Humble Yourself and God Will Exalt You | Joyce Meyer | Gateway Church

I'm going to be teaching three different messages this weekend but they're all on pride and humility and I think that sometimes we don't think enough about how important it is to be humble and to not let ourselves get into pride and I think there's a lot of ways that we can be proud and not even realize that we're being proud but I want to start off by telling you and I'll read you a few scriptures the Bible says that God hates Pride he doesn't like just dislike it he hates it it's impossible to have an argument without Pride you can't there has to be Pride if you're going to have an argument all judgment is pride all gossip is pride all jealousy is pride pride was the sin that caused Lucifer to become Satan and he works overtime trying to get us into pride and the thing that's interesting is God wants us to be so blessed but a lot of times he can't bless people because they don't know how to handle it you know it's interesting how humble you can be when you don't have anything but how important you can begin to think you are the more you have and so let's really take this serious this weekend and let's all be willing to examine our lives and let God really look at us I I read this definition recently and I just absolutely love it that spiritual Integrity is the ability to really take an honest look at yourself we don't have any trouble looking at other people you that you need this you need that you need something else but we need to be willing to look at ourselves so you know God's math is not like ours wherever we got our math from we didn't get it from God because with God down is Up and Up Is Down first is last last is first and if you want more you got to give away some of what you got so it is kind of a strange kind of math if you if you think about it I I this necklace and me are not going to get along I told the girls with me I said when this thing goes this way go like this so they're down there going all right so humble yourself and God will exalt you but I will tell you if you won't humble yourself he will do it for you and it's much better to do it yourself between you and God if he's dealing with you about something because then it can be private and you won't have to get embarrassed but if he has to do it for you it will normally be in front of somebody and you won't care for that our oldest son heads up our missions and he's just done an absolutely phenomenal job we're getting ready in about a week to open this is so cool a food factory in Africa where we're actually going to be making the food that the people eat so we won't have to buy it from somebody else and we'll be able to sell it at a very reasonable price to other people that are in these countries trying to to feed people but I tell you the devil fights everything that you try to do to help somebody but anyway he came to work for us when he was very young and he has a very strong personality a lot like his mama and um he uh he had a problem with pride and so many times we would have to call him in and correct him threaten to fire him you know on and on and uh he told me something one time that I thought was interesting he said you know he said every time you and Dad have to correct me if I'm honest God has already tried to deal with me and I wouldn't listen it's kind of interesting don't you think so we should listen to God and then he won't have to have somebody else come and tell us what he's been trying to tell us you know I don't think this is a subject that people even think too much about and you know um Andrew Murray wrote a phenomenal little tiny book on humility and that book just tore my life up about 40 years ago I had no idea what a mess I was and he says that humility is the hardest virtue to come by the hardest one to maintain and it can only be maintained and had by special regular prayer and I I'll share a lot of different things with you tonight that I think will help you in this area so first of all Matthew 23:12 for those who exalt themselves will be humbled for those who exalt themselves will be humbled it's not a maybe they will be and those who humble themselves will be exalted so we don't have to try to climb our way to the top you know if you want to get to the top the best thing you can do is help somebody else get to the top and then let God lift you up but usually we're jealous of other people that are getting ahead of us and so we try to keep them from getting ahead and we only keep ourselves from being promoted Luke 14 7-1 when he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table he told them this Parable Jesus Lov to tell stories when somebody invites you to a wedding Feast don't take the place of honor for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited if so the host who invited both of you will come and say to you give this person your seat then humiliated you will have to take the least important place but when you are invited take the lowest place so that when your host comes he will say to you friend move up to a better place then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled it's amazing how many times the Bible says that all those who exalt themselves will be humbled do you know every time that we gossip about somebody else we're exalting ourselves every time we judge somebody else we're exalting ourselves we're trying to make them look bad so we look better for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted and I love this story Luke 18 9-14 to some of the people who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else Jesus told this Parable and you know one of the ways that you can if you wish to have any kind of an idea of how humble or proud you are one of the ways you can judge It Is by how you treat people especially people who can't do anything for you and I I'll give you an example I was in a doctor's office one time my son had broken his arm and I'd taken him to get the cast off and he was in the doctor's office and I was sitting out in the waiting room and there was an elderly gentleman there who had broken his leg and he wanted to tell me all about it and tell me