Transcription
The problem with pride. One of the things that stops us from having the heart of God is being prideful. And I've got a funny story to kind of illustrate this.
Uh, opening up, there was the prideful frog. And the prideful frog, he saw two eagles. So he walked up to the two eagles and he was like, "Hey guys, I need a big favor." He said, "I'm in Kansas City and I need to go to Indiana. I got some stuff I need to handle. You know, I'm a big deal. I'm like Prince Frog, and I need to get to Indiana. I need you guys to take me to Indiana."
And one of the eagles said, "Well, if you get on on our back, you may slide off and fall in the air." And the problem, and the frog was like, "Yeah, you're right. I got an idea." He said, "How about we get a stick? And you put one end of the stick in your mouth, and you put the other end of the stick in your mouth. And because I got this awesome tongue, I can wrap my tongue around the stick. And I can, y'all can fly the stick. And as I wrap my tongue around the stick, I'm flying on a stick. And y'all can give me the Indiana." You know what I'm saying, Mr. Frog?
There was like, "Okay, it's a great idea." So he wrapped his tongue around the stick, and they began to fly him in the air. And as they was flying, they flew a long way. It was a pretty beautiful sight. No one had ever seen anything like it. As they was flying over, this farmer, he was like, "Wow, this is the coolest, most amazing thing I've ever seen." He said, "Whose idea was it?"
Well, the prideful frog looked down and he wanted to make sure the eagles didn't get credit. So he said, "It was mine." And he began to fall down. Some y'all didn't get the joke, but he began to fall because he was so prideful. He had to say it was his idea. And he got his tongue off the stick and fell on the floor. Some of y'all could laugh now because you didn't get it the first time.
But you can be so prideful that you're always trying to get credit. You're always trying to promote yourself. You're always trying to be out front. You're always trying to get glory. And the truth is, God blesses the humble, but He will humble the prideful. And in our lives, if we want to go to the next level, if we want to have the heart of God, if we want to be strengthened, we have to get rid of pride. It is deadly. It is lethal. It's the foundation of sin. And if you have pride in your life, you will never be who God has called you to be. You would never be, you would never get to where God has called you to get.
Now, I got a sermon for y'all, but if y'all ain't gonna talk to me, I ain't gonna preach it. We good? All right. You will never get to where you're at, to where you're going in life if you're prideful. So today, my prayer is that I will be able to shine some light on pride, that you would be convicted and find pride in your life, and that you would make a vow to God to remove pride today. And if you would do that, I believe you can go to the next level of your life.
There's many faces of pride. There's many faces of pride. And the worst thing about pride is it makes everyone sick, but the person who has it. It makes everyone sick, but the person who has it. But the truth is, on the inside, it actually makes the person who has it the sickest of them all. You have to remove pride.
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna destroy some myths of pride and some myths of humility. Because a lot of what we call humble ain't humble, and a lot of what we call pride ain't pride. In other words, in other words, if we had two millionaires, and we have two millionaires, and one drives a 1990 pickup truck, and another one had a Lamborghini. Most of you guys would think the guy that had the Lamborghini was prideful. He was bossful. He was showing off his money. And the guy on the pickup truck wasn't prideful. Or, or if the same millionaires, if one guy had Louis, Louis Vuitton, and he had on Gucci, and the other guy shopped at Target. You would say, "Oh, the guy with Gucci, the guy with Louis Vuitton, that's the prideful guy."
But the problem with pride is sometimes you can't see it on the surface. And the truth of humility is, humility is a virtue of the heart. It's not always something you can see in actions. And there's a lot of people that walk in false humility, and they will have you fooled. That would have you fooled. Just because it looks like humility doesn't make it humility. And just because you perceive it to be pride doesn't make it pride. Who's who's to say that pride is something external? Because God said, God looks at the inward man, looks at the outward. In other words, God said pride is found in your heart. It's not found on your body.
Now, if you're wearing things to impress people and be better than people and keep up with the Joneses and to elevate yourself and exhaust yourself, then yes, that's pride. But if you're doing it because that's what you like to do and it's your creative expression, that's not pride. And the truth is, that millionaire that drives the pickup truck with Target clothes on could treat his staff like their dogs. And the guy in the Lamborghini can serve his staff. He could wash their feet. He could pray for them. He could come in early and stay late. But yet, he's prideful because he has a car you feel like he shouldn't have.
