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.