Overcoming Pride

no matter what if you knocked me down i'ma get honesty but you get the ground you don't know [Music] oh yeah good morning victory how y'all doing hey how you doing this morning which is good when they came into the house of the Lord it is a good day it's so good to be with you on this fantastic weekend I'm pastor Montell Jordan I get the awesome opportunity to serve you here at Victory in our men's United ministry and our marriage ministry as well as in our worship and music ministry and I just want to take a moment and welcome those of you who are here in the main sanctuary those who are watching in our family rooms and the overflow rooms in the chapel right now victory atl comm facebook live everywhere all over the world you're watching and we just want to welcome you come on let's just give thanks for everybody modern technology brings the world together yeah real quick family update what's going on with being the family we are good the Jordan family is fantastic right now Kristen and I expecting to be grandparents in August oldest daughter is a senior in college son enters high school baby girl samantha enters kindergarten in the fall and kristen and i celebrating 23 years of marriage to each other on next Sunday you know you got to say that because you know huh you know so the family is good we are well and we pray that your family as well as well a quick disclaimer because tad did this so well in our previous announcements but my friend John Gray is my friend and he's coming to be here with us he is so excited to be here on next weekend man make sure you register for Friday night he's going to be here all weekend we all get a fantastic message he is a prolific speaker an amazing godly man him and his family will all be here he's got a television show like my man is thebomb.com but Friday night he's got something specifically for the men and you need to register you need to show up and be here for that so I'm challenging you to do that to bring a man with you and ladies you should want your man to be here on Friday night to hear what God is going to do in and through him for us now if you have your Bible with you or an electronic device on silent we're going to ask you to turn to Romans chapter 12 and verse 3 Romans chapter 12 and verse 3 and as you were preparing to go there in the word I'm going to say a prayer over us today so let's bow our heads God thank you thank you the same yesterday today and forever thank you for being here with us you are not distant you are close you are near bias and we feel that you want to speak to us and transform us today and so God it is my prayer that you make me invisible and so that what your people see is your truth what they hear are your words and what they feel is your presence and desire to be closer to them to not resist them or be opposed to them but to be close to us all and so we thank you for your Holy Spirit being here to translate for us what you want to say and we just praise you in the name of Jesus would you all say amen amen amen the title of today's message we are focused on overcoming pride overcoming pride now interesting that we sat with pastor Dennis a couple of weeks ago he opened up the series a few weeks ago with a message on overcoming failure many of us needed to hear a message like that to encourage us and to give us direction johnson bui taught a message last week about overcoming apathy about not feeling and not being aware of the things that are happening in the world around us and i just want to tell you when we sat back as leaders as pastors and we sat in a room with our senior pastor Dennison and we talked about okay for the summertime we're going to call this message overcomer the series is going to be called overcomer I remember it was interesting because in that room with all those men and women their pastor looked over at me and he said Montel I want you to talk about overcoming pride I'm like thanks you know in a moment I'm like thinking you know you know hope you know why me you know why pride I'm the most humble person I know and you want me to talk about pride and the truth is pastor knows my story many of you in here watching online you know my story about my life prior to ministry and I can tell you that my life in the Arn beam you business in the music industry does not equip you in the areas of humility I remember sitting in a restaurant back in the early 2000s in Baltimore Maryland when my second record a second song of mine had gone to number one on the Billboard charts and at that time having the number one song in America I had an executive say to me you know do you know what it means to have the number one record in the nation you know it means that 99 other song souls want to be right where you are right now and as I think back you know to that moment you know I was so proud that night but but I don't mean I was feeling proud I was being proud see there's a difference in feeling and being there's a difference in feeling proud and being proud and I remember that particular time in that particular instance I was not feeling a sense of pride a sense of accomplishment for our achievements but I was actually being proud I was being pride full pride full meaning full of pride and pride is a very tricky thing it's very tricky we're going to discuss it today scripture defines pride in Romans chapter 12 and verse 3 and it says this for by the grace given to me I say to every one of you do not think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you so in order for us to overcome pride in order for us to master pride in order for us to prevail over pride we need to first understand what pride actually is and so I'd like to share with you just four characteristics of pride the first one is found in that scripture and it's simply this pride is thinking more highly of yourself than you ought pride is thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to