But the truth is, you have a car Jesus didn't have. Are you prideful? The Bible says the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. Do you, are you prideful now? Because what you have today compared to what Jesus has is like a mansion. It's like a trillionaire. Like you got a cell phone when Jesus wanted to talk to somebody, He had to walk six miles. When you want to talk to someone, you have to dial 10 numbers. Oh, but you're humble, right? Because somebody has something better than you. But you have something better than Jesus had. What is pride and where is it found? Where it's probably found.
And, and I want to tell you, creative expression doesn't mean pride. I had a lady one time, and it was a very ironic story. I remember we was, we was going to First Baptist Nation. There was this lady, and she ended up coming to our church. And I ended up messaging her because I always text people and ask them about their experience. And I never told our staff about this, but I said, "Hey, how was your experience?" She said, "My experience was great. She said, "This is actually not my first time. I've been here three times." I said, "Awesome. I'm so glad you've been coming."
Now, her daughter had been coming. And I said, "How's your experience, man?" She said, "It's been great, but I have one suggestion." I said, "Okay, what's up?" She said, "I don't think a pastor should have a new pair of shoes every week he preaches. I feel like it's a little prideful." And I said, "Okay, um, I totally understand that. And I said, "I'll, I'll pray about that and I'll talk to God about it. And if He told me to quit getting new shoes, I'll quit getting new shoes. I'm not gonna be arrogant about it."
But the funny thing is, that lady's daughter was at our church. She said that she had tried to talk to three pastors, and no one would help her, mentor her. And I stayed after service, hungry, with a headache, for three hours, counseling her and praying for her daughter. She had no idea. So the guy that's prideful, stayed with your daughter for three hours, counseling her and praying for her with a headache, with no food. And she went to churches that you would call the pastor humble because he had the same black shoes, but he made no time for your child.
What is humility? What is pride? I'm not, I'm not suggesting that I'm humble, but I'm just suggesting that just because someone has a pair of shoes on, don't make them prideful. You can be arrogant in some airs. And some of y'all don't know what that is. You can be arrogant in some shacks. You can be arrogant on a scooter. I'm telling you, you do what you have on, don't make you prideful. What's in your heart makes you prideful.
And a lot of what we call humility is false humility. It's not me, it's all God. Really? Do you believe that? Are you just up? You're lying. You think it's all you. So we have to get our heart right in this area. Humility isn't being weak, but it's finding our strength in God. Humility isn't thinking less of ourselves, it's thinking of ourselves less. Humility isn't always going to the back, but humility is saying, "I don't want to be in the front unless God puts me there." Humility isn't bashing yourself, no, but it's saying, "I will let God exalt me." Humility isn't you being broken, weak, powerless, and demeaning yourself. No, humility is saying, "I'm strong because of God. I'm loved because of God. I'm called because of God. I'm qualified because of God." It's rooted all in God. It's not of me. It's not of my work. At least I suppose everything I have and everything I do is because of God. I don't, I shouldn't be able to do this.
It's really hard to be prideful because if you would be honest, you truly don't deserve what you have. But you feel like you deserve it because someone else has it. You think you deserve it. As a pastor, it's really easy to come in here and see our church of a couple hundred people and get on YouTube or get on Instagram and see pastors with thousands and say, "Oh, I can preach better than that guy. Why is his church bigger than mine?" And the Lord will say, "Because of that statement right there, that's why." Your church is bigger than yours because you don't get a big church because you can preach. You don't get to lead worship around the world because you can sing. You don't get things because of your ability. In the kingdom of God, you get it because of your humility. You don't get it because of your competence, you get it because of your character. And God will use lesser to produce greater if their hearts are right.
And some of you guys are stuck in a rut, and you're not progressing, and you're not going to the next level because you're arrogant, and you got your nose turned up, and you would be a bad representative to the kingdom of God. You're a bad representation. I'll go, I went to conferences, and I've seen pastors thinking they're famous and thinking they're celebrities, and they're hanging out in the green room when a pastor is called to pray, and it's called to serve, and it's called to love people. God, when you call me to preach, I don't want to be in no green room. I want to be out in the lobby with the people. I want to be praying for people. I want to be meeting people and talking to people because I'm not a celebrity, I'm a servant. I'm a servant. And I don't care how many followers I got or how much money I got in the bank, I'm not a celebrity, I'm a servant. Because my God was a servant. How are you going to be famous and Jesus wasn't? How are you going to be a king and Jesus was a servant? How you want somebody to wash your feet when Jesus went around washing feet?