about it and tell me about it and tell me about it and tell me about it well I look back down I realized he was just lonely he probably didn't have that many people to talk to and but I had brought my Bible and I didn't want him bothering me because I wanted to quietly speak in tongues and read my Bible and be spiritual you know what we think is spiritual and what God thinks is spiritual are two entirely different things amen and um so I actually sat there and prayed that God would have that man leave me alone God will you make him leave me alone so I can pray I am glad to say that it was a few years ago and later on the Lord spoke in my heart and he said if if that would have been Billy Graham would you have talked to him well oh I would had all the time of the world for him and the Lord said you know why because he would have been somebody that could have done something for you but that elderly gentleman couldn't do anything for you therefore you had no interest in him my daughter came out of a grocery store not too long ago and she was in a bit of a hurry like we always are and there was traffic going this way and that way so she had to stand and wait and here again there was an elderly gentleman standing by her and he started talking to her and she thought but then she thought NOP this is the way I can serve God and see we're we're always we want God to use us but if the only place we want to be used is on a platform then we really don't want God to use us where God wants to use you is standing by the curb in the doctor's office taking time with people that to be honest you'd really rather not mess with finding the people in the world that are downtrodden or that would be looked on as being unimportant and just pay attention to them just say Hi how are you I appreciate the job you're doing so here we have two men one is confident in his own righteousness which our own righteousness is like filthy rags so you really can't have your own righteousness you're either going to humble yourself and receive the righteousness of God by faith through faith in Christ or you're never going to have any righteousness two men went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee a very religious man and the other a tax collector very sinful man the Pharisees were honored everywhere they went and they were important and they were religious but the Tax Collectors were hated because they were dishonest the Pharisee stood by himself didn't want to stand next to the tax collector and prayed thus now I'm I'm going to going to read you the Amplified they probably got the NIV on the screen he prayed thus before and with himself and I love that he wasn't even talking to God he was trying to impress himself with his own prayer and don't don't don't act like you've never done that especially if you've ever been asked to pray in front of a group of people sometimes we're all we're concerned about is how we sound to these people I love the people who when they pray their whole voice tone changes oh God I know a woman that used to do that it was all I could do to keep from laughing it was like so he stood there and he said God thank you that I'm not like other people who in the world would do that I mean I'm not even that bad I'm so glad I'm not a robber or an evildoer or an adulterer and I'm certainly but I'm not like this tax collector I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I get when you start making a list of all your own good points and all the all all the things that you've done you better get out an eraser but the tax collector stood at a distance and he would not even look up to heaven but he beat his breast and said God have mercy on me a sinner I tell you this man rather than the other went home Justified before God for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled it's all over the Bible for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted now what does it mean what does pride look like see I can stand up here all night and talk about Pride some of you might not even recognize it now I don't know if you've ever seen this or not but if not tonight when you go home or tomorrow sometime you need to look it up on the web it's called the 50 fruits of Pride anybody here ever seen that see nobody it's called the 50 fruits of Pride and it was done by a man named let's give credit where it's due Brent debt Wier all right so he lists 50 different ways that we behave and I'm not going to read all 50 but I've marked off a few I desire to receive credit and recognition and usually get angry if I don't get it I want people to be impressed with me I like to make my accomplishments known I tend to be deceptive about myself I find myself lying to preserve my reputation I find myself hiding the truth about myself especially my sins and weaknesses I am selfishly ambitious I really want to get ahead I love to have a position or a title and I prefer leading rather than following when I which this think God I don't have to do this anymore but when I used to do the hiring in our office I remember a man applying for a job and he kept asking me what his title was going to be I didn't hire him because I knew that he was going to be trouble if all you're concerned about is what your title is going to be when somebody comes to you for a job you can tell right away that's going to be trouble I am selfishly ambitious I am overly competitive you know my husband is competitive but there was a time in his life when he was overly competitive I remember when we played volleyball on the church volleyball team and he wanted to win so bad that he would knock other women down to get the ball he was it was bad I love you honey [Applause] but but if you want you can pretend it's a parable I like to talk especially about myself I'm not too excited when I see other people being successful H I feel special or Superior because of what I have or what I do I think highly of myself in relation to others and I typically see myself as more mature and more gifted now I already know this is none of you I know that I have a whole Auditorium full of humble people but here is one of the ways that you can tell if you're humble or