Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Let's continue the series on humility in the life of the believer by hearing and applying some practical advice for overcoming pride. Now, pride means to lift one's self up above others. It includes arrogance and a sense of superiority that a person can have of other people. And often times people can be prideful and never even realize it. And we can be prideful about lots of things. A person can be prideful about their possessions, about their appearance, about their particular position in life, whatever it might be, about their relationships. A person can be prideful, arrogant, haughty, lifting themselves above others, seeing themselves as superior to other people, and oftentimes making themselves very obnoxious. But the deceitfulness of it is this, that a person can be prideful, and lots of other people recognize it, but they don't. And even more deceitful is this, that a person can be prideful on the inside, cover it rather well before everybody but God. And yet when you begin to understand what God says about pride, what an absolute 180 degrees it is from humility, absolute total it is from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I do not want pride in our lives because all of us all it can be is a hindrance to us. And so what I'd like to do is I would like to take a number of areas of pride that a person can be prideful about, and I want to talk about how to respond to those to get from those.
Now, the best way for me to do that is to start with myself. So I want to tell you something that happened to me. So when I get in this list, don't sit there like, it's never happened to me in my life, because I know it has. So are we all agreed, amen?
All right. Several years ago I walked out on a platform, and this is, I had been walking on the platforms in these situations a lot of times and it never fazed me. One night I walked on a platform with a lot of people, thousands of people out there. And when I walked out, which they normally have done, they stood up and clapped and clapped and on and on and on.
They'd gone, nothing had happened, just walked out there and, love you, Dr. Stanley, all kind of things. But on this night when I walked out there and they started that, all of a sudden I found myself enjoying that. Instantly I felt this overwhelming sense of fear. I thought, God, I have allowed this to register on my heart. I went back to my room, that hotel room, I got on my face before God and I said, God, before the sun rises tomorrow morning, I have to know that You deal with this in my life. Because the last thing in my life I want is that kind of horrible deceptive pride. When every message comes from You, breath comes from You, whatever gifts and talents, all from You, the privilege, the opportunity, all, there's not one single thing, not one single thing can I boast of.
It was one of the most frightening moments in my life. Now having said that about myself, are you listening? Say, amen. Well, let's start, for example, with this whole issue of possessions. Let's say that you're a person, and the Lord's blessed you good.
And you know He has, and you're very grateful for that. But you don't mind telling people about it. In fact, the truth is, you like where you live, what you drive, and how you dress, and you don't mind talking about your stocks and bonds or your wealth.
In other words, in fact, you strut a little bit about that. Well, so how do you deal with that kind of pride, is what you do. First of all, you ask yourself, Lord, if this is a part of my life, how do I deal with this? Well, first of all, you've got to start giving it away.
Where do you start? You start with honoring the living God with your tithe. Because if you'll think about this, the sovereign God of the universe says, bring you all the tithes of the storehouse. And prove me, thus saith the Lord, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and bless you. A person who hears the Word of God and refuses to give God what belongs to him, it is an act of rebellion. It is an act of pride that says, I know that's what you say, but I really don't believe that what you say, because I don't believe that nine-tenths will go as far as ten-tenths. I don't believe what you say that you can give me the wisdom to make nine go further than ten, and therefore, I'm not going to do it.
And you may rationalize it in lots of different words, but that's what you're saying. Now, if you're going to deal with this issue of possessions, you need to find somebody who can't give you anything back. Give to somebody who's in need of somebody that you want to bless. And if it's possible, do it secretly. That is, you're not expecting anything back. I don't mean that you can't tell that person, that's up to you about that, but at least you don't parade around. Well, you know, the other day I gave so and so, thus and so.
No. You want to deal with this, then you humble yourself and begin to give away something of what you have. Now, how much you give, that's between you and God.
Whether you start off a little bit or a whole lot. But if you want to deal with the pride and arrogance about your possessions and what you have, and you realize today that God has spoken to you about that, you need to start giving it away. Give it to somebody who is in need. First of all, you give it to the Lord, what belongs to Him. Then you give it to people who are in need, expecting nothing in return.
