The Proud And The Humble

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