The Bible says He thought it not robbery, having the form of God, taking on the form of a man. In other words, God came down and put on man, and He didn't feel robbed. But you feel robbed when they asked you to clean? Your heart's not right. So I'm going to show you some things about pride. And I want to show you why God hates it. God hates it. Nothing more frustrates God than a proud look. The Bible says it's a proud look. When you have that, that proud look, it's a stench before God, and He hates it. He hates it. I'm telling you, you are most at odds with God when you're prideful. It's not even when you're stealing, it's not when you're lying, it's not when you're sleeping around. When you have that proud look on your face, that's when you're most at odds with God.
And some of you guys are sitting down like, "I'm not prideful, Pastor KJ." Wait to the end of the sermon, we'll see about that. Isaiah chapter 12. And if you had the thought, "I'm not prideful," you're probably the most prideful of them all. Isaiah 12, starting at verse 12. It says, "How you have fallen from heaven, Lucifer, oh Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the furthest side of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, Sheol, which means hell, to the lowest depth of the pit."
Now, this is really interesting. I love God because God is a snapback God. You literally have the devil here talking about how he's going up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. And then God pulled up and He said, "Not devil, you're going down, down, down, down, down, down." He said that he would ascend, he would rise, he would ascend, he would exalt himself in the congregation, he would be high. And God said, "No, devil, you will be low." Because when we try to exalt ourselves, God will humble us. But when we humble ourselves, we position ourselves to be exalted by God.
And the devil sat here and tried to exalt himself. And the reason why he tried to exalt himself is because pride and iniquity was found in him. And God said, "Because you want to sit in a higher seat in all of the world, I'm going to see, I'm going to sit you in the lower seat. Because you want to sit in the higher seat of the world, I'm going to sit you in the lower seat. And instead of you sitting next to the cloud, you're going to sit in Sheol, at the lower depths of the earth. That is your position. That is your home. Because you thought you can exalt yourself, and I'm about to humble you."
And the devil was beautiful. He was Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. But then he became Satan, the Father of the Night. And he traded his honor for horror because he had pride in him. And let me tell you something about pride. You're most like Satan when you're prideful. And the reason why you're most like Satan when you're prideful is because the devil only invented one thing in this earth, and that was pride. Everything else God created. But the devil created pride. Which means he has a right to it. Which means if you operate in pride, the hand of God, the blessing of God, the covering of God is removed from you. And the devil has free reign to you because you're walking in his invention.
And the reason why God hates a proud look is because that pride reminds Him of Satan. It's a stench before Him. And let me tell you, Satan felt like he had a reason to be prideful for it because he was so beautiful. Let me show you how beautiful and how magnificent Satan was. The Bible says a third of the angels chose to fall with him. Which means you got to understand this. This is one third of these angels who see God and who sees Satan. And a third of them decided to go with this guy. Which means he probably had more flash than God. He probably had more bling than God. Who in their right mind would see Jehovah Jireh and choose to go with Lucifer unless he had something so shiny that they would think they would even have the audacity to think that he could stand to God? And he couldn't. Because immediately he was brought down to Sheol. And the Bible says like lightning, he was cast out of heaven. So they found out quick. We chose the wrong. We chose the wrong team. But it was pride. It was iniquity. It was a boast. And I'm telling you, when you walk in that, God hates it. He don't hate you, but He hates pride.
I'm going to break down to you why God hates pride so much. The reason why God hates pride so much is because when you're prideful, you can't be taught. You can't be mentored. You can't be helped. You can't be loved. You can't be blessed. You are capped off. Nothing comes in you. Nothing leaves out of you. When you're prideful, you're stagnant. You don't move forward. You can't progress. You can't change because it requires humility. When you're prideful, you're ultimately saying, "God, I don't need You. I got this. God, I don't need Your help. I got this. God, I don't need Your strength. I got this." And God resists the proud.
The Bible says God doesn't just turn away from the proud, He actually resists the proud. Which means if you have somebody trying to walk somewhere and someone stand in front of them and push them, that's what God does to the proud. He resists the proud. Which means when you're prideful, God actually resists you. And I know this firsthand because I've struggled with pride many times in my life. And when every time I find a stitch of pride, I try to fight it immediately because I know that pride is the one thing that causes God to lift His hand. But if you humble yourself, you can come under the hand of God.
