03-29-24 Pride and Humility - Roy Daniel

The speaker begins by talking about the hymns they were singing and the stories behind them. They mention the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and how many people don't know that it comes from the book of Lamentations. They also mention the hymn "I Have One Deep Supreme Desire" and how it was written by Chris Holm. The speaker reflects on their own father and how they hope their children will follow Jesus because of their example. They discuss the concept of pride and how it can hinder our relationship with God. They read a verse from Ezekiel about Satan's fall and talk about how pride led to his downfall. They then mention how Satan used the same tactic of pride to deceive Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The speaker emphasizes the importance of humility and being grateful for what God has given us. Good evening. How many of you have heard me preach before? How many of you have not heard me preach before? Wow, it almost looks like there's less that have not heard me. That's terrible. Okay. If I say anything wrong, theologically, it's my accent. It's not really what I said. And I... Sorry, I'm just going to get this. I was thinking as we were singing the hymns that there were so many of them that had such beautiful stories, and many of you will know the stories behind the hymns. I mean, what a friend we have in Jesus. I'm not going to go into it. You know the story. Two wives that he lost, both of them died. He eventually drowned himself. An amazing man. A lot of people, half of Christianity that I've spoken to that have actually asked the question when it comes to greater is thy faithfulness, they don't know that that verse comes from Lamentations. And in the middle of a book that's very dreary and down, you have this wonderful verse, greater is thy faithfulness. And a lot of people don't know that Chris Holm, I hope you pronounce his name, Obadiah Chris Holm, he actually wrote many hymns. And one of them is in the hymn book there, Ode to Thee Like Thee. And there's another one that's a little less known. I looked it up. I know the song. I just forget occasionally some of the words. But it's very precious to me because my father used to sing it to me. And someone who knew Richard Wurmbrand from Romania, he walked up to me after a sermon and he said, your sermon is very bad. He said, you speak too much about your father. He said, I know that Richard Wurmbrand's son almost never speaks of his father. And I said, well, that's not exactly true. You might have heard certain sermons. I've heard others. But when it comes to that, I find it hard when a person is a Jew and thinks they're saved because their father is saved. I say God doesn't have grandchildren. And I agree with John the Baptist. God can make children of Abraham from the stones. But on the other hand, I really find it precious when I meet a little child and they love Jesus because they're saved, but also love Jesus because their father loved Jesus. That's one of the reasons. And I long for that for my kids. I'm not as good as my dad with that. But I long for my kids to see something in me that will make them want to follow Jesus. Not just because of what I've said, but because of who I love. And one thing I can say about my dad, he spanked me good. And I hope that's not an accident. That's true. He spanked me. And my dad used to sing to me. And one song he used to sing to me, also by the guy who wrote Great is Thy Faithfulness, is I Have One Deep Supreme Desire. How many of you knew that the guy Chris Ohm wrote I Have One Deep Supreme Desire? Okay, I have a problem. I sing terribly. You're going to rebuke me later in the sermon because I'll be rebuking myself for saying that. But it's true. There was an old lady in South Africa and she hobbled to the front. And I sang in a church. Now that was terrible. And I sang at nursing homes and all the old people loved me and I thought I must be a good singer. And I sang in a church and this old lady hobbled to the front and she said, Somebody's got to tell you, never ever sing in public ever again. But I see, maybe it's because I don't have glasses on, but this is a little bit like a nursing home. So I'm hoping it works out. I'm going to try sing the song. Just thinking about it recently. Also by the guy who wrote Great is Thy Faithfulness. Wonderful, wonderful song. And it goes like this. I have one deep supreme desire that I may be like Jesus. To this I fervently aspire that I may be like Jesus. I want my heart his throne to be so that a watching world may see his likeness shining forth in me. I want to be like Jesus. He spent his life in doing good. I want to be like Jesus in lowly paths of service trod. I want to be like Jesus. He sympathized with hearts distressed. He spoke the words that cheered and blessed. He welcomed sinners to his breast. I want to be like Jesus. And I'm going to go to the last verse. Oh perfect life of Christ my Lord. I want to be like Jesus. My recompense and my reward that I may be like Jesus. His spirit fill my hungering soul. His power all of my life control. My deepest prayer, my highest goal that I may be like Jesus. And that isn't. You are like the nursing home. But I just want to hope that that is our prayer and that's our children's prayer. Every one of us. So we're going to look today at a topic I've spoken on at different places before through the years but it's it's something that's very deep in my heart. It's the center of what Christianity is and we talk about the persecuted church and we talk about we talk about the overcoming life or there's something that will keep us from that and not necessarily from being persecuted but from what God wants to work in our lives through the hard times and from what God wants to do in our life as far as a deeper more abundant life. Jesus Christ came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundant and there's one little thing we're born with that will keep us from that even when we know the truth. You might hear messages this weekend and the Holy Spirit might start to work in your life and might want to do something for you and you'll be kept back by this thing that you were born with that all of us are born with and it's called pride. I'd like to look at this today and I'd like us to open up our Bibles to Ezekiel 28 verse 17. I will pray I am not backslidden to that degree but let's just open up our Bibles to Ezekiel 28 verse 17 and we're going to read there of Satan. In Ezekiel 28 verse 17 it's a phenomenal verse. A lot of people ask the question how did Satan fall and we don't actually know the answer. We don't know that every little detail of how Satan fell. It's amazing that a person who was created perfectly could fall but we get a glimpse here in Ezekiel 28 and I'm going to read this verse 17 and then we're going to pray. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. Let's pray. Father I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart that we can gather together in this hall and our longing and I remember as a little child how many times as an unsaved little boy I would sit in a meeting and I would realize that behind that preacher as the old people would pray through the nights before the preaching came father behind that preacher was not just a little man that was standing there. God Almighty was behind the Word of God and I realized even as an unsaved child that you were real and that your Word was real and that you created the world by your Word and sustained the world by your Word and one day would judge the world by thy Word and I realized that I had to do with God Almighty and father I long for young people and old people and middle-aged people to realize that the Word of God is not just thousands and thousands of words but that the very God in whom I have in whom his hand our breath is as Daniel says that that God is speaking to us today oh that thou wouldest render heavens that thou wouldest come down that the mountains might melt at thy presence we long for thy presence we ask for thy presence we pray for this camp lord it would be a waste if Jesus is not here when we think he's here and thy working is not in power and so we just ask thee to be merciful to us we don't deserve this but we come in the name of Jesus and as thy children those of us who saved and we ask you to work in Jesus Christ's name amen so here in in the 28th chapter of the book of Ezekiel we get something of a glimpse of how Satan fell he's called the anointed cherub that covers and he was uh full of wisdom and he was beautiful and he was uh had beautiful pipes that played musical instruments he was a very musical being he was in the garden of eden and this this being satan uh we read that there came a day that his heart was lifted up because of his beauty and this is one of the most terrifying verses in scripture because in essence it's very dangerous to look away from God too long and start looking at yourselves even if God made you because as he looked at himself we don't know exactly how this happened but he looked at himself and he looked at his beauty and how wonderful the being was that God had created and he started to think a seed of pride was sown in his heart and he started to think i deserve something more than God has given me and he wanted to be like God we read in Isaiah Isaiah 14 verse 14 i will ascend above the heights of the clouds i will be like the most high and yes satan instead of being grateful instead of being grateful for what God made him he looked at himself and he became proud and then we have the origin of pride the very first time anyone was proud it was satan and we're going to look at pride today and we look at the heart of a servant so we have the origin of pride and it went on uh satan came and we can look and you've got many sermons that you've listened to on genesis chapter three and how man came to fall uh but in essence satan came with the same tricks that he uh fell for himself and he basically tried to convince man that he deserved more that God was withholding things from him and he said these words in genesis 3 verse 5 for God doth know that in the day eat thereof the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil and yes God has given you all these things he wasn't even saying that but ultimately uh God is withholding things from you and you deserve more that's the seed of pride you deserve to be like God and and you can be like a God and all you have to do is eat of that tree and we know the story Eve did and Adam did and that is the origin of pride satan looked at himself became proud for and rebelled against God and in the case of man he felt like he deserved more but then we have the continuance of pride i hope that's not a too big a word for americans especially in the nursing home uh like over here but the continuance of pride is definitely something that happened it didn't stop after satan fell and stopped after Adam ate of the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we read in Luke chapter 22 and I've wept many times when I've read this passage because it is just so terrible that they could have such an attitude the apostles of Jesus Christ at the Lord's table when Jesus Christ told them that someone would betray them they first began to inquire among themselves which of them should do this thing who's going to betray us and then there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest and this wasn't the only time they had a few times we read uh there in in Matthew 13 32 Mark Mark 9 34 Luke 9 36 there's more than one time it wasn't only at the Lord's table that they fought over who was the greatest but at the Lord's table they first said who's the worst who's going to do this who's going to betray him and straight afterwards they were like and who's the greatest sounds like some politicians that I know in America that some Christians very much like Andrew Murray said something I don't know how many of you know Andrew Murray he was a he was a man a human being but he he was an amazing guy and Andrew Murray said pride is so strong in the heart of man that even after salvation the disciples fought over who was the greatest pride is so strong in the heart of man that even after salvation uh the disciples fought over who was the greatest so first of all we have the origin of pride there was satan fell he looked at himself he became proud he thought he should be like God man thought he should be like God and and and basically uh fall into pride too and there's the continuance of pride even after salvation it's not going to be that way in heaven Philippians 3 21 etc we're going to have a new heart new body new everything and we're not going to have pride up there but but even after salvation pride is so strong that of us are proud and the apostles were pride when Jesus said he was about to die but then furthermore we not only have the origin of pride and the the continuance of pride we have the trivialization of pride and this is a very sad thing in churches now I I'm not as as as famous as some people sitting here but I have preached in probably thousands of churches and in many many countries across the world and and I I very rarely do hear people speak about pride except when they don't like somebody and they say that person is prideful um but when someone commits adultery or they lie or they steal then people talk and you see there's a stigma about something that you can see when you catch your husband in pornography when someone is caught and eventually they have a baby that comes out of adultery everybody can see it and it's wrong but you can sit for years now there are pharisees in the bible that would walk and they'd have these trumpets blown before them it seems like it and long robes and and and that type of prideful person it's pretty easy to see that they're proud some politicians are like that but it's so easy to sit in the church to go to camp after camp to hear good messages to sing hymns and you have pride in your heart and nobody knows and I know many people that there came a point where they were convicted of this and that's when we found out but some people think pride is a small thing it's something you can hide away and yet it is the thing that led to satan's fall and it is the thing that led to mankind's fall among other things like ingratitude and justification now when I was at school believe it or not I went to school um I went to public school and I was a pharisee now I wasn't a pharisee with a long robe but I considered myself a good christian and I remember going to school about a thousand kids almost everybody else got drunk every weekend it's very much like an American some of the American public schools and they slept around and they came and they told me on Monday how they threw up and they told me how they did evil things and they really one of the greatest joys was if they could get me drunk they really wanted to get me drunk one day because they were bored of seeing themselves drunk every weekend and I remember being