and it's easy to do that because we live in a mirco we in America learn to free home of the brave greatest nation on the planet the superpower proud to be in America red white and blue and I need to tell you there's a difference in feeling proud to be an American and being a proud American they're not the same and what happens is we can have national pride we can have ethnic pride we got Latino pride Korean pride gay pride black prod all types of different pride but here's the idea God created us all yet when we elevate our culture we elevate our race we elevate our economic status our political party anything that we elevate that causes us to think more highly of ourselves than we should we enter that dangerous place of pride pride is tricky the second thing I want to share with you a second characteristic of pride is that pride is an inward Lee directed emotion that carries both a positive and negative meaning I'll say that again pride is an inward lead directed emotion that carries both a positive and negative meaning this is why I say pride is tricky because pride can be both a positive thing and a negative thing in other words when it's positive when pride is in a positive stance it takes on this humble content sense of attachment or connection to yours or someone else's achievement I'll give you an example say that there is a husband who is proud of his wife because she gave birth to their first child after doctors said you can't even conceive that seems like a good thing that you could be proud of or take for instance a parent that see their son deliver an inspiring graduation speech or get the game willing score and a touchdown in a game and seems like something parents could or should be proud of I'll take for instance seeing a couple who were once on the verge of divorce and you're able to minister to them and they take divorce off the table and now they're their legacy for their family is now intact because you believed in them and in God more than they even did themselves and you feel like you can be proud of that that's a beautiful thing but that's when pride is used in the positive sense but you can take those exact same examples and if pride is used in the negative sense then you have a guy who's now in the stance of his wife is able to give birth it's like yeah baby we did it against all odds we had a babe you know that that Sun that gives that speech or or scores that touchdowns like year yeah that's my boy ha ha that's my son I taught him everything he knows you know or that that couple that God gives you the ability to pour into and it's like yo you know we help save their marriage you know you see they're the same instances but what pride is an inward lis directed emotion and depending on where we see ourselves in that can determine whether it's used positive or negative in other words when pride is used negatively it becomes self seeking self serving and scripture talks a lot about pride proverbs chapter 11 I'm just giving some scripture here proverbs chapter 11 verse 2 says when pride comes then comes disgrace but with humility comes wisdom there's a scripture in proverbs 13 and 10 that says where there is strife there is pride but wisdom is found in those who take advice proverbs 16 and 5 says this the Lord detest all the proud of heart be sure of this they will not go unpunished it's a strong word they're unpunished proverbs chapter 16 and verse 18 says pride goes before destruction a haughty spirit before a fall I don't know if y'all pick it up on this but everywhere that pride shows up it's accompanied by disgrace strife things that are detestable punishment destruction and ultimately a fall so it would seem that it's really important for us to be on the right side of pride another characteristic of pride is that pride as a sin pride is a sin proverbs chapter 26 and verse 12 says this do you see a person wise in their own eyes there is more hope for a fool than for them strong words right there to say there is more hope for a fool than for one who values themselves more than they ought to and I can tell you I was that fool that was me that Scripps was talking about me y'all I was so prideful I was so prideful I used to speak about myself in third person I used to speak about myself to myself in third person no joke prior to ministry long back in the day my music industry days I will be sitting in the recording studio at the helm of a mixing board I have musicians and artists are in the room and music be blaring loud and it's amazing that I have my hearing to this day but I will be in the studio and everybody all eyes on me to see what I think of this or that and I'll be like yeah yes my children like that whoo yeah my cell think that's hot for real y'all will be entering and exiting the radio stations for a promotional gigs and I would go in there and talk to the secretary and I'll take the intercom from her and I'll say attention mon-sol Jordan has just entered the building mon-sol Jordan has just entered the building and then I will walk in I sign autographs meet people take pictures and then as I'm leaving I take the annika unico Montell Jordan has just left the building Everdeen Montell Jordan has just left the building first and last name and I thought I was being clever I thought I was being charming I thought I was being just confident but pride is not clever and charming and confident there is a difference I don't know if you see any of you in me but I'm going to tell you I'm probably not the only one another characteristic of pride is that God opposes the proud God opposes the proud scripture in 1st Peter chapter 5 and verse 5 says this in the same way you who are younger submit yourselves to your elders all of you clothe yourselves with humility towards one another because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble it's easy to read a scripture like that and then just kind of