You don't even have to have a thank you. You know what that'll do? That'll start your pride down till it'll bring you to a place of humility. The second thing that might be an obstacle to some people is this, and that is this whole idea about your position. And that is, let's say that you're the president or you're the supervisor or you're the boss or whatever, whatever it might be, and you have a good position or you have had and you still have that rank and so forth. And you like to remind people of that, who you are, and all of us have met people like that who like to remind you of who they are and where they've been and what they've done in life and whatever it might be.
It may be what it is, but there's a little shrink of pride in your heart about it. How do you deal with that? Here's what you do. First of all, you acknowledge that God is the one who gave you the privilege to achieve whatever you achieved, gave you that rank and that position in life.
And then here's what you do. You say, God, show me some area of service. Now, knowing that God recognizes the value of every area of service, show me an area of service, Lord, that is lower than what I'm used to. An area of service is some way I can help other people and be of service to other people that has no rank, that's not something that I'm going to get any credit for, not looking for any credit, not looking for any applause, any acclamation or any rewards, just an area of service that I can serve You. And you know what?
God will begin to move you in the right direction when it comes to humility. A third thing that we have to deal with is this idea of appearance. Everybody wants to look their best. I understand that.
We all represent Jesus and so those of us who believe us and so we want to look our best. But let's say, for example, that you happen to be a person who can dress very, very well. Nothing wrong with that, that's fine. Or a person who is very beautiful or very handsome or whatever you feel like, very personable, outgoing, you know, you're just happy-go-lucky, you're just one of those persons, folks just love being around. And you like all the approval you get.
In other words, you like that. So how do I deal with that? Do I start dressing shabbily? No, that won't make any difference.
You just get more attention that-a-way, so that won't work. So what do you do? Here's what you do. You thank God for whatever appearance He's given you.
And remember that because you're one of His children, everything you have came from Him. So what do you do? How do you deal with that? You start looking around and you start looking at other people. And you start, you ask God to show me how to look at the good things, the good features of other people. You begin to see how the people dress. You begin to see how they look. You begin to see how they smile. You begin to shake their hand. You begin to acknowledge. You begin to take time. You sit down beside people you never sat with before. You get in a conversation with them and you find a reason to compliment them. What happens, you get your eyes off yourself and getting to other people, you know what? They'll look better to you, you'll feel better around them, and all of a sudden you'll think, what a wonderful group of people this is. You see, all that you have belongs to you because of God. And who are we to say that one person's better looking than the other? People go through the magazine rack and they see all these people who are dressed a certain way or undressed a certain way or whatever it might be, and you have to weigh a certain amount and your waistline's got to be a certain amount, you've got to have so many muscles. What do you think God sees about all that?
Hogwash. The Bible says it's not the outer person, it's the inner person. And this is why you find people who are very, very elderly in age have this wonderful, sweet smile. And you know what? You're just drawn to them.
Why? It isn't what they have on, it's what they have in. When you start looking at people from who they are on the inside, you're going to begin to appreciate other people and your sense of self-importance and your sense of being worried about your appearance is going to change.
You're going to thank God for other people. Then there's this whole issue, for example, of knowledge. Here's somebody who's very skilled. They're very knowledgeable in their business, in their particular area. They seem to have all the answers. They've studied hard and all the rest, and you know, they can talk about most anything. I mean, they're absolutely, you name it, they got it.
In fact, they have the attitude that no matter what you say, they're going to have the last word no matter what. I just make notes whether it's a subject or a joke. If it's a joke, they're going to be upsmanship, one on you.
Well, that was fantastic. Let me tell you. And so what happens? It's very difficult to deal with people like that. So if that's one of the problems, how do you handle that? You get in a conversation with somebody and you let them talk. You give them freedom to talk. Now, you may know a whole lot more about the subject than they do, but don't tell them. Let them talk. If they say something is wrong, you can say, mm-hmm, or whatever you want to say, but don't say, now, where'd you get that foolish idea?
Because what you, listen, the issue is you recognize and you've been prideful about your position, how much you know, and so forth. And so what you want to do is give somebody else an opportunity to talk. Let them express their opinion. Compliment them on what they know. Ask them, well, how did you learn all of that? You know what you're doing?
