Hey everyone this is Troy, so before you
watch this video I just want you to know that it is not my heart for this video
to place condemnation on you, but instead it's my hope that this video would be
encouraging and then it would build you up in Christ, but with saying that I also
have to say that there may be some things I say in this video that could be
hard to hear and that's okay, they're hard for me to hear sometimes too. I'm
not perfect either but I believe that they're also important for us to hear
too. And what I want to talk about today is pride versus humility. Now I think as
believers sometimes it's easy for us to look at pride and consider it one of the
lesser sins, however I'm under the impression that if we could rank sins it
would actually be one of the worst. And the reason I say this is because if we
look at the first commandment, if you look at Exodus 20, where God says, "You
shall have no other gods before Me." When I look at the first commandment I have
to ask the question; why is this first? Why did God consider it
important enough to list it first? And I think the answer can be found in the
fact that if you miss the first commandment you're gonna miss the rest.
If we look back at before Lucifer was kicked out of heaven, before the devil
was called Satan, his name was Lucifer and he was actually an angel
created by God to dwell in heaven and to worship God along with the other angels.
Now Lucifer, because he was so brilliant and glorious and because he could
look at himself and say, "Wow look at this amazing creature God has created," he
suddenly began to develop pride in his heart and he began to exalt himself over
God and eventually that got him kicked out of heaven. And I believe that this
issue of pride is directly connected to the first commandment because that first
rebellious act against God was directly connected to this issue of pride. When
Lucifer started to exalt himself above God he was essentially saying, "God, I know
better, in fact, I am better." And I believe the
same thing happens in our hearts. When we walk around with the spirit of
pride, we're essentially saying, "God, I know better." But I love how Jesus takes
some of these Old Testament Commandments and He puts a positive spin on them in
the New Testament. He restates them in a positive light,
for instance the first commandment out of the Ten
Commandments in Exodus 20 is, "You shall have no other gods before Me," but Jesus
says the greatest commandment is, "You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Now why is He able to do
this? Why is He able to take a commandment and put a positive spin on it? The reason
is because Jesus is looking at the law through the lens of grace. The Old
Testament law says obey the commandments or else.
Jesus says because you have received grace, therefore, obey God. The law says
because you are bound by the law, "You shall have no other gods before Me," but
Jesus says because you have freedom in Christ, love God with all your heart. And
then He says the second commandment is like it -- He says you shall love your
neighbor as yourself. Now the law says don't steal from people, don't murder
people, don't lie to people, but Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself.
It's the same principle behind it, but Jesus is giving it to us in a better
perspective. So how does this relate to pride? Because I'm talking about pride
versus humility today. Jesus takes the emphasis off the letter of the law and
He places the emphasis on the spirit of the law. He takes the emphasis off of
checking the boxes and making sure you're doing everything right to please
God, and He puts the emphasis on allowing God to transform your heart. So here's
where pride and humility come into the picture. Humility -- it's not just a box we
can check off in what we're outwardly doing. Pride and humility are both found
in the heart -- it's a change that has to happen on the inside and that's why when
you look at the first commandment, the first commandment has a principle of
priority, placing God first before anything else in your life. The only way
we're able to do that, is if we're walking in humility in our hearts
because we're only able to put God first if we're able to say, "God, you know what's
best. I don't." And then when we do that when we are walking in humility
and we're able to accept what God has put in His Word then God
begins to work on those other areas of our life as well, but it starts with us
being willing to admit "God, you know better.
I'm not as wise as You are, I'm not as good as You are. I'm desperately in need
of Your grace." And once we get to that point then we're able to accept the
truths of God's Word that the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us. But some of
us still haven't gotten it even though some of us are going to church every
week and hearing about grace we're still not willing to let go of the law of our
own efforts to try to please God. Why? Because we're willing to listen to a
pastor for half an hour a week, but we're not willing to listen to the Holy Spirit.
And God's Spirit is even drawing us unto Him, but if we're not willing to walk in
a state of humility, we're not going to be able to hear Him. If we're not able to
look at God's Word through a lens of humility then we're gonna do one of two
things; we're either going to reject it entirely, which is what a lot of people
do, or we're gonna grab onto the law aspect of it, the action, "What can I
do to please God" aspect of it and we're gonna try to make it work in our own
strength, because that's what pride does it says, "God, I'm looking at this but I
know better still and so I'm gonna interpret it the way I want to interpret
it, and I'm gonna try to do my very best." That's the difference it's "my best"
versus what God did. He sent His best for us, and Romans 8:9B even says, "But if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." And
this means that no matter how often we go to church no matter how many things
were doing for God, if we're not willing to listen to the Spirit of God -- to His
wisdom, to His truth -- then no matter how good we think we're doing, we're missing
Christ. But Romans 8:3-4 says something amazing. It says, "For what
the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned
sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be
fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit." Have you ever heard of the phrase "grace versus works," "spirit versus
flesh," that's what this verse is talking about if we're never willing to let go
of our pride, then we're constantly going to be listening to that lie that says, "I
can do this myself. I can figure this out," But the truth is that none of us apart
from Christ can do it. Apart from Jesus none of us can save ourselves no matter
how hard we try. Now you're not going to find this conversation in Scripture so
don't go looking for it, but I could see a conversation like this taking place in
heaven -- I could see God looking down at the sinful state of the world and saying,
"They're not gonna make it. They're trying hard but no one has been good enough,
and no one is going to be good enough to meet that perfect standard and receive
the eternal life that I have in store for them. They're not gonna make it." And
then I could see Jesus looking up at the Father and saying, "I could make it. I could
make it for them." When we approach God in a spirit of humility, we're then able to
fully receive the love of God that Jesus showed us on the cross. And you may have
received it at one point. You may already be saved today. But you may also have let
some pride begin to sneak its way back in. None of us are perfect, and we all do
this at some point. If you've allowed pride to sneak its way back in and to
convince you that you need to be doing this on your own strength, and that you
can do it on your own strength, I just encourage you, lay that down at the feet
of Jesus today. When we turn from that pride and we
repent and we lay it down at His feet, when we take up a spirit of humility God
reminds us that even if we've made mistakes, even if we've held on to pride
or we've held held on to other things, His love has already covered that. If
you're a believer in Jesus today you are already fully covered. Walk in
that freedom today. Here's what happens when you are walking in the freedom that
Christ provides. 1 John 5:3 says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." When we're walking around
in a spirit of pride trying to do it all in our own strength all of God's
commandments, everything in His Word, is a burden to us. But when we accept the
grace of God in a spirit of humility then obeying God is no longer a burden,
because when Christ lives in us by grace -- through faith -- that's when He is the one
accomplishing the good work in us and through us. Hey everyone, this is Troy. I really hope
you enjoyed this video today. I really enjoyed creating it for you. If you
haven't checked out my patreon page go to patreon.com/troyblack. This is a place where you can support me financially, monthly. The reason I am asking for support is because I'm trying to be doing this
year and step out in faith and I'm believing that God is calling me to
start doing this YouTube channel and to start writing part-time. And that's a
huge step for me I'm not exactly sure how it's going to work out yet but I am
believing that God is going to provide and I'm gonna continue making these
videos no matter what, for you, because I know it's what God has called me to do.
So I hope you'll go check it out and I hope you'll share this video with
someone who needs it. I love you and I'll see you next time.