allow a word by that to just kind of go by but y'all normal words God and as a word guy I see stuff like that and that word oppose carries more weight to it than we think another word that's synonymous with the word oppose is the word resist if you would see that God resists the proud but shows favor to the humble think about this for a second that word resist if you are scrolling through your timeline on Facebook or on Instagram or when you see someone resisting arrest there is normally violence occurring in that same place because to resist causes something adversarial it causes something violent to take place and for God to resist the proud means that God takes a violent position he takes a violent posture towards pride in other words when it says God opposes the proud that word oppose it didn't say God dislikes the proud it didn't say God is very uncomfortable when you are prideful didn't say God just really hates it when you're prideful it doesn't even say God hates the proud it says God opposes the proud meaning opposes he is opposite of pride God becomes an opponent to pride meaning the creator of the earth is now in opposition to you when you are prideful he is no longer your advocate he is your adversary he is now in a violent position against you not even going away from you but God is now coming toward you in opposition when he sees pride not necessarily for those who are feeling a sense of pride but for those who are proud so it's so important to understand and to identify when we see ourselves in that place of pride I was studying this and kind of looking through a scripture to understand what God how do we are we able to overcome pride and I was led to this one particular a biblical figure to study and I want to kind of share this story with you and I want to give this disclaimer I love the Word of God because it comes alive if you allow it if you ask the Holy Spirit a lot of God's Word to come alive it is not a boring thing at all the words literally leap off the page and these stories of real live things happen and you get a chance to see those and so this is a story I'm about to share with you about a big Bible figure by the name of Moses and there's a scripture in numbers chapter 12 verses 3 & 4 I think I'm just going to read one verse though and it says here now Moses was a very humble man more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth now that scripture that is telling us that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth and you know who wrote that Moses Moses wrote Moses is the most humble man on the face of the earth now get this Moses didn't write that from a standpoint of being you know making a boastful claim as the writer but it's something called an inspired statement of fact meaning he was riding with God told him to write because Moses was the type of man that could sit intimately with God he had proximity to God meaning where everybody else was outside the temple Moses could be inside of the temple close proximity to God is that almost as one would sit with a friend face to face now Moses never sat face to face because no one has ever seen the face of God and lived but Moses the Word says he was able to sit as a friend would sit face to face with God and have conversation with God but think about this Moses had face-to-face proximity with God intimacy with God but didn't make it into the promised land he made it into heaven you know a job well done but he didn't make it into the promised land when he was sent here on this earth to do having close proximity to God and somehow didn't make it in I think about that because I want to make it I want to finish well we want to finish well if Moses couldn't do it what are we supposed to do with that got so I start wondering was is pride a part of the reason he didn't make it in well I don't know but here's what I can say from that Scripture what I want to share with you I want to share with you four thoughts that point towards pride I'm not saying that it was but we want to examine scripture study to show ourselves to prove and be able to see if maybe pride had some part in how Moses did not make it into the promised land now here's something called context before I get to the scripture I want to be able to give you the back story here earlier on in the Bible in Exodus you have these people who are enslaved they're the Israelites and they are finally freed from slavery they're free from Egypt they are no longer under Pharaohs rule they are now sent forth and they are wandering in the desert and a funny thing happens when you're wandering in the desert you get hungry and you get thirsty and that's what's happening God's people the Israelites are wandering through the desert and they get hungry and so they start to grumbling and complaining to Moses Moses we hungry Moses we are thirsty why would you bring us out here in the desert to die we could have stayed back with Pharaoh at least we had food to eat and water to drink Moses what it and so as they are complaining Moses goes into the Holy of Holies he goes before God he says hey God your people the ones that you have me leading here they're a little hungry they're a little thirsty could use a little help here what can you do to fix this situation and so God who is gracious and humble he steps forward and he gives Moses some steps to fix the situation he instructs Moses he said I want you to take your staff I want you to take your brother Aaron I want you to assemble the people I want you to go out and I want you to strike the rock and when you strike the rock water's going to come from it now this is a miracle but Moses does everything that God told him to do and when he does that he strikes the rock water comes from the rock everybody in the desert drinking stay thirsty my friends Israelite gospel goblets up everybody drinking in the desert now the story I'm about to share with you picks up a little