at school and and and these kids started a christian union seer is fear we call it in Dutch and in positive time we would join this christian group and so I decided to join them I mean they were again doing sin getting drunk you name it and they came around and they talked about the bible and I sat there as a little teenager I was unsaved but I was religious I was not like them and I sat in this in this group of people and they would talk about amazing things like speaking in tongues and a whole lot of different things like that but they were dead on their way to hell and I remember sitting there and I decided to put my hand up I was a little 13 14 year old and all these big strapping muscular people with muscles on their eyebrows were sitting around there all the football players and and I said can I say something and they all looked at me and I said doesn't the bible say that we should be humble and I don't know why I said that but I just remember the reaction till this day almost every single person their faces went red they started breathing heavy they were laughing they were thinking it was the biggest joke I remember one guy looked at me one of the leaders and he said you know young young guy he says you know that's going a bit too far I'm sure the bible says a lot of stuff that I haven't read but I'm sure it doesn't say we have to be humble especially with their football I mean and they thought that humility was a joke and that was the christian group at that school of over a thousand kids now what's interesting when it comes to pride and a lot of people don't even realize this is it was easier for jesus to deal with a demon-possessed person than it was to deal with a proud pharisee I want to repeat that it was easier for jesus to deal with a demon-possessed person than it was to deal with a prideful pharisee um when a demon-possessed person came there it's wonderful to see when a demon-possessed child gets set free for instance and the glossy eyes go away and in one moment jesus set them free praise god for that uh but but jesus just said get out of it and the demon had to leave or in the apostles case they had to fast and pray and then uh lord the lord worked but when it came to the proud that was not the pride that was in the heart of a pharisee jesus couldn't cast out the pride the part for me a generation of vipers it was easier for jesus to deal with the demon-possessed person than to deal with the prideful pharisee and yet christians think it's a small thing christians think it's a small thing now in king saul's life i've cried over this too at different times in my life so often a false star saul in the old testament he started with some humility i don't really understand this but he was a servant when his father said in 1 samuel 9 verse 3 um that that his father's um donkeys were lost and uh saul said to his son take now uh sorry and kissed said to saul his son take now one of the servants with the horizon go seek the donkeys i'm translating there a little bit uh ultimately speaking he went hundreds of miles looking i don't know exactly how far looking for these donkeys for his father he was basically a servant to his father and we read when they wanted to make him king in 1 samuel 10 verse 22 he hid himself in this stuff in fact the prophet samuel had to say go look for him he wasn't like yes hey i deserve to be king there was no greater businessman that ever existed and oh yes thank you i'm the one i'm god's gift as a king to israel um he hid himself away and you know this is the verse that makes me cry is this person who was little in his own eyes 1 samuel 15 verse 17 samuel said when thou was little in thine own sight why still not made the head of the tribes of israel and the lord anointed the king of israel when you were small in your own eyes and so many christians i've seen it there was a time in their life where they were small there was a time in their life when god was great and there was a time in their heart and from their heart they didn't deserve anything and everything and everything was a gift from god and yet that time for some reason is far behind and they have pride in their life so first of all we have the origin of pride satan and mankind we have the continuance of pride even in the life of the disciples we have the tribalization of pride even though it's easier to deal with a demon-possessed person uh the more exciting story than it is to deal with a prideful pharisee and then we have the effects of pride jeremiah 13 verse 16 i remember as a young christian this verse just hit me give glory to the lord your god before he caused darkness give glory to the lord your god before he caused darkness now there are many mega preachers your joel allstings etc who week after week take the glory away from god with 10 000 people in their congregation and they preach utter rubbish just to put it just to put it simply um but ultimately speaking these people uh do not get uh their ministry carries on but you know i've so often seen the people who were used of god god gave them something of the truth god gave them something of of the true presence of god and and god worked in people's lives to them that when they become proud there comes a point where god withdraws himself and their ministry often is destroyed uh it's not a rule but it's so often there was a guy who was considered in the 1800s you know with the different great awakenings in america there were also some great awakenings in wales and different countries and this guy went around wales and he was considered at that stage the greatest preacher in wales for some reason and and as he was preaching in place to place at one time god came in such a way that you could drop a pin basically and and little children were listening and and they knew that god was there and and many souls were radically saved there was drunkards who truly were saved and years later they were still saved and religious people who who met with god through jesus christ and they were truly saved and the fruit of one john was in their lives but there suddenly came a time that he went to and it was gone now i don't like saying we have to feel the presence of god because charles spurgeon stood up from in the pulpit he felt absolutely nothing many times and god came and worked in people's lives but he felt nothing so we must often not it's very dangerous to go on our feelings as to whether god is there or not but it was so obvious in that meeting that god was not there and he wondered what happened it was so obvious that they came together and asked the question what has happened it's the revival has stopped and he walked out the door and he looked up and he saw a sign that mentioned his name and then said these words let's just say his name was john adams is definitely not that's the president of america john adams the greatest preacher in wales come here john adams the greatest preacher in wales and um he said that's the problem take that sign down and they took that sign down in the very next meeting in the same time god is back and it was obvious you know r.a tory uh was a wonderfully used to god deal me his right hand man in the 1800s early 1900s but he met a preacher that seemed to be greatly used to god and they used to preach together and that preacher one day came to tory and said tory you know we we're pretty big aren't we and tory wept he said that person i was so afraid for what god would do and that person's ministry was destroyed uh on a slightly more humorous note uh there was a