In every single thing I've mentioned so far, you're getting your mind and your attention off yourself on someone else and beginning to appreciate other people. And so if you want to deal with this whole issue of being prideful over your knowledge and what you can do, why don't you encourage somebody else? Compliment them. Don't interrupt them. Just let them talk. Give them the privilege. And when they've said what do they need to say, compliment them. Say, I appreciate you telling me that.
That was a fantastic idea you had. Well, I never thought about that. What you're doing is you're building up their self-esteem, but you're putting yourself, the Bible says, in their mind, not a sense of superiority over someone else, but you're getting it down there where God wants it to be. This whole issue of knowledge. Then there's the issue, for example, of achievements and awards. And some people when they get awards and achievements, they love to say, in fact, they'll put them all over the wall and say, let me show you this. I've been in a few offices that the first fifteen minutes since I did this, I got that, I did this, I've been there, we had this, I had that, I had this, I had that.
And I'm thinking, I wonder where God was in all that. You have an award or some good thing come your way, how do you deal with the issue of pride? Here's what you do. The first thing you do when you receive that award or that recognition is you begin to point out one or more of some people who helped you, who enabled you, and you magnify them, and you lift them up, and you include them, and you talk about the fact that if it were not for them, you would not have been able to achieve that. Nobody achieves awards and achievements in life by themselves as lone rangers. All of us have help. If you want to deal with pride when it comes to achievements in life, then you make sure that right up front, first of all, you include all those people who helped you no matter who they were and how hard or how little they worked.
You include them. Not only does it encourage their heart, but it'll do something in your own life. It's going to remind you of who helped you. And you wouldn't be there were it not for His grace. Then, for example, there's this whole issue that of the will of God. Now, God has asked all of us to do things in life we didn't like. He certainly asked me to do some things in life I didn't want to do.
I wish I could say He's not going to ever do that again, but I'm sure He will. He asks us to do things we don't want to do. Sometimes we're afraid, sometimes just not what we want to do. But it's not our desire. You want to humble yourself before God? You say to Him, God, I don't like the idea. I don't want it.
I can't handle the loss. Or, Lord, that wasn't in my plan. When you're willing to say to Him, but God, because You're my Father, I humble myself before You, I'm going to do exactly what You say. I'm going to do what You say whether I like it or not.
I may not like it even after I do it. But I'm going to do exactly what You say. What You've done is You have acknowledged His sovereignty. You've humbled yourself to the will of God. Now I want to say one last thing. Suppose you do all of that and it doesn't work.
I've got one more solution. Turn to Second Corinthians, if you will. Second Corinthians. Look, if you will, in chapter twelve.
Listen to what he says. There are times when God will allow or send into our life difficulty, hardship, pain, suffering, things we don't understand, things we can't fix, things we can't change, in order to protect us from becoming prideful. Now listen carefully. Listen, say amen.
The more gifted and the more talented and the more skilled and the more successful you are, the more you have to watch out about pride. And so because God knows our hearts and He knows we want to do the right thing, He is in the protecting business. Look at Second Corinthians chapter twelve and listen. Paul said in verse seven, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations that God had given him about Himself, to keep me from exalting myself, becoming prideful, to keep me from exalting myself, becoming arrogant, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that He might take it away or leave me. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Either we have to deal with it, which we can, or there are times when if God has something for you to do or whatever it might be, that He absolutely is not going to tolerate it.
Then He knows exactly how much pain, how much suffering, how much hurt, what manner and what form in which to send it in order to protect us in order that He can accomplish His perfect plan, His will for our life. And so I just want to encourage you to recognize that pride is not only destructive, it is dangerous. It doesn't fit who we are as believers. God doesn't want it in our life. It's a hindrance to everything He has prepared for us. And if you and I are willing to deal with it, He'll give us a spirit of humility as we respond to our absolute total submission to His will and His purpose for our life. And Father, we are thanking You and praising You today that You love us enough to point out to us those things in life that do not fit, those things that either hinge on pride or are in evidence pride. I pray the Holy Spirit would speak to every single person to recognize their failure to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior is an act of pride and that they would deal with that in these very moments that follow. And Lord, that You would search all of our hearts, that we would continually be watchful lest it creep into our lives and ruin us for Jesus' sake. Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of The Obstacle. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