later on where God's people are still wandering in the desert and again they are hungry and again they are thirsty and again Moses has to go back to God to get an answer and here's what happens in numbers chapter 20 verses 8 through 12 this is God talking giving an instruction to Moses he says this take the staff and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water you will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink so Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence just as he commanded him and he and Aaron gather the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them listen you rebels must we bring you water out of this rock then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff water gushed out and the community and their livestock drank but the Lord said to Moses and Aaron because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites you will not bring this community into the land I give them now I'm not saying it with pride I am going to share with you four things that may lead towards pride the first idea is this speak what God is saying speak what God is saying see we have God's Word we have the Bible the Word of God and it's what he said but you got to understand that God is still speaking today he's the great I am he was then he is now and he will be because is past present and future and so from that standpoint even though he said things back then he's still speaking to us today we have to hear what God is saying to us today in other words God instructed Moses to speak to the rock Moses spoke to the people God instructed Moses he said speak to the rock and Moses spoke to the people Moses why would you do that you're not hard to hear and you got good proximity to God he told you speak to the rock why would you speak to the people the same way God tells us speak to the mountain and it'll be moved and instead we speak about the mountain think about it think about your Facebook feeds he said speak to cancer speak to divorce speak to depression but we speak about it Oh God y'all pray for me I'm on my way to the hospital today I'm not feeling good at y'all y'all stand up a couple for your brother he said speak to it and it will be removed and so we looking at Moses like Moses why wouldn't you speak to why would you do what God said and Moses is looking at us like Aaron why didn't you do what he said next idea after speaking with God is saying is partial obedience is still disobedience partial obedience is still disobedience or delayed obedience is still disobedience Moses did everything that God instructed except doing everything that God instructed Moses did all of what God asked him to do except doing it all so we asked you Moses why wouldn't you just do it all Moses asked us the same question why didn't you do it all what does God instructed you to do that you didn't finish what's - incomplete in your life what did you start it didn't didn't finish who you supposed to minister to and you didn't finish what job assignment that he gave you and you didn't finish we're looking at Moses like Moses while you didn't do with God say moses looking at us yeah I know it's tough ain't it next idea don't exchange eternal blessing for temporary gratification don't exchange eternal blessing for temporary gratification I'll explain that at a moment once again get this everybody I'm the people with thirsty okay the people with thirsty Moses needed an answer so Moses went to God and God gave him an answer but he didn't give Moses the answer that Moses wanted you get this listen Moses had never spoken to a rock before and water come out of it he never saw that happen before you ask me to speak to something and water come out of it he never did that but what Moses did do is he had taken a staff before and hit a rock and water came out of it so the natural thought process is well if I hit a rock once and it came out once if I hit the rock twice water will come out again and the idea is when God is doing something new stop running back to the old thing when God is doing a new thing stop running back to the old thing God wants to do something new now just quick pause there for the married couples out there don't take pastor's words right there and try and twist them to mean something that they're not that whole Isaac you know listen your marriage God wants you to stay in your marriage he wants you to work on your marriage you think I'm a pastor said you know he trying to do a new thing let me go on to the hoe you know no no no time out no that's not what pastors saying listen God wants to he's not going to pour new wine in an old wineskin he's not saying going get a new wineskin he wants you to become a new wineskin he wants husbands to be a new wineskin wives to be a new wineskin your marriage your family to be a new wineskin so he can pour that new wine into you so don't walk out of here like deal without to told me you know I can get a new know haha no sir no ma'am Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land because he sacrificed later for now don't sacrifice your later for something right now last one I'm not saying it was pride but it it kind of leads that direction possibly is that pride shows a lack of trust in God that's tough to hear pride shows a lack of trust in God see God wanted to elevate the miracle he had done before he struck it before God wanted to speak to it this time he wants to elevate the miracle he had done and through Moses before instead Moses elevated to action that he had done before so in other words instead of speaking and allowing us to see God's next miracle Moses went back to his previous thing that he had done and whenever we go against what God is saying and we begin to elevate our thinking more highly than we ought to something else a different remedy a different plan a different strategy when we begin to do that we are now thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought and that's where we become prideful Moses trusted in what he had done before more than what God wanted to do and when we have lack of trust in God it can become pride sad part about that is that Aaron is a casualty of war in that Aaron was just innocent bystander Aaron's guilty by association he heard everything - God told Moses he watched the execution of the plan he watched when Moses took the left he was right there with it and God says neither you or air and is getting in you know what that says right you don't have to be the one with the pride issue you just have to be close enough to somebody who is we got blind spots Moses have blind spots Aaron have blind spots I got blind spots we have blind spot so I won't take a moment and just review a couple of different things to maybe allow us to check ourselves and see if we may have issues or areas where we have pride that needs to be overcome here's one area that you can check pride comes with inflation pride comes with inflation here's what that means God didn't say don't think highly of yourself listen you are beautifully fearfully and wonderfully made you're one of a kind nobody else with your thumb prints you are an amazing work of God's creation he did however say do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to and so in the areas are you vain are you puffed up are you overconfident are you conceited what does your photostream tell you when you look at your your pure Sophie uh just selfie status you know my daughter had to check me with that Daddy u2 selfie King it's like what about a year and a half ago I had to go back and look at my post on Instagram when I was like oh that's me oh that's me oh that's me oh that's me and at some point I had to check that I'm not saying it's a big deal but I'm just saying it may be a blind spot it may be an area of pride to look at or to overcome pride also comes with entitlement product comes with entitlement do you have a sense of entitlement in other words do you feel like people owe you something do you feel like life owes you something maybe the church owes you something maybe a pastor owes yourself maybe God owes you something God owes you something even after he's already paid the price for it all he owes you if you think or you have an entitlement spirit I want you to know there's a possibility that's a blind spot where there's a pride area that needs to be overcome pride also comes with assumption part comes with assumption that means you assume a lot of different things when we're prideful look at them oh but I know they talk about me nobody talking about you you nobody even thinking about you here look at am i sad I know the over look I know the over there talking about nobody talking about you listen sometimes it's not about you and then you get offended because you think people talk about you then you find out they ain't even thinking about you and now you offend it cuz I nobody thinking about you I didn't turn all this over here and then nobody paying no attention listen if everything is presumably always about you you you may have a pride issue that needs to be overcome matter of fact if you a little more upset with me now for even saying that you probably have a pride issue that needs to be overcome last one here is a product can mask itself and false humility blind spot product can mask itself in false humility that was me man I struggle with that one so hard y'all when I entered into full-time ministry coming out of Fame coming out of the R&B music business I got into full-time ministry I was I went complete opposite direction everything was Jesus Jesus Jesus let me decrease so that you can increase I would just you know my name every I don't want any indication of who I was back in the day my past life I'm a nuclei everything with all Jesus nothing I you know to an extreme to the point where I will be going someplace with the pastor's we in the airport somebody would notice me they see me go you Montell Jordan on her brother you know it's just all Jesus you know no no I know you don't um uh yo yo you famous no no I'm not I'm not saying that I'll just call Jesus daddy you know I'll be here at the church yo pal Montel can I take a picture with you no no no it's all we attachment it's all Jesus's pastor will you sign my Bible no no no you know pestered Dennis didn't sign your Bible John stood inside the Bible I don't know how God feels about me signing your Bible God gave me my name he gave me my unique testimony he gave those things to me to walk in and to step in and I'm trying to step out of what God is trying to place me in and here's what I had to learn from the false humility standpoint here's what I had to learn when people try and put Fame on you they try and put adoration on you they try and put those those different gifts and things like that on you I have to be able to take those things but I got to take them to the feet of Jesus and I have to give those things to God I have to be able to say Lord these belong to you I adore you and I give those things to you what happens is when people give you fame and glory or adoration and things like that some people keep them for themselves and the idea is you have to be able to take those things but you have to be able to give those things to God because get this God didn't say I will take the praise I will take the honor I will take the glory he could but he didn't say it take it he said I want you to give me praise give me honor give me glory he wants a willing heart to be able to give those things that's the area that I had to work on it was a blind spot for me I don't know what your blind spots are but here's what I'm going to suggest here are three ways that we can overcome pride three ways that we can overcome pride but first is to serve serve serve Matthew chapter 23 verse 11 beautifully crafted scripture it says the greatest among you will be your