The Bible says, so I'm going to show you a couple things when it comes down to pride. When I was inside of the delivery room with baby Radiant, the nurse said, "We need to check and make sure she's not breached." And I'm like, "Hold on, wait a minute. Let me put some Jesus in." I don't know what that means, but I don't like the sound of breach. What is that? And she said, "Well, come down, it's not a huge deal. She said, uh, we can, we can resolve it." She said, "But breach means when the baby's head is up instead of down. And when the baby's head is up instead of down, the baby is harder to deliver. It's more painful and it's harder to deliver when the baby is breached. But when the baby's head's down, delivery is a lot, lot easier." So you don't want your baby's head up. You want your baby's head down. Because when the baby's head down, it's easier to deliver.
And I remember God spoke to me in that moment. He said, "It's the same way with pride. You don't want someone walking with their chests out and their head up. Because when their chest is out and their heads up, they're not easy to be delivered. But if they would turn themselves upside down, and if they would put their head down, they can be delivered from pain. They can be delivered from the storm. They can be delivered from hurt. They can be delivered from shame. But their head can't be up. Their head has to be down."
And some of you guys aren't getting delivered because you're breached spiritually. And God is saying, "Until you will reverse the breach, I can't deliver you. You're breached." And today, we got to get turned upside down and say, "God, it's not me, it's You. God, I don't trust my will, I trust Your will. God, I won't follow my way, I'll follow Your way. God, I don't want to be breached, I want to be upside down so You can use me. God, You can use me." That's why the Apostle Peter said, "Crucify me upside down because I'm not worthy to be crucified right side up." In other words, he said, "I dealt with pride. I don't want my head up. I want my head down."
And the truth is, if you put your head down, God would actually put it up. But if you put your head up, God would actually put it down. You exalt, He demotes. You demote, He exalts. Oh, come on somebody! Give our King a shout of praise! Now, to give you some scripture to prove this. First Peter chapter 5 says, "Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders." Some of you guys can submit to nobody because you're prideful. Inability to submit is pride. When someone tells you no, when someone tells you you can't do it, when someone says, "Don't try it that way," and immediately, "Who are they to tell me what I can and can't do?" Pride, pride, pride.
He said, "Yes, all of you, submit to one another." See, so some of y'all, "Yeah, I submit to you, Pastor, but I ain't listening to him. I ain't listening to her." He says, "Submit to one another." Please. In other words, if you can't submit to everybody, you truly don't submit to nobody. Because the people you submit to is just false humility. And then he said, "And be clothed with humility." For God resists the proud. Why would God say, "Be clothed with humility"? The reason why He said, "Be clothed with humility" is in order to be clothed, you have to put something on. And God is saying that humility isn't natural. It's not natural. You're naturally born prideful. Which means if you're gonna be humble, you actually have to put it on. Because if you don't put on humility, pride will naturally reign.
Have you ever seen a baby? They're so prideful and egotistical. I will watch my daughter, I'm like, "How did she get this?" Well, I know we were good parents. Literally, she's playing with a toy. You touch her. That's like, "Give me that toy! Why do you want to like, literally get your kid and give him 12 toys and bring another kid in and the little toy they don't even want? Give me my mama! He took my toy!" Pride, pride, pride. You don't have to teach it. They were born in pride. So God said, "You have to be clothed in humility. You have to put it on. You have to bring pride to punishment and train yourself to be humble." I'm gonna tell you how to do that in a couple seconds.
It says, "God resists the proud." That's enough to want to not be proud. It says, "But He gives grace to the humble." Which means when you're prideful, you remove grace. And you, without grace, is a disgrace. Let me say it again. You, without grace, is a disgrace. You want the grace of God. You want the flow of God. You want the cover of God. You want the radiance of God. You don't want to be out there on your own. And then it says, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." When you're not humble, you move from out underneath the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares of you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil goes about roaring like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Wow. So we always quote this scripture, "Resist the devil and he'll flee." And we always quoted the scripture because we didn't read the context of like, "Resist the devil, fight the devil, take a stance." How do you resist the devil? You resist the devil by being humble. You resist the devil by being humble. Because the truth is, he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Let me tell you who he may devour: the proud. He has a right to the proud. And the reason why he has the right to the proud is because he's the creator of pride. Which means if you want to resist the devil, you have to resist pride. Because pride is what got him kicked out of heaven. And every time the devil came after somebody, it was always with pride. And if you want to resist the devil and don't want to be attacked by the devil, it means you need to resist pride.