druggie who got saved he went to bible college he worked with me as a missionary evangelist in south africa and i remember when he was at bible college before he worked with me uh as we used to go around preaching i walked up to him and i said to him listen one day you are going to be a great preacher and his eyes you know the young young preachers they want to know that someone sees that in them and he was like seriously i'm going to be a great preacher i said yes you carry on eating and you carry on preaching and one day you're going to be a great preacher now for some reason he didn't enjoy the joke i thought it was brilliant amazing yeah and for those of you don't catch it my dad if you happen to know my dad he said to me roy your jokes are not sinful but at least they're not sorry they're not they're not funny but at least they're not sinful my dad was very encouraging at times but when it comes to the consequences of pride we think of basic ministry loss and many other things that god can do to us but many times pride has eternal consequences and i shudder to think what i could have my life because of pride i i one of the stories i've told it's a true story and it's not the story only true to me it's the many christians i may have the same stories i i used to be thin now that's not the story of many christians most christians are not thin for some reason in america but i used to be thin and i remember going to swim in the sea and we'd go to the the parts where there was very few people because then you have less immodesty i don't know if you've noticed at the beaches but uh the people are very poor they can't afford clothing and so i go to places where there were less people and i was with one fat boy a dutch person and and i was a thin guy when i swam if i stopped swimming i just sunk like not now i sunk like a like a like a sinker to the ground and i always used to envy the fat people because when they swam i mean they just they floated it was amazing up and down and me i would go down immediately if i stopped swimming and so i was with this guy but there was a strong sea current and i was swimming for about 15 minutes without touching the ground i started getting weaker long story short i realized i've got to get out else i'm going to drown and i'm going to die and suddenly this ugly thing came in front of me something that i was born with something that every single one of you are born with my pride and my pride said to me roy you're not going to call out for help to the one fat person next to you because he might think that you're not a strong swimmer and i realized i was going to die and i could not ask for help from the one person next to me who possibly could help me and the more i swam the more i stood in one place and eventually i called out for help but before that i realized i go to church and in church and camps they talk about me as this wonderful christian and they say what an influence i have on other people and i can answer all the little questions that they ask about the bible and the bible books and the bible characters but yeah i'm in this ocean and i'm about to die and i have no idea where i'm going and i had rivets of fear going up and down my side as fine as i realized that if i die right now i'm going to be forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and the flames of hell for eternity and eventually my fear became greater than my pride and i called out and i it was quite a funny situation i held on to his pants and and he kicked like he can't believe and eventually just just he got me out of that water now i remember many times i would sit in meetings like this i would go to camp conferences i would sit in the preaching and the preacher would preach and i'd come under conviction and i would realize that i did not have the fruit the bible talks of and that compared to god i deserved hell for eternity and and and i wanted to seek help but this ugly face came up before me it was pride and i wondered what would other people think about me and i didn't want to go to the front and you know it was amazing to me i met quite a few people but one person in particular he was an amazing preacher he's now a pastor of a church of probably several hundred people there in africa and back in the day when he was unsaved he almost drowned and he said to me the same thing happened i didn't want to call out for help because i was afraid what they would think i would rather go to hell than call out for help call out for help oh pride can have eternal consequences i don't know if you realize that if i died there today then you would be in this conference and i would right now be longing for a drop of water i would right now be be longing for another chance i would long to be in a conference like this so that i could hear a message again and that i could come under conviction and i could say to god i'm going to swallow my pride like you swallow a glass of water and i'm going to seek him and i remember that day about 22 years back cape town south africa i was in my room reading the book of romans and i came under conviction and my pride came up and i realized i'm a sinner i preached and people wept i i fasted i organized prayer meetings through the night everybody thought i was wonderful and i came to this realization the holy spirit worked and said you a sinner and i said i can't be a sinner i'm the one who preaches i'm the one they say is wonderful and this ugly face came up before me of pride and it didn't want me to get saved and remember the moment i swallowed my pride like a glass of water for the first time i stood before god with nothing but my sin and the answer was so easy it was jesus and in one moment i got saved and the bible was a new book to me and the fruit of one john was there i was not perfect i was pretty pathetic in many ways i still couldn't swim very well but i'll tell you that it's life and death the difference between knowing jesus and just being religious and with a prayer that you said when you were a kid my mother got saved when she was six years old truly saved i prayed many times for the wrong reason but there came a day when i swallowed my pride do you know that if you know the truth and the only thing that keeps you from grace is your pride many people are ignorant of the truth but if you know the truth the only thing that keeps you from grace is your pride james 4 verse 6 but he giveth more grace wherefore he saith god resisteth the proud but he giveth grace to the humble excuse me it was quite funny once one television station in south africa they decided for some very weird reason they wanted to record me and so they flew people from across the country with video cameras and it was hilarious i got so sick the night before and when i came there i needed to blow my nose i'm going down a rabbit hole and i went to the bathroom and i got rolls and rolls and rolls just in case and i put it in my pocket and and and with all these television video cameras on me for all these multiple angles i i really needed to blow my nose and i started taking it out but it never ended and it was like three minutes and everyone was looking at me all these different churches that came together and i was like oh no and their heads were down as well but that's a side track and the lord loved humbling me oh he did and i appreciate it um but in the bible we have some very obvious examples of where god comes down in pride and shows something of the heart of god against this terrible sin this great sin that we hide in our