security that means you don't have to go around thinking about yourself all the time because it's a gift from God. Free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
