Light by the Mountain ChurchPastor Herm Valencia

• In the Bible, the Greek word most often translated proud or puffed up is: - Phusioo - to breath, to blow up, or puff up, inflate. It is closely related to the word - Phusis - meaning naturally, by instinct, or according to nature. Other words related to pride are:- Tuphos - delusion, conceit, arrogance, puffed up, conceited- Tuphoo - Becloud, delude, to be blinded, become foolish- Tuphsomai - To be swollen with pride (I Tim. 6:4).

• Pride is the desire for attention and praise from other living beings. It means being at the center of the world and having everyone look to us, and acknowledge us as superior. It means raising a finger in the air and saying, "I’m number 1", "I’m the greatest." God says repeatedly that he detests this pride. "I abhor the pride of Jacob" (Amos 6:8).

• We see this with Satan. Ezek 28:14-17 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

• From the Christian point of view, pride is not so much a matter of a superior attitude as it is of self-centeredness. Pride, says the Christian, is seen in the person who has put himself at the center of his own little universe and made himself the object of all his interest and devotion -- the person who has in effect displaced God in favor of himself, setting himself up as his own God. Ray Ashford

• · Another reason God feels so strongly about pride it has the capability of destroying our lives. Pride is a ticking time-bomb.

Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” I like what the Message Translation of this verse says: “First pride—then the crash—the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.”

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a. To come to God in the first place and to repent means that we must be humble. First - to admit our sins. Pride prevents us from seeing any wrong in ourselves. That stops us from asking Christ to be our Saviour - we don’t need Him.b. And we need to admit that we cannot save ourselves, but only God can. To admit that God is sovereign and not us. It is hard to ask for help - I can do it myself.

•Pride is the desire for attention and praise from other living beings. It means being at the center of the world and having everyone look to us, and acknowledge us as superior. It means raising a finger in the air and saying, "I’m number 1", "I’m the greatest." God says repeatedly that he detests this pride. "I abhor the pride of Jacob" (Amos 6:8).

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From the Christian point of view, pride is not so much a matter of a superior attitude as it is of self-centeredness. Pride, says the Christian, is seen in the person who has put himself at the center of his own little universe and made himself the object of all his interest and devotion -- the person who has in effect displaced God in favor of himself, setting himself up as his own God. Ray Ashford

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"Measure yourself by your eagerness to decrease so that Christ may be all in all. Measure yourself by your willingness for others to receive the prominence while you are forgotten, for others to receive credit for what you have worked so hard to achieve. Measure yourself by your joy in working the hardest in the most obscure positions." Wesley Deuwel

One dictionary defines it as, "having or showing a sense of lowliness or inferiority." The most common Greek words used in the New Testament are: tapeinos - low, lowly (James 4:6, I Pet. 5:5)tapeinoo - to make low (Mat. 18:4, 23:12, II Cor. 12:21)tapeinomai - to make oneself low (Phil 2:8, James 4:10, I Pet. 5:6)tapeinophros- lowliness of mind (Col. 2:18, 2:23, Acts 20:19)

Conviction of sin and the awareness of our low estate before God are necessary before God can do much else in us. Humility means to be poor in spirit. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the last of the great puritan preachers, said regarding the first beatitude:

• Measure your humility by your sense of unworthiness of God’s goodness and grace. If you are truly humble, you will be constantly amazed that God is so good and gracious to you. God has already proved His love to you in numerous ways, but you do not take this for granted. You don’t subconsciously feel God owes you favors because you are faithful to Him. No. Every time the Lord rewards you, deep gratitude wells up in your soul. You feel compelled to exclaim in the words Jesus taught. Wesley Deuwel

And when he hath done all that is

to be done, so far as he knoweth, let him think that he hath done nothing . Thomas á Kempis Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "What do you have that you did not receive, and if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not" (I Cor. 4:7)?