proud when I listen to a teaching I listen with all the people in mind I wish were there and I just wonder right now how many people in this room have already thought oh I wish so and so would have come with me tonight come come on anybody be humble enough to admit that you've thought that since you got here look at that all over the place oh I wish so and so was here tonight and see when we do that we're kind of sort of saying I don't really need this but I know somebody who does and I really wish they were here and I hope tomorrow they ask me what Joy preached on I'm rude I have a know-it-all at itude I love to tell people what I know I interrupt people when they're talking I still have a problem with that I feel compelled to stop people when they start to share something with me that I already know now you you think about that if somebody wants to tell you something they're enjoying telling you what they know so you don't even really need to tell them you already know it just be quiet and listen and going on about your business and on and on and on there's 50 of them I won't read any more of them but the the the thing is is at least just after this meeting pray that God will begin to show you ways that you exhibit pride and also pray that he will show you ways now listen what I'm going to say that you can humble yourself on purpose because you have to do it on purpose or you'll never do it and I I'll share with you some of the things that I do to try to keep myself in practice 1 Peter 56 and 7 very interesting two scriptures therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that in due time he may exalt you casting all of your care all your anxieties all your worries all your concerns and once and for all on him for he cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully now what does not worrying and not and casting my care have to do with humbling myself because really what those scriptures are saying is as long as I am worrying about how I can fix my problem I still think I can fix it and I haven't come to the realization yet that I can't do anything without God H I would have liked a better result result than you gave me but that's all right all right if we refuse to Humble ourselves God can arrange circumstances that will humble us but it's much more more painful now people that are the most in danger of being in Pride are people that are successful people that have a position of power people that have other people I don't like to even use this term but under them so if you're a supervisor if you're a department manager if you in charge of the dog I don't care what it is you know uh the higher up the ladder of success you go the more you are in danger of being in Pride you have to remember that God promoted you when you were small in your own sight but if you start to get big britches then you're going to get in trouble and we see that with Saul we see it with other other people in the Bible Nebuchadnezzar and it it's just a fact God would love to do so much more through his people than what he's able to do what did he tell Paul Paul had the thorn in his flesh and everybody likes to argue about what it was well I don't really care the thing was was it bothered him he didn't want it he didn't like it and God said that he would not remove it that he had it because to keep him from being excessively exalted because of the greatness of the revelations that he had been given now did you understand that right now I'm telling you why sometimes you have trouble and you don't understand you're not going to like what I'm getting ready to say sometimes it is a gift from God where are you at I'm going to talk just to you see we're taught that if we live by faith that we should be able to resist all that and rebuke all that and it's just the devil and we should be able to rebuke him and yes all trouble does come from the devil but sometimes God allows iten what do you what do you think I would be like okay I've written 147 books whoever tried to count them 147 books and um one of one of them has sold 8 million copies Battlefield of the Mind so if you haven't read it you should get it I'm on television all over the world and you know Joy my this Jo recognized everywhere I go now now let me ask you a question what do you think I would be like if I never had any trouble in my life if everything turned up roses for me you know what I would think I would think it was because I was so great and then it would cause me to judge anybody else who had a problem I would be certain it was because they had sin in their life and so God always works things out for our good what did Joseph tell his brothers what you meant for my harm God intended for my good and whatever you think or whoever you think is your greatest enemy right now someday you may mature enough to figure out that it was really your best [Applause] friend you might as well get in agreement with me now because I'll keep you here long long time if you don't amen how many of you realize how important this is God loves you so much and he wants to promote you he wants to exalt you why would he want all the sinners in the world to have all the positions and the titles and the people that are admired he wants his kids to have those positions but we cannot have them and maintain them if we're going to get full of ourselves and start thinking we're better than everybody else and there is nothing I'm just going to be honest with you I've been around a lot of preachers in my life and you have never done anything until you've gone to lunch with about 12 preachers and you you tell me if I'm right everybody fights to have the conversation not not actually fighting but you just can't wait for somebody to stop telling you what they're doing so you could tell them what you're doing well I did this and I did that and our church did this and that's not what God God wants us being interested in other people if you want to be popular don't talk about yourself always ask other people to tell you all about them because people love to talk about themselves and they will love you if you ask them well tell me about your life instead of wanting to tell them all about