And some of you guys are getting picked off by the devil. You're getting crushed by the devil. You're getting beat by the devil because you are proud. I know this ain't a nice message. I know it ain't a hollow back message, but you are proud. And you resist the devil with humility. And if you keep getting attacked by the devil, you might want to check your proud meter, your pride meter. Because if your pride meter is high, the hand of God not only allows the devil to attack you, but He actually resists you too. When you're walking in pride, you have the devil and God resisting you. Which means you have no chance of success. Which means if you're going through life and you're just being tossed around every way, you may be in pride.
And if you read the Bible, all the great men of God that ever truly got crushed, I went back and did a study. They were usually in pride in that season. We always say, "Job didn't do anything." Go back and read the Bible. He was prideful. We said, "Why did Joseph go into the pit and prison?" He was prideful. "I'm going to be above you, and you guys are going to serve me. You're going to bow to me." Same thing with David. He got prideful. He was counting all his soldiers. He said, "I'm a mighty man of valor." God said, "Watch." He was prideful. He got crushed. He got crushed. Everybody walking in pride got crushed.
Let me show you the king of pride. The king of pride was Peter. Jesus was saying, "Hey guys, I'm about to die. And if you strike the shepherd, you scatter the sheep. You guys are going to deny me." And Peter said, "I'll never deny you. I'll die with you." And Jesus said, "Boy, before the rooster crowed three times, you're gonna beat him. Deny me three times." You look prideful. And guess what Jesus said? "Peter, Satan desires to sift you like wheat. But I pray for you." And I ask the question, why did He just pray for people? Why didn't He fight for them? Why didn't He avenge them? He said, "Because you're so prideful, I can't avenge you. All I can do is pray for you." Bro, when you're in pride, all God can do is pray. When you're in pride, all God can do is pray.
So He prayed for Peter, and He prayed that his faith wouldn't fail. And I'm sure He prayed that the pride would be removed. Because if the pride left, he can be covered. And that's why Peter wrote this. Because Peter knows firsthand what it's like to be humbled by God. And the reason why Peter actually denied Jesus is because he was standing strong under grace. When grace got snatched, he started denying things. I pray for you. And I'm telling you, if you want God to fight for you, you better be humble. But if you walk in pride, all He can do is pray for you, friend. All He can do is pray for you. And Peter was dealing with pride. He was dealing with pride. And that's why he was sifted by the enemy. If you deal with pride, you give the devil a right to sift you.
Um, here's the worst part about pride. Here's what makes pride worse than ever. You ever seen what makes pride so bad? Is pride hides. Pride hides. Every other thing. We, when you're drunk, you know it. When you're alcoholic, you know it. When y'all, when you're on meth, you know it. When you're a fornicator, you know it. When you're a thief, you know it. When you're a murderer, you know it. When you're prideful, you may not know.
Up the story of pride. And it's really hilarious. I'll never forget. And it's about my boy Trent. We was going to Kansas City. And on the way to Kansas City, feeling like, "Oh God." On the way to Kansas City, I would never forget. So Trent was younger than everybody. So the girls, they would always get onto him about being young. "Trent, you're young, and you don't know this, and you don't know that, and you don't know this, and you don't know that." So Trent was like, "I'm getting older. I do know this, and I do know that, and I am responsible." So basically, one of the girls was gonna navigate. And Trent was like, "Let me navigate. I could navigate. I got it." So he wanted to control the navigation.
So we're driving back home from Kansas City. On the way to Kansas City, the girls were telling him he ain't mature. He wanted to prove he was mature. So he's navigating us back home from Kansas City. Well, something crazy happened. We ended up missing a turn on the navigation because he wasn't paying attention. But immediately, he couldn't say, "Hey guys, we missed the turn." Because that little old pride crept in. And he thought, "If I would tell them I missed the turn, they're going to say, 'You're immature. You're childish. We should have never let you navigate.'" So he's going to be quiet and trust that the navigation will fix his mess.
Well, we ended up lost four to five hours off route. And as we were lost, we went into this, this, this town. And it was raining. It was sleeting. It was snowing. And we found ourselves on a cliff. This cliff was about two inches wide. I'm talking about our wheels. We were in the SUV. Our wheels was driving off the cliff. The cliff went all the way in the air. And if you made one wrong turn, you was going down that cliff. And we're literally almost done. I wouldn't be here preaching. We're going two miles. We were on this cliff for like three hours. We're going two miles because one wrong turn gets us off the cliff. It was crazy. It was freaky. It was foggy. They had three-legged dogs running all around the town. It was a haunted town. I thought we were gonna die. All because Trent can simply say, "I missed the turn."