acts 12 is 21 we know of this herod arrayed in royal peril said it sat upon his throne and made an oration unto them this is acts 12 21 and the people gave a shout saying it is the voice of a god and not a man and immediately the angel of the lord smote him because he gave not god the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost i remember many times reading that and thinking wow pride is an evil thing but in the old testament we have a similar example daniel 4 verse 30 to 33 i'm not going to read the whole thing but yes king nebuchadnezzar and he says these words it's not this great babylon that i have built for the house of the kingdom of the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty and while the word was in the king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven saying oh king nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee that shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be of the beast of the feed that shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall pass over there until thou know that the most high rulers in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will he became a beast for seven years his son was actually reminded of this when he died you know what happened to your dad and yet you were proud i'm summarizing tonight you're going to die set the fingers on the wall you have no excuse because you saw what god did to your dad when you have more light you have less excuse god was merciful merciful in not killing nebuchadnezzar immediately for his pride those seven years were seven years of god's mercy when i was a bible college uh 20 years back in uh south africa where my dad was a lecturer i remember there was a young guy there became a wonderful missionary preacher but this young guy at that stage he was such a servant and it seemed so genuine i mean he would be there for others he would be there for people beneath him he always had time for others he would listen with respect trying to learn from others and he would serve them and then there came a sad day i'll never forget it literally overnight he changed after months and months of being this way he became proud for he didn't listen to anybody's advice he wasn't there for others he literally would in every way be proud for towards others he lost his servant heart and i was broken as a young christian i was broken i went to my room and i prayed and i said to god god what has happened to this man how can he change so fast and i i don't like leadings too much god has a sense of humor he leads me many times because even when i don't like it but i remember something just impressing upon my heart it was as if god was saying to me a simple thing go ask him if for the first time in his life he has read through the bible once go ask him and for the first time in his life he's finished reading through the entire bible i thought that's a weird question i got up from my knees i went to his door i knocked on it he was a bit rude literally and i walked up to him and i said brother have you for the first time in your life finished reading through the bible in completion he looked at me in shock said how on earth did you know that how on earth did you know that and i spoke to him further and it turned out that he had become proud because for the first time he'd finished reading the bible you know as a christian you can get proud about anything anything you can get proud about your family your little children you can get proud about your ministry you can get proud about the fact that you have revival you can get proud about the fact that you're persecuted i i remember conferences and different guys one guy and i know many like this unfortunately i'm uh i'm not going to mention any names because you might actually know some of these people through slight connections uh but some people have been in jail for many years old guys under the soviet union they would take over entire conferences they would stand up and be given 20 minutes and there was no preacher after them and everybody makes mistakes i'm sure brother randy has over preached i have over preached sometimes i sometimes gone over my time in fact there was one guy stood up at a conference of 400 people and he said i almost had a heart attack and everybody looked at him and he said because roy kept to his time but this particular guy stood up and preached for over an hour when he was given 20 minutes before someone else and he said i don't care what you guys think i was persecuted for christ therefore i have the right to take over this conference and he'd been in jail many years i met many people like that you can be proud about anything yeah when i was at at bible college i like i was just at a church in tennessee long story short the pastor was telling his son life isn't fair if your sister gets something you don't get and i decided life's not fair i'd rather like that for some reason and uh the son was like i deserve to get what other people get and uh i've experienced that many times in life you think you have the right to get angry when other people get something you don't get and i other students were more like liked by the lecturers and they got more time off on their birthday and my birthday came along and i was only given about two hours off on that particular day and i went out and i was a bit late by mistake i was about half an hour late and they phoned me the students they told me that lecturer gave it to the other students said i was in trouble and the more i heard of how i was in trouble i got angry and i got prideful now i want to backtrack just slightly that lecturer's son was in the world and that lecturer's son did not love jesus and me and my friend that went out on this birthday excavation or anyone called not excavation that sounds terrible um going out we had tried to reach out to him to have coffee with him to take him out and he started to open up to us and and and when i went out and we heard that he was angry and i started to get angry and i said i'm going to give it to this lecturer and my friend said we're going to give it to this lecturer 20 years back and i i i drove back to the college and i walked up to him and i just shouted at that lecturer i told him you're ridiculous how you're just not fair you give more time to others and you angry at us and you've got favoritism and all these things and that lecturer just looked at me and he went home and he wept because he loved me sorry that young man that young man said to us he said you know for the first time in my life in my entire life i started to open my heart to a christian for the first time i thought i'm going to listen to these guys for the first time i thought these people are real he said i started to open my heart to christianity and he said but after what you did to my parents to my dad specifically never again will i seek jesus i've led many people to the lord but i'm ashamed to say that my pride might be the reason someone hell one day it has eternal consequences you know in south africa we have a church of thousands of churches i'm not going to mention which denomination they're in america too and um this one guy's we call him because he used to be a gang member and and he used to have a very good left he was definitely not armistice he was not had right he was not non-resistant he used to smack people in the face before he got saved oh lefty and he was quite amazing but he said to me that in their church they had district superintendents across the country and they were in charge of