servant when Kristen and I first got here to victory probably the second week that we visited here pastor Dennis was teaching a message and he mentioned about serving and he talked about there is a need to serve in children's ministry the children's ministry had need for people to serve there and when I heard that me and my wife we looked at each other we were thinking well we'd love to serve in the church you know we've been in ministry around ministry for a long time and I know the areas that I'm gifted in God has gifted me in the area of music I understand in church and outside of church I've got a musical gift and from that standpoint when it comes to songwriting lyrics melodies harmonies music production all those things those are areas that God gifted I'm proficient in those areas I can use that gift in ministry that's my sweet spot when it comes to Kristen I she is super strong in the area of production she knows how to put things together from beginning to end a little microphone and start moving pieces here and there and from the beginning of LL Cool J show thirty thousand seat arena she knows how something starts how it finishes on time almost different things that's an area that she's proficient in that's her sweet spot and so naturally when it came time for the opportunity to serve in the church y'all know what we did we went in the children's ministry because that's where pastor said the need was the need was in children's ministry it wasn't a matter of where I'm gifted or where she was gifted it was a matter of what God needed and then also my wife and I we had some pride issues that were being worked out of us and God wanted to Humble us in that area and there's nothing more humbling than an 18-month old spitting up all on your clothes changing dirty diapers it's a humbling process and I could tell you I won't change that time wouldn't trade that for any time in the world I was super good times that we had serving in children's ministry and I get this that wasn't our strong suit area that's where God places and I am not insinuating at all that in an area you're not strong in that you should serve there in other words if you're an angry person not suggesting you serve on the greeter team but I will say if God is trying to work something out of you and work something in you and work something through you and you feel the prompting of the Lord that he's going to grow you and change you and transform you by doing that by all means greet on think about it serving that's the first way to overcome pride second way be humble Allah Allah be humble but not in the kendrick lamar's sense of the word being humble meaning humble yourself rather than having God humble you there's a difference in humbling yourself and having God humble you how can you humble yourself many ways one have accountability have accountability what does that mean it means have somebody you check in with somebody if you basically say hey I'm over here today hey this is what I did yesterday you don't have to but you get to and you show a humility when you have accountability also be submitted to Authority be submitted to Authority that's another way to overcome pride what does that mean it means have somebody in your life they can tell you know have someone in your life that can tell you know I can tell you from past experience Kristin and I and our music business days we did not have anyone that could tell us no but us and listen when there is no one that can tell you know but us that is danger rest it's dangerous to not have somebody in your life a godly person that can tell you no and it means no another way that we're able to humble ourselves another way that we are able to overcome pride is by having someone in your life who can correct you have someone who can give you a correction and say hey when you did that that was a bad way to do that but here's a better way that you can do this or don't do that anymore you have to be able to take correction because the idea is when there's no one that you check in with there's no one who can tell you know there's no one who can correct you that's becomes a fertile soil for pride to grow and when pride shows up then comes disgrace and strive and things that are detestable in punishment and destruction and ultimately a fall comes having accountability being submitted to Authority having someone who can correct you that helps you move from being selfish to selfless and there's nothing wrong with being selfless being selfless is a beautiful thing being selfless isn't thinking less of yourself it's thinking of yourself less because pride will cause you to think everything is about you I remember when God had to Humble me God had to Humble me historically I've been on some big stages in my life okay and I say that because I know the difference between a stage and a platform like this here this is the platform I was on stages the difference is stages are for performance stages are for entertainment platforms are for influence so even when you look at a church you say I want to be on the stage you got to understand what you're asking for God is not looking for performance or entertainment he's looking for influence but that's another message for another day but here's what I remember in these plans on those stages that I were on I remember making a vow to God I said God I said if you allow me to get into this music business I said I promise you I don't care if I'm performing in front of 70,000 people or seven people I will always give my best performance seventy thousand or seven I will always give my all that's what I said let me tell you god surpassed my wildest imagination he blew my mind I can remember I did a concert in front of 90,000 people in the Rotterdam it's over in the Netherlands I did a hundred thousand people on a float floating through the streets of London at the Notting Hill Carnival in the late nineteen hundred