My question is, how many of you guys are going off cliffs? How many of you guys are running across three-legged dogs? How many of you guys are five hours off course because you can't say, "I missed the turn. I made a mistake. I didn't know. I need help. God, please help me. God, strengthen me. God, don't we..." Because the Bible says, "Pride comes before a what?" A fall. If you walk in pride, you're going to fall. I've been with Trinity navigation like, "I missed the turn." Start off the car. But the Bible says, "He that stands, take heed, lest he fall." He that stands, take heed, lest he fall.
I'm gonna give you seven red flags of pride. I'll be done in a couple minutes. Give me like five minutes. Seven red flags of pride. The first red flag of pride, you guys can say it with me: arrogance. Arrogance. You know an arrogant person because they think they know everything. You can't teach an arrogant person. "Hey man, you try to..." "No, no, no. I'ma try it this way because it works this way." You can't teach them nothing. You can't say nothing to them. And the worst part about an arrogant person is they're usually stupid. Which means, how you gonna be a know-it-all and you don't know anything? And they are arrogant. They don't want to hear from nobody. And you know an arrogant person because they don't want to listen to nobody. They're always dominating the conversation. They always gotta talk over everybody. And if you eat with an arrogant person, you're gonna talk two percent of the time. They're gonna talk the whole time because they're arrogant.
The next sign of pride is false humility. False humility. You say this a lot in preachers. You see this a lot in worship leaders. People that serve God. You see false humility. You see false humility a lot. I was at a conference a couple weeks ago, and I saw one of the girls, and I was like, "You crushed it in worship. You did an amazing job." And guess what she said to me? "It was all God." Guess what I almost said to her? "If it was all God, it would have been way better." It was good, but if it was all God, it would have been way better. That wasn't all God. You had a lot to do with that. God used you, but it wasn't on Him. Arrogant. And you know you walked away like, "I'm awesome." No, you're not. Talking about this, "Oh, God." You over here off-key. Tell me this, "All God." No, that was all you, sister. Now, what you can say is, "Thank you. I appreciate it." And keep it moving. But you're so falsely humble, you gotta overcompensate because how you really feel. Let me get off that before I step on somebody's feet.
Number three: Can't admit when they're wrong. That can't admit when they're. You know, pray for it. They just can never admit it. No matter what. You can have evidence, video tape. "Can set you did the crime." "Well, see, what happened was, it wasn't me." "Didn't you catch them red-handed?" "Well, see, when I was two, my daddy wasn't there." Shut up. You did it. All you have to do is say, "Hey, I made a mistake. I dropped the ball. I'll do better next time. I should have been smarter. I should have prepared. I should have tried harder." But they can never admit they're wrong. You're not a prideful person because you would never hear, "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." There's times you would do things to people. You have to sound sorry.
I remember I had a customer order something from me, and they gave me a date that it was supposed to be done. They mixed up the date, and they were mad at me that they mixed up the date. And I showed them in a text message, and it was like, "But still, it has to be done today." And I was like, "Okay, we'll do it." And as I was trying to correct them, the Holy Spirit said, "Apologize." And I said, "I'm sorry that I didn't check and double-check the notes and talk you through it." And that person began to weep right there because they knew that it was their fault, not mine. Say sorry. It's okay. Even if you're not wrong, you can still apologize. Pride can never admit when it's wrong. It's always someone else's fault. Quit it. Admit it and get on with it.
Number four: Here's another sign of pride. When someone is easily offended. Now, I used to think when someone was easily offended, they were sensitive. And the Spirit of the Lord showed me and said this when He said, "They're not sensitive. Don't bother lying. That's their cover-up. They're prideful." And they're and they're easily offended because they don't want you to touch that thing inside of them. They don't want you to touch that wound, that pain, that insecurity. They want you to get off of them. And they act like their feelings are hurt. But really, they're prideful because they're afraid they're not right. They're not right on the inside. So they don't want no correction. They don't want no rebuke. They don't want no accountability. Because they know their heart ain't right. And they don't want nobody to see them for who they really are. You're not sensitive, you're prideful. You are proud. If somebody can't come to you and tell you the truth without you getting offended, you are prideful. And it can look like this, and still be pride. Pride ain't always like this. Sometimes it's like this.