several hundred churches each and long story short he said when you phone those district superintendents they always had time for us they always had time for us he said but one day they decided to call themselves bishops he said across that country almost every person they were not different people they were the same people who used to be district superintendents after they called themselves bishops he said i used to phone of them and they said i don't have time for you the bible is not joking when it says in matthew 23 verse 8 and 9 be not called be not he called rabbi for one is your master even christ and you are brethren and call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father which is in heaven and they were cruel and they were horrible and and the change was in their case now i've met many people they get a title and they're still humble some other keep it but so many people it just takes a title some people are just reading through the bible one sometimes it's just a little success in the mission field some people the fact that they were persecuted and they become proud now i'd like to get a little practical what humility is not there's such a thing as false humility i mean put up your hand you're very clever americans how many of you know that there's such a thing as false humility i'm not going to ask you to be kind of proud to say i had false humility in front of everybody but it's the truth now you have to realize that that humility is the opposite of everything good humility is the opposite of faith sorry pride is the opposite of everything good pride is the opposite of faith pride is the opposite of obedience pride is the opposite of love pride is the opposite of gratitude pride is the opposite of opposite of contentment uh pride looks itself faith looks to god pride thinks you're big enough to choose what you obey humility says i'm small god's big i surrender i obey um pride is selfish love gives although sometimes it takes when there's something dangerous in somebody's hands uh pride it says i'm i'm god is small but um we magnify the lord with thanksgiving and when we are small and he is big and then we start thanking god for the little things because we realize that everything is a gift everything good in the bible is the opposite of pride but there's such a thing as false humility now i'm going to use me as some of you have met glenn base how many of you have met glenn base okay uh if you know if you've met him and uh glenn and me were very weird when we were at bible college long story short we really wanted revival we longed for revival and we were proud and i don't know how the lord used us in between the pride we had a little bit of humility but um we believed that we believed that god would give revival to the person who was the humblest and so we wanted to be the humblest and so our way of being humble humble there was a few ways we expressed it but one of them and this is very very humble we would go to the front and there would be a line of students waiting to go into the eating hole when the bell rang and we'd stand at the front and very humbly we'd make sure so that we could have revival that everybody would know that we're the last person in so we said you go first you go first you go first now i was very worried he would have revival and he was very worried i would have revival so eventually everybody was in except for us and i was convinced that if he went in first i would have revival and so we we um we um went on like this and eventually i felt slightly more humble whatever and i went in first and i got cross because it went on for about a week that he went and lost and i was so dead scared he would get revival and i must also know he he's the number he was the number two wrestler in south africa for his age group under 20 at that stage and he was muscles all over he could do those finger handstand push-ups and finger push-ups and i was a thin old guy and i remember one day i decided i want to have revival and i was not going to be the last guy goes in and so we smiled at each other very humbly and said you go in first and he said you go in first but the more that we smiled the more the smiles changed it was like you go in first and it's like no you go in first and i don't know how this happened but we started to wrestle and it was pretty serious and i don't know how i did this the number two wrestler out of 55 million people in south africa i i took him and i pinned him against the wall and i was like that's my greatest achievement as a non-armish but at that moment i realized this is not humility and the next day we were just walking in normally you know if i were to stand up here and i don't know how many of you have heard of usain bolt i'm never pronouncing it right the fastest man in the world at a time if i was a sand bolt and i would have stand up here and say you know guys just to be humble i'm the slowest guy that ever lived that's not humility that's a lie now you should tell the truth and give the glory to god and sometimes you should keep quiet about it but i like what warren wilsby said i hope i'm pronouncing his name right to speak of yourself as more than you are is pride but to speak of yourself as less than you are is a lie if you happen to be good now that's the rebuke for singing i'm a bad singer but i'm just saying you shouldn't say that okay so i've heard though people do this but you know what really comes out is in prayer meetings i i remember at bible college there was one guy he called me into his room and he said roy come with me and i sat down and he said we're gonna i said okay and i was a young christian he said oh god i said this is wonderful oh god i am the most terrible sinner that ever lived okay is that i have done so many sins i'm ugly i'm a terrible preacher i'm a terrible street witness i'm a terrible i'm the worst at giving out tracks and he went through all this list and he was so emotional and afterwards i got into this and i was like oh god i am the most terrible looking person ever and i'm bad at speaking i'm a bad i went through everything i could possibly be bad at and it just felt good but i didn't realize it was false humility in many prayer meetings you have this people degenerate themselves and even lie about themselves and they think it's humility it's false humility often there's a false motive i'm going to skip one of the illustrations is extremely funny but we don't have time uh but i was mentioning to mr witty um is that how you pronounce his name um mr witt he uh basically there was a and i've seen this so often it's like we were told on our mission that when you go around from house to house you have to wash the dishes and so i would come from house to house and we'd wash the dishes but my one friend he was in pornography at the time i didn't know it he was definitely not right with god and he loved to wash the dishes and he would with a smiling face wash all the dishes and i would look at him and i said can i help and he's saying no and eventually i got a little worried maybe i wouldn't get revival or something i don't know and i said um can i wash the dishes he said no you don't with a big smiling face and eventually at one house i walked up and says can i wash the dishes he said no and i said i'm gonna help you and he shouted at me he said you do not wash these dishes and i went back and said no he came to me later with tears he said roy every house i've been washing the dishes it's because i want them to see me i would never have known he was