THE PROUD AND THE HUMBLE
TITUS 1:7
A minister, Boy scout and computer expert were the only passengers on a small plane. As they sat there they noticed that the plane was having engine troubles. The pilot came back with to the cabin with a distraught look on his face. He said that there were only three parachutes on board the plane, while there were four people. The pilot stated since he had a wife and three small children so he should get one of the parachutes. So he took one and jumped out the window.
The computer whiz said rather proudly, "I should have one of the parachutes because I am the smartest man in the world and the everyone need me." So he took one and jumped.
The minister then turned to the boy scout with a sad smile and said, "You are young and I have lived a rich live, you go ahead and take the last parachute and I will go down with the plane". The Boy Scout looked at the minister and said "Relax, Pastor the smartest man in the world just picked up my knapsack and jumped out!"
Pride is an ugly thing, and as our story illustrates pride can also get us into a lot of trouble. Today I want to talk about pride and humility.
Please turn with me to our passage for this morning, Titus chapter 1 verse 7, that would be page 1032 in your pew Bibles this morning. Let us keep in mind the context of our passage this morning. Paul is giving Titus the qualifications of an elder in the church. And as we shall see these are not only things that an elder of the church need to have, these are traits that all Christians ought to have.
"For a bishop (which is the same things as a elder) must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,"
Now so far we have talked about what it is to be blameless, we have talked about what it is to be a steward of God, today I want to focus on the fact that Paul states that elders, or bishops are not to be "self-willed".
As we saw in the Scripture all Christians are called to be blameless, we saw that all Christians are called to be good stewards of God. And as we will see today all Christians are called not to be self-willed, but humble!
Now what it "self-willed". The Greek word hear basically means self-pleasing", dominated by self-interest, inconsiderate of others. Or one who as to have his own way. The type of person Paul as in mind is a stubborn, arrogant, prideful person.
What Paul is saying is that and elder cannot expect to get his own way all the time. While the church members are to respect and follow the leadership of the elders, it is a servant type leadership, not a dictatorship.
Again this ought to be true not only in the leadership of the church, but in all who call themselves a Christian.
The underlying problem with a self-willed person is pride.
Pride is something we all know about. It is something that we have all felt at one time or another. Pride is the oldest sin in the world. In fact the sin of pride is older than the world. As it was pride which caused Satan, who was the most beautiful angel of all, to sin against God.
Pride is also what let Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of life. They were not content with the place to which God had assigned him. They believed the lie of Satan, when Satan told them they would be as God.
Adam tried to raise himself up, instead he fell. Thus sin, sorrow, and death entered the world through pride.
We are also need to talk about humility, which is the opposite of pride. And we as Christian should all be humble at heart. Perhaps the greatest lesson taught to us by our Lord Jesus Christ was the lesson he taught on
being humble.
Listen to 1 Peter, chapter 5, verses 5 and 6. It reads; "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time," That is the type of Elder Paul has in mind, that is type of Christians God wants us to be.
Here we have a command from the Holy Spirit, through Peter to clothe ourselves with humility. Peter goes on to say that God opposes the proud. And it is at this point I feel we need to take a look at something’s regarding pride, and why God
would oppose it.
The first thing we need to realize concerning pride is that it is a very serious sin. As I stated earlier it was the first sin ever, the sin which cause God’s creation to fall. And because of this God considers it a very serous sin.
We need to realize that there are some sins that are worst then others. While any sin is enough to separate us from God, some are worst then others. This we can see by the fact that in the Old Testament Laws some sins received the death penalty, while others the punishment was
not so sever.
But how sever is pride. I want to read you two list of sins mentioned in scripture. The first comes from Mark chapter 7, it reads, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man."
The other list comes from the book of Romans
chapter 1, it states; "being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them."
We can see from these two list that the sin of pride ranks right up there with deceit, adultery, sexual immorality, blasphemy, stealing, and even murder. The scripture even states that it is a sin worthy of death.
Please understand that pride is a very serous sin before God. In fact pride or proud is mentioned 93 times in scripture, and not once does scripture ever say anything good about it. If you have a problem with pride I suggest you do something about it.
Let us all understand that we all do have a problem with pride because I do not believe that there is one in this room who does not like to have thing their way. We are all to some degree self-willed.
Scripture states that God hates pride. It is
an abomination before him. Proverbs 16:5, "Everyone who is proud in heart is an abom/in/ation to the LORD; though they join forces, none will go unpunished."
If you have pride in your heart, scripture states that you are an abomination to God. In other words God looks at the prideful with disgust and contempt. We need to rid ourselves of that pride that cause God to view us in this way.
Although pride is part of our flesh nature it is something that we can over come if we choose. The problem lies in the fact that our pride prevents us from choosing to do something about our pride, so we are in a kind of a paradox. But that is where God steps in.
Let us look at some causes of pride. Pride will often come when we trust in ourselves instead of trusting in God. Pride is a sign of faith in oneself. The book of Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 tells, "Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith."
This verse tells us that the proud does not have an upright soul but that the just shall live by their faith. Those who are proud trust in themselves and not God.
The proud thinks he is good enough as he is. The proud person feels satisfied with himself. We have a problem with pride when we think we know better then God.