Number five: Boastful. You know the bragging person. "I got more money than you. I got more cars than you. I got more stuff than you. I, I, I, I, I." I is the word of pride. You will never see pride without "I" following it somewhere near. Why do you have to brag about what you have? What do you have to boast? And the reason why they boast so much is confidence is what you think about yourself. Arrogance is what you want others to think about you. You have to convince everybody else you're important because you don't think you are. You don't think you are. Boastful. Why are you boasting? You don't deserve anything. And somebody has way more than you. Why are you bragging? Boastful. When someone's boastful, you know they struggle with pride.
Another one is a haughty attitude. Everyone say, "A haughty attitude." Have you ever met someone to think more highly of themselves than they ought to? "I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to talk to them. I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to clean up. I, I, I, I." You're haughty. And a haughty spirit will be brought down. A haughty spirit will be brought down. Who do you think you are? Nobody cares about what you know. Nobody cares about who you met. Nobody cares about your social media. You don't know what you deserve. Hell, on your best day, we get you at your best, and you earn hell at most. You at your best earns hell at most. You can't have a haughty spirit. Bring yourself. Bring yourself down. Bring yourself all the way down. Who are you? Who are you? But the grace of God. I'm telling you, how do you have a haughty spirit against God when God is the one that gave you that body? God doesn't want to give you that mind. He's the one that gave you that breath. He doesn't want to gave you activity of your limbs. How do you boast against the one who gave you everything? Satan, how do you come and say, "I will ascend above the Most High" when the Most High made you, created you, formed you? How do you boast?
And another one we have is comparison. Comparison. I would never forget. I was at the college campus. I decided to meet with a college kid weekly. One of his friends found out and he came up to me. He said, "Pastor KJ, because you meet with him weekly, you have to meet with me weekly." Really? Now, really? So because I meet with him, I have to meet with you? What arrogance. What pride. How do you know the Holy Spirit didn't tell me to meet with him? And if I didn't actually meet with you, it's probably because this conversation that the Holy Spirit knew what happened because your heart was faulty and prideful. And I would just waste my time meeting with you. Because if you feel like that, you don't need nobody to meet with you. You need to meet with God so He can remove your pride. I can't help you if you think you deserve something and I owe you something. That's pride.
And the thing that creates pride is comparison. You thinking you deserve something. "I deserve a better job. They have one. I deserve more money. They have one." I, I, I. "I deserve this." And then you tell your husband, "You got to buy me a new car because he bought her a new car." First of all, you are not deserving of a new car, period. But pride will have you comparing and feel like you deserve what you don't. And the root of all pride is insecurity. The root of all pride is insecurity. The reason why we're prideful is because truly, we're insecure. And we're afraid to be vulnerable. And we're afraid to be open. And we're afraid to be broken before God. And God is saying, "If you would come and humble yourself, if you will come lowly, if you won't come to me breached, and you will put your head down and bow before me, I can remove pride. If you would walk in humility, I can strengthen you."
Some of you guys can't even worship God because you're prideful. The very act of worship requires humility. "I don't want to be seen lifting my hands. I don't want to look like I'm all expressive. I don't want to look like I'm hurting and I'm broken. I'm not coming to the altar because I've been saved for five years and I don't want to look like I have problems and storms too." You're prideful. And the price of pride is staying the same. The price of pride is staying the same. Remember, I was at a conference and a pastor was praying for me. And literally, the prideful thought came in my head, "I hope people don't think I like, like going through something, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm living holy up here and praise God, like I'm not dealing with anything." I hope that I'm thinking I got some stuff going on. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That's how far we've fallen that we can't even come get prayer because we don't want to look broken. We don't want to look struggling. We don't want to look like we're hurting. We are proud. We're proud.
So as I'm getting ready to close, and my minister of music can begin to play, as I'm getting ready to close, also, I didn't preach long. The worship team was falling in the spirit. Don't y'all look at me crazy. It's 12:30. But we good because we're gonna let the Lord move. How do you remove pride? How do you remove it? How do you remove pride? You remove pride with humility. You remove it with humility. And where do you find humility? You find humility through gratitude. An attitude of gratitude. If you had a sermon last week, go back and listen to it. Had to go all through humility. I'll have the time right now. But gratitude. Whenever you start dealing with pride, start being grateful. Start being grateful.