I was there in a hundred thousand people in the streets of London I was right here in Atlanta GA in 1995 on the boys to mentor in the Georgia Dome that by the way seats seventy one thousand two hundred and eighty-eight people in other words there were seventy thousand people in the Georgia Dome the exact number that I gave the vow to God but like I said God had to Humble me because I wouldn't humble myself I had a concert in Arizona back in 2010 it was supposed to be in a college town it was on Halloween weekend then you seated 3,000 people you are 3,000 people and I got to the venue to do the show on that night and seven people showed up a venue that holds three thousand seven people showed up if you don't think that's humbling the idea is get this my road manager the club owner and a security guard with three to seven y'all laughing but y'all know what I did I gave the performance of a lifetime for those seven people because listen God said I'm faithful he said you said seventy thousand or seven and so I gave you seventy thousand or seven now he wants to see if you're going to be faithful with the words and I said to him if I'm gonna be faithful to what I said to him thank God for mercy and from grace ya got to be humble and in the third way that we're able to overcome pride is to give give a lot of ways to give you can give your time give you time by volunteering you know we have opportunity to here at victory to do all types of mission trips I went to Indonesia last you have been a nicaragua of this upcoming summer we headed to another place internationally and here's the thought many of you have never taken a mission trip because you don't have the time and I get that many of you will give towards someone else to be able to go on a mission trip because you can't go but you know someone else you can help someone else to go and we appreciate you doing that because we need people to fund and give money to people who need to be out on the mission field but let me say this giving money is wonderful you can give money and you can get money back you can lose money and get money back time you never get back I ask you and I challenge you will you consider giving something that you will never get back you go on the mission field you take a short trip you go somewhere and do it yourself so that you can show in a place of humility and a place of breaking pride off of you I am giving something to someone that could never pay me back and I'll never get this time back but I promise you to be worth more than you could ever imagine to be able to do that but that's one way that you can give you can also give your talents you can give your gifts you can give your treasure meaning you can give your ties you can give your offerings one of the things that pastor dentist gave Kristen and I a long time ago these tools to overcome pride by teaching us about this thing of simplicity sincerity and sacrifice simplicity sincerity and sacrifice those things lead to a life of sickness of significance and as I think about those are very simple a simplicity that's just the simple things in life being able to look at things in a simple standpoint story just really quickly my my youngest daughter Samantha we were on a family vacation a little over a week ago and we went to Disneyland and we went up to a water park in all these different places she was real cool to be able to go and see them but when we into the trip and we were like hey we're about to go home so it's like yes yes I'm going home I'm thinking Joe she's more excited about going home than going to Disneyland or going to the water parks and stuff it was a good parent moment because just the simple things of I'm going home to my bed to my toys to my thing it was just simple and that's a beautiful thing to be able to look at things from a simple standpoint as far as sincerity that's basically being genuine being authentic being transparent a sacrifice another way of saying that is a have the idea that we've said this before that when Kristen and I first went into full-time ministry we sold our home we sold our cars we sold everything but the kids and literally I purchased a 1999 black Honda Accord and I felt like it first of all it killed me to drive that car because I was used to driving the big Denali on the big wheels or you know send a big Escalades away and I was used to that and I felt like I felt like my my the car drove determine who I was maybe it's just me but here's the idea your feelings shouldn't determine who you are who you are to determine your feelings and I can remember God had to break pride off me in that Honda because I will be sitting at the stoplight like oh god I hope nobody recognizes car killing me he had me driving that car for years y'all probably about five years I was driving that car and I'm I had this thought in my mind I'll be sitting at the stoplight our Kelly drives up in the phantom looks over oh this is how we do it huh you know I'm like oh not cool not cool [Applause] given the choice to humble yourself or have God humble you Tuesday always Tuesday first Peter chapter 5 verse 6 and 7 says that humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time cast your anxiety on him because he cares for you most definitions say that the opposite of pride is humility I would submit to you today as a church family that the real opposite of pride is trusting in God because trusting in God is at the heart of humility God desires for us to be confident in him not prideful in ourselves and we have a real enemy who's out there and that enemy will use the weapon of offense to cause us to be separated from each other he uses the weapon of pride to separate us from God and in this moment here's what I want us to think about let's examine ourselves let's really take a look at ourselves because if we don't overcome Frye probably will come over us my question is what area are you prideful