you and I I'm just going to tell you this this just the way I feel about it there is nothing that is more nauseating to me and I think to God than somebody in Ministry who mistreats other people behind the scenes I absolutely hate it and I don't want any friends like that I don't want to go to churches where I see people doing that because we represent God and God loves people and he says in his word if you have done it un to the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me get this the way we treat people is the way we treat Jesus come on the way we treat people is the way we treat Jesus man that's mouthful when you're good to people God will be good to you and every time God promotes you you should humble yourself a little bit more now I I have to work at this I don't know you know maybe you're good at it I don't know but I have to work at it and I think anybody does that is any realm of popular or if you're exceedingly beautiful or exceedingly handsome or you know maybe you're a woman with a beautiful figure or a man with big muscles or you know whatever it it's so easy let let's just say that you're one of these people with a high metabolism and you can eat the whole refrigerator and never gain weight it's very likely that when you see somebody overweight you have an attitude just that little attitude well you know oh I hate it when I catch myself with that attitude and I do matter of fact I preached a message a couple weeks ago God told me that I was self-righteous and I didn't know I was self-righteous but you know it was in a very specific area well now he's shown me three but I'm glad we started with one I hope there's not many left I I'm just I'm I'm tell I'm opening up my life to you because I want you to get something for your own life I have always had a real hard time with preachers people who stand up here because to me this is a sacred place and I'll never forget when God told me I want you to always remember that however many people you can help that's exactly how many you can hurt so if I allow my life to fall apart and I don't keep my marriage right if I go have an affair with somebody I'm not just hurting myself I'm hurting in my case millions of Christians around the world and it hurts the whole body of Christ it hurts everybody and so I've always just been like I just don't understand how anybody can do that and keep getting in the Pulpit week after week after week well I had an attitude and you know why I don't get it because I've never been tempted that way see when you're not tempted in an area it's very easy to not understand why somebody else is you understand that and I'm I mean man I got one man that's all I can handle I don't you know Lord help me I don't want to and I mean that that would be the the last thing that I would be interested in but there are people that that is a real huge problem for them and a lot of these ministers that do fall into sin it's because they have killed themselves with work trying to help you and they're so tired tired they can't even make good decisions anymore and so their defenses are all down and Satan attacks them at their weakest point and we have we have an inner city church that we started 20 years ago and we had a pastor who actually was having an affair with his sister-in-law in the church during the day when he was supposed to be working and I asked him can you just explain to me how you can do that and still get back in the Pulpit the next week and he said because every time I do it I tell myself I promis myself that I'll never do it again I tell God I'll never do it again so he hated it too he was in a trap it wasn't something that he wanted to do he was in a trap too and so we have to be now listen to me we have to judge sin but we cannot judge people that's come on we are not doing the right thing if we don't judge sin we're responsible to do that I'm not stupid the more I read the Bible the more I recognize what sin is but boy we have to be so careful that we don't get like the Pharisee you know because you get up and pray the first two hours of every day and you read your Bible through every year and you know somebody somebody else who can't stay awake in the morning to even pray 5 minutes well I don't know maybe they have sleep apnea you know you just got to God you know why God Is So merciful because he knows the why behind the what and we know the what but we don't know the why I mean an example would be like I was sexually abused by my dad for many years repeatedly over and over and over and over and over again and my mom knew about it and she was just had too weak of a personality to do anything about it she just told me 30 years after it happened I couldn't face the Scandal I thought well that's nice you couldn't face the Scandal and I was in a living Nightmare and so I had a lot of things in my personality that weren't very nice I was harsh and hard and hard to get along with and easy eily angered and manipulative and controlling and and uh and people judged me for that because they saw the way I acted and the way I acted was wrong but they didn't know why I acted that way and I didn't even know why I acted that way I so I didn't even know a lot of times there's anything wrong with it because that's the kind of atmosphere I grew up in and so I just thought you know if you don't get your way you stay mad till you get your way that's that's what I saw that's what I did and so we if we're going to be merciful we have to stick with God I see what they're doing it's wrong and we we pray for people we don't judge them we don't gossip about them we pray for them and we want to see them restored come on is anybody home out there so you got to be aware of proud thoughts the Bible says in Romans 12:3 for by the grace of God given unto me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought to do not have an exaggerated opinion of your own importance but rate your ability with sober judgment each according to the degree of Faith apportioned to him by God you know why I can do what I do because of the grace of God no no other reason at all I your least likely can date to be called to do what I'm doing this is