Pride and Humility

Bro Koay Kheng Hin

Pride and Humility is the humbling of man and the honour of God. I believe that the church TOP will be moving into a new season even as we wait for Ps Ronald to come on board.

Pride and humility will reflect on how we react as a person and as a church. Sometimes we say people is being very humble or very arrogant. We say this based on the traits of a person whom we can see clearly. But if we look at it, all of us struggle with pride this side of heaven. It is because there are degrees of pride and degrees of humility. When we say a person is arrogant, we look at it in relation to ourselves. The same when we say someone is humble.

But I want to say all of us struggle with pride including me. No exception. I have related to some people in or not in ministry and I want to say without exception all struggle with pride. What I want to say is how the Bible looks at pride.

I want you to hold on to the fact that pride and humility has a relationship. As humility grows, pride will lessen and as pride grows, humility lessen. I call pride and humility half brothers.

Someone said there are 3 Gs that men struggle with. Gold, Glory and Girls. But I say all start with glory. If you look into the US election, I will probably be familiar with the Nixon era in the 70's until now. In all US elections, the priority were issues. But this election it was about character assassination. A man vs a woman. You see the world manifest in intensity the glorifying of self. The world celebrates pride to a certain extent. Like how well you talk. People gravitate to people who is confident. Pride to a certain extend give you much political power.

When you look at the Bible you see a total different scenario. The Bible is not about political power. It is in essence about spiritual power. God opposes the proud and give grace to the humble. And a proud man possesses no spiritual power. He cannot give you that manifestation of spiritual power. That's why we are called vessels through which God moves.

John 3:26

And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”

John's disciples saw Jesus as competition to John the Baptist. And John took 10 verses to explain this. And it ends with He must become greater and I become less. He must increase and I must decrease. And this is the basic understanding of Christian humility. It is not about denying self but glorifying Jesus Christ and emptying self.

Philippians 2:6-8

6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

But the key word in Greek is "he made himself nothing". What does this mean? It meant Jesus emptied himself. He did not release his deity but he emptied himself of self. When we think of God we think of supreme glory but when we look at Jesus we see this little baby on Christmas day. When he grew up, you may want to think that he grew up as a young superman but he was not like that. He was just like any ordinary child. But at the end of his life, you will think of someone who is laughed at and mocked at and lastly as someone half naked and a laughing stock for everyone to behold. Jesus humbled himself was an ultimately humbled into humiliation. You watched the Passion of Christ.

But it did not end at verse 8.

Philippians 2:9-11

9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You will find the exaltation of Jesus Christ and he was exalted to the highest place. In heaven, on earth and under the earth, all will bow to Jesus Christ. Only whether you now willingly or unwillingly. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

Have you ever thought what is the gospel? When we preach the gospel and someone accepts Christ, which all of us did many years ago. What is the essence of what you did? We think of eternal life. But what is really the difference between someone who is a child of God and someone who has yet to know Christ? Those that have not become a believer has some form of self pride while those who is a child of God lives for the glory of Christ. That is the gospel. It is primarily not about us but about Christ crucified.

Many of us have stepped over and become the children of God but many of us have not changed our mind set yet and we sit down and wonder what else God can do for me. Or why God did not do this or that for me.

I heard someone said, if I had known accepting Christ is like that I would not have accepted Christ. I think her experience of God is where she is the centre of the relationship. I wonder if she is God and Jesus is merely servant instead of Jesus is God and she is the servant. She has self glory, you glorifying yourself. Biblical humility is about honouring God. The confession of Jesus as Lord and God.

Philippians 1:20-21

20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

The whole life of Paul is the emptying of self and the exaltation of Christ in Paul's life. Not just in his life but also ministry.

1 Corinthians 1:31

Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 2:1

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

They were comparing Paul with Apollos who was a trained orator.

1 Corinthians 2:2

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

His focus was upon Christ and the ultimate focus of all his ministry. This was the centre of his ministry. When we look at ourselves on a daily basis, as disciples and servant of the most high, do we live for the glory of God in Christ and not about how much we will get from God but for the living for the glory of God. On our ministry have you thought about this? That finally Jesus is the centrepiece and focus. That is biblical humility.

I believe when a person is full of himself what place can there be for God to be the focus. When a person's heart is full of money, there will be less of God. That's why in Matthew, it's says you cannot serve both God and mammon. You cannot serve two masters. And if a person wakes up and wonder where to find entertainment and pleasure, then you will have less of the presence of God. If you're full of some form of prosperity you will be less of the purpose of God in your life. I want you to reflect a little bit on this even as you have walked some ways with God. Ultimately it is the glory of God that gives purpose and meaning to our walk with God. God does bless us but it is not the purpose in our walk with God.

What defines us as children of God is that we have the capacity to give glory to God regardless of how well or not well we do compared to unbelievers. But you may ask what is there in it for me?

The expression of our biblical humility.

Philippians 2:3-5

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

That is biblical humility. Consider others more than yourself. A proud person is someone who sees weaknesses of people. A humble person is someone who is focused on someone's strength. None of us is perfectly strong or weak but a humble person focuses on a person's strength.

Romans 12:3

For by the grace given 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.

A proud person will always think of how good he is but a humble person will see his need to work on his weaknesses.