Like, as I stand up here and I preach to you guys, yes, I have a dream. Yes, I have a vision. Yes, I'm believing for God to do bigger. But the truth is, I don't deserve to preach to you. I have struggles in the past and presently you know nothing about. I have shortcomings. I have pride that I deal with. And sometimes I have a haughty spirit and an arrogant attitude towards God. And I think that I deserve this because of my gift or my ability or the work I put in. And pride, remember Snoop on the video? He's like, "I want to thank me for all this hard work. I want to thank me for always being a giver. I want to thank me for going the extra mile." Boy, you better be quiet for God humbles you. You better thank God and be quiet.
And the truth of the matter is, you have to remember your testimony. It would bring you back to humility. How you up here acting spiritual, but you were sleeping with two guys in a month? How you up here acting spiritual, but you was dealing with masturbation? How you up here spiritually, but you watching porn? Really? Now, really? That's how that's how that's how lofty we are. That's all that's the haughty spirit we have. You're still dealing with stuff that people don't know about. And you got the nerve to think you deserve anything? You have what you have because of the goodness of God. You have what you have because of the grace of God. You don't deserve anything. So thank God in everything. God, thank You. I'm not mad. I don't got two thousand. I'm just happy that y'all here. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve everything I got is because of the hand of God. We have this building not because we have the money, because of God. We have this church not because of my ability, because the hand of God. I'm able to preach because God gave me the capacity and the ability to preach. And most of what I preach, I don't even think about. The Holy Spirit gives me. The truth is, I didn't study as hard as you think I did. I just prayed, and the Holy Spirit whispered to me, and I just said what He said. I don't deserve this. So God, thank You for giving me this opportunity. Thank You for giving me this church. Thank You for giving me this platform. Thank You that people will come and listen to what I have to say. Thank You that people would join our church. God, thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Because we deserve nothing. You better bow before God before He bows you. You can bow or get bowed. You can bow or get bowed. In God, I choose to bow so I don't have to get bowed. I choose to bow so I don't have to get bowed. And we have to have this posture coming into the things of God. We have to have. I don't care if it's your business. The Bible says, "It is the Lord that gives us the power to get wealth." If this ain't your posture, this will be your posture. But if you choose to do this, God will do this. If you humble yourself, God will exalt you. But if you exalt yourself, God will humble you.
All eyes closed. If you say you've dealt with pride, arrogance, a haughty spirit, thinking higher of yourself than you ought to, false humility when you're not really humble on the inside but you're projecting it externally, any of those things. God hates the proud looking. If you would remove pride and inaugurate humility, I believe you will see freedom in your life like you never imagined.
If you want prayer to break the, if you want prayer to break the yoke of pride, I want you to lift your hands. To lift your hands. See hands all over the room. And if there's someone else that's too prideful to lift your hand, lift it. It requires humility. It requires humility to break pride. Let me pray for you. Lord Jesus, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice. I pray You will remove the stains and the fragments of pride. I pray You will remove, God, our haughty spirit, God, and our arrogance that we think we've done this, and we deserve this, and we should have this, and we should have that. And You would humble us, God. You would bow us before You. And we would understand, God, that only You are worthy to be worshiped. Only You are worthy to be praised. Only Your name can be exalted, not ours. God, we pray right now, God, that pride is removed and humility is unleashed in the name of Jesus. And everyone said, "Amen." Give our King a shout of praise! Oh, come on, give our King a better one!
I got one thing to say before I close. And I think it's the most important thing I'll say. The Lord just dropped this in my spirit. He said, "Every fight, every argument, all discord, frustration, bitterness, every war, every church split, every business split, every calamity that's ever happened has been traced back to pride." Every divorce, at the root of it is pride. You cannot have divorce and not have pride. You, you, you cannot have discord and not have pride. You cannot have bitterness and frustration without having pride. Because the Bible says, "Where there is pride, there is strife." All strife is rooted in pride. Which means if y'all keep fighting, it's because y'all proud. Somebody can't admit, "Hey, I'm sorry, and it's my fault, and I shouldn't have done it, and I should have improved, and I should have changed, and I should have apologized, and I should come home more, and I should cook more, and I should clean more." You're prideful, and it's killing your relationships. It's killing your marriage. It's killing, it's killing, it's killing your positions at your job and at your church. Remove pride and watch humility comes. And where there's humility, there's grace. And where there's grace, there's God. And where there's God, there's breakthrough. And when there's breakthrough, there's transformation. And where there's transformation, there's a new creation in Christ Jesus. Oh, give Him a shout of praise!