Many times we go to God in prayer saying I want this, that, and the other thing. We show God our pride, our arrogance, how self-willed we really are when we go, not asking for His will to be done, but when we go asking our will be done. To many times we think we know what is better for us then God does. Our pride shows when we refuse to turn our lives over to Him. When we want to remain in charge.
When we act this way, refusing to pray for God’s will in our lives, we become as scripture states an "abom/in/ation before the Lord".
Pride also comes when we trust in the things
of this world. Many people put their trust in things of this world instead of God. They put their trust in knowledge. Taking pride in what they know. Not realizing that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.
People also take pride in their appearances, their looks. We all can name one or two person we know or have known who put their trust in how they look. That is where they get their security. Our nations is infatuated with appearances. I wish people would put as much time in learning the things of God as they do in trying to make
themselves look good.
People also take pride in their positions of power. We can see some classic examples of this in scripture.
I think of King Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel. He took great pride in his kingdom. Even after being warned of his pride he states this concerning his kingdom. "The king spoke, saying, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?"
Talk about pride! Nebuchadnezzar gave himself all the credit. He gave himself all the glory.
Another example of a leader with a pride problem was Herod Antipas. In the book of Acts we read concerning his pride. "So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, "The voice of a god and not of a man!"
These people were claiming deity for Herod and he just ate it up. He was loving it. You can’t get much more prideful then to consider yourself a god.
We can also see modern day people who trust in their power instead of God. I think of Ted Turner who once said that Christianity is for weak people. Mr. Turner has a serious pride problem.
So we can that pride comes whenever we take our eyes off God. When we look to something else for security. When put our trust in something other then the God of all creation.
This is why God looks at pride so severely. Pride is nothing short of idolatry. Pride is bowing down to ourselves. Pride is when we give ourselves the honor which is due only to God.
Let us look at a couple of results of pride. Pride can get us in a lot of trouble. Their was once a farm which a very nice pond. In the pond there lived two ducks and a frog. Now the ducks and the frog were best of friends. They would spent all day playing with each other in
the water.
But when the hot summer came the pond began to slowly dry up, soon there was such little water left that the trio knew they would have to move.
Now the ducks could easily fly to another pond but what about their friend the frog. It was decided that they put a stick in the bill of each duck and the frog would hang onto it with his mouth and they would fly him to another pond. And so they did.
As they were flying a farmer looked up from his field and saw them and said, "What a clever idea, I wonder who thought of it !" The frog said "I did.."
Just like the frogs pride got him into trouble so does our pride. Our pride will many times rob us of earthy blessing. Because of our pride the blessing that could be ours never comes. Scripture states that God will bless the humble, not the prideful. In fact we can expect just the
opposite.
Pride will also rob us of heavenly rewards. Jesus states in Matthew the 6th chapter, "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward."
To many times we rob ourselves of rewards in heaven because we like to let everyone know what good a person we are. We like everyone to know how close we are to God. How generous we are.
To many time we give of ourselves and of our assets not to glorify God but to glorify yourselves. And why do we do this, PRIDE!
And with pride there will come judgement.
Isaiah tell us, "For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything
lifted up; and it shall be brought low;"
God will judge the proud. In the examples I gave earlier. Nebuchadnezzar was cursed by God because of his pride. God made him think he was a cow. He wondered in the fields and ate grass and the whole nine yards. This continued until he acknowledged that it was because of God that he had all that he had, and not of himself. And he
finally did give God the glory.
Herod was not so lucky. Scripture states that after the people claimed he was a God, "Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms (from the inside out) and died."
Herod died because of his pride.
And Mr. Turner will sometime stand before the judgement throne of God, and explain why Christianity is for weak people. God promises to judge the proud.
Now that we have seen some things about pride
let us focus on that which we should be HUMBLE. We should be humble because we have no right to be proud. All the good which we do, all the things which we do that bring glory to God, we do because we have God the Holy Spirit working in us.
I stated that pride was the first sin. Well humility is the first step to salvation. WE need to humble ourselves and admit that we are sinners in desperate need of a Saviour. We need to humble ourselves before and admit that we cannot save ourselves, and that without Him we are a helpless lot.
While we need to be humble we need to beware of false humility. False humility occurs when we submit but do not obey. False humility is when we submit to God and do the things he require s us to do, but we do them for our own glory and not for His. Beware that you do not fall onto the trap of false humility.
True humility submits and obeys. True humility puts others before oneself.
We can describe humbleness as seeing faults when we look at ourselves, but seeing only good when we look at others. Being humble is to consider yourself a servant. Not only before God but before men.
We can look to Christ and see the greatest example of humility there ever was. Phil. 2:5-8 tells us; "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."
What an example of humility. Though he was God Christ took the form of man to suffer and die for us. Though He is the King of Kings he washed the feet of his disciples. The he was Lord of Lords he subjected himself to the authorities who wanted him dead.
This is the humility God desires from us. We are to have the mind of Christ. Be humble as the Lord Jesus was humble. Realize that all that you have, all that you are, is by the Grace of God. You owe it all to him. We have absolutely nothing to be prideful about.
In conclusion may I say that just as God promises to judge to proud he promises to bless the humble. James 4:10 gives us this promise, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." Remember the lower we go the higher He will life us.
SHALL WE PRAY