in you know a better way to ask that question is where are you not trusting God where are you not trusting God as you think about that Holy Spirit starts to work in you and allow to show you those blind spots to show you where you can work to show us all where we can improve and overcome I want to talk to a couple people in the room right now and even some folks that are watching online and it's simply this for some of us pride will say I've done good in business I've done good in my home and my marriage my life is fine I don't really need Jesus maybe you've never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior here's what I want you to you are living in something called a false sense of security and I love you enough to tell you that thinking you can do this life without Christ you are mistaken someone else I believe I'm talking to here today pride says for some of us I really would just like to live my life the way I want to right now and I can come to Jesus later that's probably talking to you I need you to know that thinking you have time I'm telling you time is the thing you can't get back and time away from God is not time well-spent you can have so much more before life thinking that also I'm speaking of somebody today pride will make you think that well pastor what I did last month or last week pastor what I did last night God could never forgive me for what I did that is pride and the enemy coming to try and drive a wedge between you and God to think that anything that you can do would be greater than anything that he can do remember what God says he can do when we try to think about what we think we are now lifting up ourselves we are thinking higher of ourselves than we ought and when we think higher of ourselves than we ought we are allowing God to oppose us and to resist us and I need you to know today please hear me God does not want to oppose you he does not want to resist you he wants to love you he wants to draw you in he wants to forgive you he wants to heal you and that's what we want to talk about today so I'm going to ask everybody in here everybody in the chapel online I'm asking everyone just to bow your head and close your eyes for just a moment this won't take long this is a simple this is a simple thought here with all heads about all-highest clothes I talked to several people right there in that moment those who have never received Jesus before those who may have received Jesus and felt like well I can't come back because I've done too many wrong things this is what I would ask you very simply today as your eyes are closed right now if later you were to call those same eyes and were to wake up on the other side of eternity you didn't wake up here but you woke up on the other side of eternity do you know if you would be waking up to be able to see a God saying to you well done my good and faithful servant welcome home or that you would be waking up apart from God if you cannot answer that question in the affirmative I want you to know God is speaking to you right now not a man not a pastor God is speaking to you right now and he wants to give you an opportunity to come into the fullness of his saving grace the fullness of a life in Christ real living real life and so I'm going to ask you with heads bowed eyes closed if you've never received Jesus before or you have and you've been away from him and you want to come home I'm going to ask you don't be afraid don't be ashamed don't be embarrassed I'm going to ask you if that's you I'm gonna ask you to lift your hand where I can see it I just ask you to lift your hand where I can see it thank you I said go ahead hold it up there I just want to acknowledge it thank you thank you God bless you I see those hands I see it you okay you can put your hands down thank you so much thank you I'm going to tell you God may have been speaking to somebody right there and pride might have said he's not talking to you don't lift your hand I want you to know the devil's a lie and God will still do the work in you but I want you to know that anyone that ever came to receive Jesus or anyone that ever came back we all had to start at this same place and that is recognizing that we are sinners and we need a Savior and Jesus is going to be that for you because that's who he is it's his character it's his nature and so right now we're going to just take this starting point this is a place where we become new wineskin so God can pour in us if you were all together those that want to receive Christ or come back to him right now just repeat after me and just say Jesus I love you I recognize I'm a sinner and I need a Savior I believe you are the son of God you died on a cross for my sin but she rose from the grave for my salvation so I repent of my sin I die to myself so you can live in me I believe you're the Son of God come into my heart drive out the darkness replace it with your love close the distance between us and love me forever I'll serve you all the days of my life and in Jesus name let's just lift our hands right now in this moment for some this is a sign of just exalting God for some lifted hands is a sign of surrender to God for some it's a sign of humility of God breaking chains off of you and whatever your hands are raised for in this moment of allowing Christ to do the work that only he can do in you we just celebrate a God who transforms us and changes us into new creations God we honor you for your time and for speaking into us today and we want to walk this thing out in Jesus name and everybody said amen amen come on let's celebrate those that receive Jesus today super proud of y'all thank you god bless the church [Music] [Applause]

Channel: VictoryATL

Views: 18,163

Rating: 4.8928571 out of 5

Keywords: Overcoming Pride, Overcomer, Montell Jordan, Victory World Church

Id: LryD2_QxTxs

Length: 54min 22sec (3262 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2017