• True humility doesn’t mean that we will dress shabbily to draw attention to ourselves, or brag about how little we spent on our wardrobe, or speak about how unqualified we are, or do anything to bring attention to ourselves. A. W. Tozer wrote, "I have met two classes of Christians: the proud who imagine that they are humble, and the humble who are afraid to be proud. There should be a third class: the self-forgetful who leave the whole thing in the hands of Christ and refuse to waste any time trying to make themselves good and humble. They will reach the goal far ahead of the rest of us."

• For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matt 23:12.

• For this is what the high and lofty one says -- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15

• The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken spirit and a contrite heart, o God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17

This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. Isaiah 66:2

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. James 3:13

• God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. I Peter 5:5,6Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing (emptied himself), taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself (made himself low) and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Phil. 2:5-8

Thomas á Kempis said, in the Imitation of Christ,God protecteth the humble and delivereth him; the humble he loveth and comforteth; unto the humble man He inclineth Himself; unto the humble he giveth great grace; and after his humiliation He raiseth him to glory.

Unto the humble He revealeth His secrets, and sweetly draweth and inviteth him unto Himself.The humble man, though he suffer confusion, hath yet much peace; for that he resteth on God, and not on the world.

Jonathan Edwards (18th century) said, "The best defense that anyone can have against the wiles of the devil is a humble heart": "Nothing sets a person so much out of Satan’s reach as humility." Humility is a great protection against falling headlong into Satan’s trap. Besides, it is hard to fall down when you are already prostrate before God.

“Humility is probably the most unpopular virtue demanded by the gospel, yet until a man is humble, no good thing can come from him no matter what he may do. The Lord can do such great things for us if we are humble, and so very little for us when we are proud.” (author unknown)

• "He who goes out weeping, carrying precious seed to sow, will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with him" (Psalms 126:6).

• The humble, contrite Christian is the only one who will bear eternal fruit. The deeper your humility, other things being equal, the more God can use you. Holy total submission to God and holy humility make you great in the sight of God. Total dying to your own proud self-life, total crucifixion with Christ prepares you for God to use. After thirteen years of daily hungering and praying for God to send revival, Evan Roberts heard a message in which the minister said God needed to bend us in total submission before Him.

• Apparently God tried to tell us something through the social status in which Christ was born and lived, but we missed the point. Jesus was born in a manger in a stable, in a little, out-of-the-way town. His family was poor and of no account in society. The witnesses of his birth were shepherds, sheep and cattle. He was called the Lamb of God many times in Scripture. A lamb has no power. It is at the mercy of its shepherd.

• A. Let this mind be in you- it is not by imitation, but by impartation. Attitude same with Christ

• B. He left heaven- Missionaries who leave homeC. He made himself of no reputation- “He emptied himself” He emptied Himself of the prerogatives of Deity. D. He became a servant-He was a carpenter, a man of the people.

• Matt 20:2828 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

• E. He became a manGod picked a smelly stable, a manger for a cradle. A town with no room. He chose a group of shepherds for the audience to the angelic choir.F. He humbled Himself-Usually I get humbled by something. Jesus humbled Himself!G. He became obedient unto death.

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H. Even the death of the cross- this was like our electric chair.

• C. H. Spurgeon wrote, "The whole treasury of God will be made over by deed of gift to the soul that is humble enough to be able to receive it without growing proud because of it. God blesses us all up to the full measure of what is safe for Him to do. If you do not get a blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one."

• . And even after we humble ourselves and repent, pride comes back. Even though we have acknowledged need for God, we take problems back and try to solve them on our own. We waste time trying to solve them on own, we waste time trying to give glory to self rather than to God. We receive blessing from God and then claim credit for them ourselves.

• . Pride is what hurts us in our relationships - in church, in families, with friends. Pride makes us stubborn - I’m right, she’s wrong. It stops us from forgiving. Pride makes us put up false fronts. "I’m not letting anyone else know my sins and weakness." It creates walls of pretension. Pride makes us try to show we are better. Pride makes us think we are better or know more than the other. We become proud of what we do, read.

Augustine said, “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men angels.”