exactly why 1 Corinthians 1 says that God chooses the weak and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise so that no mortal man can have pretense for glorying in his sight he you he chooses people that are nothing the scum of the earth the trash of the earth and he amazes all the people that would judge them I remember when God first called me into Ministry and I was so excited I said oh God told me I'm going to have this big Ministry blah blah blah and I remember first first of all I lost almost all my friends and and I remember one girl saying to me you know we've talked about it I thought I bet you have we've talked about this and we you just don't have you don't have the right personality for that well you know what they were right but somehow or another God gave me favor and everybody puts up with me amen so so here's something I caught myself doing the other day gosh I wish I didn't have to tell all this stuff on myself you know in a month I'm going to be 81 and so and I and I'm I'm loving it and uh no I didn't get a facelift last week I had one 30 years ago the rest of this is me thank you and uh so I find myself once in a while thinking about my funeral you know wonder you know I mean when you're 81 you know you don't have too terribly many years left you know if I got maybe you know 10 maybe 15 and I found I found myself the other day thinking about my funeral and thinking about all the great things they were going to say about [Applause] me and I actually went out get out of my head now you can laugh at me but don't tell me you don't go through some of the same kinds of stuff you know I'm just the one that God has called upon to tell the world about it Lord have mercy all right there's actually some things I do to try to practice humility and this is something that I think may help you if you'll do it some of the ways I humble myself on purpose to stay in practice I always apologize to people if I'm rude or grouchy or cranky even if maybe sometimes they didn't even notice it but it's good for me to own up to it I admit it if I thought I was right about something and later found out I was wrong and there had been you know little you know I'm right I'm right you're right you're right you're wrong I'll always go back and say hey I'm sorry I thought I was right but I wasn't I was wrong that's one of the best things in the world you can do is say I was wrong can we practice sounded like music to God's ears I do tasks for people like little things that I really don't want to do just to keep myself realizing I'm not too important to do them like I might be making myself a cup of coffee and this little thought will come to my heart well why don't you ask Dave if he wants one well I don't really want to make Dave one I want to I want to make my coffee and go back to praying and you may think well what's the big deal about making a cup of coffee well when you make Dave a cup of coffee it is a big deal because here's the way it goes you make the decaf coffee then you pour all of it out but about that much then you get liquid whipping cream and you fill a glass about that full of that and then you yes yes don't you don't you come on god'll get you later and then you pour then you pour a little milk in with that then you got to put it in the microwave and heat it and it loves to boil over and get the microwave dirty and then you mix it together and then he has to have three Stevia in it and now he's added to it one little squirt of chocolate so just so you know it's not like easy you know to make him a coffee it's like a a job and Dave usually does the dishes at night because I arrange for the food you notice I didn't say I cook it I said I arrang for so you know what that means don't you and so sometimes I'll do the dishes make sure I tell him I did the dishes I always trying to make sure that I'm friendly with people that maybe you wouldn't normally pay attention to you know people that are just helping or serving or like people behind the scenes you need to watch for people that nobody ever pays attention to like if when when you go in a restroom at in a department store or something Have you ever gone in there there's been a person in there cleaning the bathroom you should always be friendly with them and thank them for the job that they do because you know what that person probably gets ignored 99 and 910 per of the time there's ways that we need to practice being humble God hates Pride I'm going to read you this scripture and we're going to have to close for tonight Isaiah 2:12 for there shall be a day of the Lord of hosts against all who are proud and haughty and against all who are lifted up and they shall be brought low if you exalt yourself you will be humbled if you humble yourself you will will be exalted amen come on give God a little praise now how do you end a service like that well let me pray for you father I doubt that there was anybody in this room that didn't need this including me I'm glad I'm getting to preach it because it's just going to help me later and uh I just pray father that we'll take this seriously and just not think we're better than other people not think we're too important to listen always have to be the one to talk father I ask you to show me areas in my life where I'm prideful and don't even see it show all of us because you've done so much for us and we want to be people that you can use and you've made it plain that you cannot use us if we exalt ourselves so thank you for helping us in Jesus name amen thank you guys

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 154,199

Keywords: gateway church, gateway people, gateway worship, robert morris, joyce meyer, pride and ego, embrace authenticity, authentic christian, be humble, sit down be humble, don't judge people, christians judging people, humility, how to be humble, i want to be humble, how to be a better christian, joyce meyer sermon 2024, joyce, women preaching, how to kill pride, how to get rid of pride, what does the bible say about pride, bible, how to read the bible, pride and arrogance

Id: dlkfT_9plpA

Length: 45min 49sec (2749 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024