such a smiling face christian so bubbling i never knew the sin he was in which he made right with god later i've met many people they will only serve those above them in ministry and there's nothing wrong with serving those above you but if that's the only people you serve there's a big problem your motive is wrong they'll serve preachers that will give them doors to preach they'll serve people who will financially help them only now i get to the last section basically but jesus our example with a little bit of practicality i think i've got about five ten minutes at most if it's the time that he said i'm alive um jesus our example now just very quickly yeah um jesus was called in zachariah 9 9 matthew 11 29 he was meek and uh that means that some people say it's power and control a bit which takes humility but i just like to look at one little thing of jesus christ and john chapter 13 we have jesus washing feet now i love it when people do foot washing some people don't i hate it when people do holy kisses the first time i came to america this one amish type man and i taught something with this big beard and slobby mouth came towards me and i didn't know what was happening just came nearer and nearer and the slop was going down he said oh brother and he kissed me and it was like hair everywhere and i don't know how to explain it but he told me it was a holy kiss and i i don't know i wasn't used to that in south africa if you do that praise the lord but in my case it wasn't anyway also i'm not against foot washing but i think a lot of churches get this wrong i've been in many churches when they say revival broke out because they had foot washing and it was so wonderful and two weeks later they split because it wasn't part of their heart what god was actually teaching yeah and again i'm not against foot washing but the first little thing is the first time that jesus we read yeah jesus washing feet the disciples were shocked number one why were they shot there was lots of fish washing a lot of people wash people's feet because there was dust in the ground they were shocked that someone higher up would wash the feet of someone lower and in our understanding we look at them and we see the king of kings the lord of lords took the hands of a king and washed the head the feet of fishermen and he said the principle that jesus was teaching here was not that we have to all over the world have to wash people's feet which is fine but that we should serve those beneath us that is the main principle and the amazing thing is in luke 22 verse 27 we read of jesus christ i am among you as he that serveth but a lot of christians and you won't have this so much in america but if you travel a bit to europe and and some of the more traditional areas in south africa and australia etc you'll find that people they believe and i've sat down with many christians and they believe that jesus in heaven is not a servant anymore he was just a servant down here and up there he's king we're going to worship him forever and they don't realize that jesus christ is the same yesterday today forever and the bible says in luke 12 verse 37 he this is jesus christ he shall gird himself he shall make them sit down to meet and he will come forth and he will serve them he's going to serve us jesus in a sense is a waiter but he's more than a waiter he's going to wipe away our tears he's not going to leave it to the angels to wipe our tears he's going to take his nail pierced hand and he's going to wipe away our tears he's a servant still this is the heart of god and we know in the bible that god chooses servants uh joshua served moses elisha served elijah samuel served eli david was the 70s father looking after the sheep and god chose joshua and god chose elisha and god chose samuel and god chose david and god chose his son he honored him because he humbled himself and was obedient even unto death philippians 2 verse 8 to 9 and so the final practical thing i'd like to bring you with a few little points is um the root to humility the root to humility i don't know if that's in america you have a root i suppose you do get back to the root gps says i always think of a tree when you talk of roots what is the the root to humility there's a song in the secular world mac davis said oh lord it's hard to be humble maybe you've heard this it's like i did it my way of frank sinatra oh lord it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way i can't wait to look in the mirror now that's totally different with me because i get better looking each day to know me is to love me i must be a age of a man oh lord it's hard to be humble but i'm doing the best that i can what a horrible song but i want to admit to you something i know about the crucified life and i know about the rest in jesus and i know about the power of god and i know about the fullness of the holy spirit but we all get tempted jesus christ was tempted and i am not i'm the least of jesus's servants in many different ways but even i get tempted to be proud and sometimes i sit there i'm like this little thought comes into my heart but you're not that bad compared to some other people and one of the things i do through the years is i sing the song when i survey the wondrous cross i remember as a young christian when i actually had that little bit of a temptation to do the sin of pride i'd sing when i survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died i am i can't everything is lost and poor contempt on all my pride and when i sang that yeah god works through the truth the other thing i do sometimes and this is just practical in my life it doesn't have to be exactly the same in your life as i remind myself of the truth and i remind god of the truth i start my struggle and say i don't want to be proud i don't want to be proud i'm not proud i try to rest in god i try to look to the identity of christ that we crucified with him and in spite of that i still sometimes struggle and then i say god i just want to tell you something everything in life is a gift i deserve hell dear father if it wasn't for the fact that jesus christ died and even though i feel this temptation to be proud i want to tell you dear father that i deserve nothing in life and the gospel is a gift and it's a gift because of jesus not because of me and there's nothing in life i deserve and i want to tell you that and i'm going to even if i have a feeling of pride i want to tell you this is what i believe and often the victory comes at that point but you know a lot of christians have a problem they they they find it hard to humble themselves over their pride i'm going to go through these points last few points very fast because we don't have time they find it hard to humble themselves over their pride i was in netherlands i preached at england and i flew over to netherlands and i went all over netherlands preaching and i flew with my family with very little kids at the time over to america and by this time i was very tired i don't know how many of you have ever been tired this is not an excuse it was a few years back several years back i came to the airport and i felt so tired god had worked through the messages but i felt so tired i it was the funniest thing i had a key in my hand and i started getting cross at the key have you done that there's no reason i was at the airport i'd like this key i didn't like it and and i went to my wife and i i i said mom i want to apologize she thought i was mad apologizing for being angry at the key but i was a little short-tempered