If you often say I'm right and you are wrong. Then there's sign of a lingering pride. This is a clear sign. A humble person will ask are you alright? A humble person is interested in the welfare of the person and not so much who is right or wrong.

We also have met people whose number one trait is to argue. They just like to argue whether right or wrong. Humility is marked by a person who likes to discuss. I had a good time with Bro Kuna. I discussed a lot with him. You say something and then you stop to listen to the other person. You try to learn together. Arguing is about the other person being wrong.

Next, a proud man is someone who goes by law. He goes by coercion. But a humble man works by persuasion. Recently I had a chat with a young man. A young man nowadays to me is in his thirties. He spoke to me about some issues and I told him to give some space and time for God. To give space for the Holy Spirit to work. When you deliver God's message, the seed has been planted so you need to give some space for God to work. Persuade, don't coerce. A person who is proud is easily agitated. When there is disagreement, the person with a shorter fuse is someone with a lingering pride.

There was one many years ago. The person said send to me a prophet. I got jammed because I'm not a prophet. So I went to the Ten Commandments. I said we actually don't need a prophet because the word of God says you shall not covet. That is pride as he wanted to listen not to me but to a prophet. He turned red. That is lack of self control.

Another is the language. See how many times you see the person use the word "I". You see the world in terms of you. I did this. I did that. I know. If you are exalting God it is not about I, it's about him.

Finally I want to bring this to the church. It's about biblical humility as it affects the church. Paul in Philippians was talking about humility. As our church goes through this transition, remember that humility is the root to unity. Paul was talking about the unity of the spirit in Corinthians and it's having love for one another. A pre-requisite of love is humility. People who is proud have no capacity to love. Love is about putting people's concern above self. You have the welfare and concern of others at heart. People who are full of pride has relationship problems.

I encourage all of us as we go through this transition we want to look at each other in our strength. If you are someone who is gifted in one way or another, God wants to use you. Not with pride but to serve with humility. Sometimes when we are in ministry we have to remind ourselves that we are working in the spiritual realm.

I read 30,000 Greeks against hundreds of thousands of Persians, how did they win? The Greeks fought as a square, not as individuals. It is about fighting as a team and the Greeks perfected that art. The church needs to have unity of the spirit and it will augur well for 2017.

One of the things I remind myself. I came from Penang Free School in 1970. I had a very strict HM who walks around with a cane. I learnt one thing. If you think you are smart there are a lot of people who is smarter than you. If you think you are a very good singer, there will be many who are better singers. If you think you have a heart for the poor, there will be others who have a bigger heart than you.

In Free School, I learnt this. It is all relative. Now as a teacher, I realized I have many students that knows more. Never think too highly of yourself. Paul says don't think too highly of yourself.

Now to end I want to look at the OT. Chapter 2.

Elisha was Elijah's follower. Elijah kept telling Elisha don't follow me around. When they reached the river Jordan, Elijah knew his time was up. That was when Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted from him.

2 Kings 2:9-10

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”

And Elisha asked for a double portion of his anointing. The amount of miracles Elisha did was double what Elijah did. It was really double. It was more than just the inheritance. In this narrative there is issues of pride and humility. There is nothing wrong in asking gifting from the Lord. It is not pride to ask. It is why you ask it for. If you ask for promoting yourself, then I've nothing to say. Elisha asked for anointing for the right reasons. Elijah was willing to grant it to him because Elijah knows it is not for him to give but for God to anoint.

Elisha saw Elijah being taken up and he received the Lord's anointing. The miracles of God in the OT are primarily concentrated on these two prophets. In the NT, the miracles were mainly concentrated on Jesus Christ.

What had this to do with humility? Elijah had an anointing and his disciples asked for double the anointing and he was ever willing to give. He exhibited biblical humility by recognising that it was all for God's glory. What would a prideful man be like?

This you can see in Chinese history. If a prodigy becomes too powerful, they cut off his head. That is pride. In China, the most vivid example are these two personality. Mao Tse Tung lived only for himself. He can destroy China for himself. Dang Hsio Ping is the opposite. He is described as a small bottle. He survived three purges. He's a man that lived for China.

You need to understand pride is always there. It is the last weapon by the devil. The devil may come to me with gold and girl but it's glory that is his last weapon.

I want to end with the good, the bad and the ugly. Those of you my age will remember that movie. Lee Van Cleef. You take your pick.

If you pick the good, someone come along and say you're not good enough your reply will show whether you have a lingering pride when you say "at least I'm better than you".

You may pick the bad, and someone says you are very bad, you may reply and say "you are no better".

Or if you pick ugly, a person may say you are extremely ugly, and you reply "none of your business".

All these answers show a lingering of pride in you. How then can a believe answer?

If someone say you are not good enough, you may say I know no one good but God. Biblical answer.

Or if someone say you are very bad, say I know. But God is good and I trust him to change me.

And if someone say you are extremely ugly, you may say I know, but God is beautiful beyond description.

At John chapter 3 we see what crowns John the Baptist's humility. A man can receive nothing except what is given by heaven.

John 3:27

To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.

Our honour is an honour that is given by God. The day will come when we reign with him because he has seen it fit for you to reign with him.