once or twice my wife on the airplane and i just felt like i wasn't a good husband at that stage on that airplane flight at that moment and i'm going to preach to hundreds and hundreds of people uh for at least 400 people and i said sorry to my wife and i said sorry to god and i stood up in front of those 400 people and i said to them listen i just want to tell you all that at the airport i was short-tempered with my wife and i want to say sorry to you guys because i'm going to preach to you now you know at that at that conference there were there were drunkards who got saved and truly saved they saved till today their life changed people that they prayed for for years and years got radically saved at that conference i'm nothing but i encourage you as a christian humble yourself of your pride one person walked up to me he was such a hypocrite he would sleep with girls or ever pretend to be a wonderful christian we found out later he was such a hypocrite and i once got irritated and i said i'm going to stand up in front of the church and i'm going to tell them he said roy don't tell them everybody that saw he's just going to forget if you just don't mention it i said that's not the point that's not the point one minister didn't want to speak to me for a while when i told him i don't know i told the church because it's like you're terrible but i saw him get angry and he never talked about the last thing is the fire this is within this last practical part the fires of life and then one illustration okay um all of us go through fires if you love jesus and some of them are worse and some of them are less all of us can probably say that you've worked through the nights i have worked through the nights many times many times i've worked through the nights and i haven't been through anything that many other people have been through but you know something i see in many people's lives they go through the same fire sometimes a husband and wife and the husband goes through all the wife goes through that fire of life and they come out humble they come out more like jesus and the wife or the husband same fire they come out bitter and they come out proud for the fires of life or dead for god's fire to work in your life through the holy spirit and and and and if you yield to him he can make you more like jesus he can make you more gold goes through the fire because it's precious not because it's hated god doesn't hate you when he puts you the fire he says you're gold i want to make you more refined because you're precious i'll put you through the fire some of us listen to satan and we become proudful and we become hateful towards god i've met people for years used to witness and used to follow god it seemed and all of them have said to my face i hate god i hate god for what he's put me through and then the last illustration like i said was watch my knee and this is not a perfect illustration but it comes down to this i'm crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ lives through me you know we can have all these things we do to not be humble and all these things we stand up in front of people you name it but ultimately the power of a where pride is broken is where jesus died on the cross he was risen from the dead he ascended to heaven he sits on the right hand of authority and high psalm 110 verse 1 many times in the new testament the book of colossians the book of hebrews you name it jesus is seated and that is our position in god if he says we are seated in the same place we are crucified with christ yet not i have a christ within me and what's when he said something so wonderful he said so many christians when they tried to seek the deeper life which i'm sure they'll preach on this week and along with persecution when they seek the deeper life they won't make one fundamental big mistake they think there's something missing from jesus that it's something separate a box on this side of the stage and on that side of the stage is jesus and you accepted jesus into your life and now you're missing something and satan comes and says sure i'll give you you're part of the galatian church i'll give you the old testament law you're part of the corinthian church i'll give you a whole lot of experiences that are actually not the holy spirit sometimes it's the most dangerous thing a christian ever do is feel that they're missing something when they receive jesus but we are missing experiencing what we already have and so what's when he would say this he said many christians they got two coins in their pocket they feel like and that's jesus and they feel there's a missing coin and they'll pray and say jesus please please uh fill me with the holy spirit fill me with the holy spirit fill me with the holy spirit almost like they're earning something and and there's this box missing and they pray if they pray enough and through the nights and after five days of praying praying praying they earned it and then they receive the box they were missing and they get the third coin in their pocket and he said that's not how it works when you receive jesus you have everything peter says this to build your house everything that we need for godliness we still have to be filled with the spirit but you see the point is you've got all three coins in your your pocket you have everything you need in jesus christ and so what happens is you sometimes miss out on that because you don't realize what you have you don't realize your identity in christ and so you don't realize what god is willing to fool you with because of what you have in jesus and and you think this coin is missing and instead you have to realize there's three coins you have everything you have in jesus now rest in what you have and when you rest in what you have the power of pride is broken and when you rest in what you have you experience the power of god don't seek something more seek more of what you have in jesus let's pray father we listen to a simple little sermon on the topic of pride and we know that it has an origin and that satan fell by looking to himself know that adam was told he could be like god we know that the apostles when jesus told them one would betray him they fought over who was the greatest we know that saul was once little in his own eyes and yet later his kingdom was taken from him he was destroyed because of pride we know he struck herod dead because of pride we know that nebuchadnezzar and his son but nebuchadnezzar seven years your mercy that he was eating dirt because of his pride we father we know that there's a false pride but we know in the example of jesus christ we have a man who was a servant to those beneath him who was so selfless he was willing to lay down his life and that's the spirit of the martyrdom that's true for his enemies not just for his friends father it's so easy to hide pride in our heart and we know lord that it's easier to deal with a demon possessed person than that pride but it can be dealt with at calvary through the finished work of jesus and i just ask dear father i i remember when i was in meetings and i was unsaved and pride kept me from the cross and remember as a christian dear father were times that i had to deal with things and pride kept me from what you would have lord i beg you let that you would help us to swallow our pride so that this camp can have every every possibility of what you would do to glorify jesus christ through this camp that it would come to pass because grace is not held back by our pride and i pray this in jesus christ's name amen