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  GOD'S WARNINGS AGAINST PRIDE
  by Zac Poonen
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the dangers of pride and the importance
of humility using examples from the Bible. It highlights how individuals
who were once blessed by God fell into pride, leading to their downfall.
The message urges listeners to walk with Jesus in humility daily to
avoid the pitfalls of pride and to seek God's grace and guidance in all
aspects of life.

Topics: "Pride", "Humility"
Scripture References: Luke 6:42, 1 Corinthians 10:11, 1 Peter 5:6, James 4:6, Proverbs 16:18, Psalm 138:6, Philippians 2:3, Proverbs 11:2, Matthew 23:12, 2 Chronicles 7:14

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the dangers of pride and the importance of
humility using examples from the Bible. It highlights how individuals
who were once blessed by God fell into pride, leading to their downfall.
The message urges listeners to walk with Jesus in humility daily to
avoid the pitfalls of pride and to seek God's grace and guidance in all
aspects of life.

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CONTENT
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You know how I always begin when I come back from abroad. The Hindi
saying, सारे जहाँ से अच्छा है CFC हमारा The best place is CFC. There's
no place like home.

So being absent from here, only in spirit, only in body, but not in
spirit, it means being a blessing to a lot of other people in many other
countries. See, God has planted CFC churches now in about 12 countries.
It's not our work, it's God's work.

And many of them need encouragement, guidance, and here I have been here
with you longer than with any other church in the world. So I'm happy to
spend more time in other places and what is interestingly what is laid
in my heart this morning is very similar to the command we had for
memory today. Whoever wants to be first among you must be last.

We must never forget that. It's easy to remember that when we begin our
Christian life and when we look at the history of many churches they did
not bear that in mind. You've heard me say this many times it's easy for
God to bless anybody.

For that man to remain humble after God has blessed him it's very rare
and very difficult. And God has blessed CFC through the years. It's only
those who have been here from the beginning and in a sense, I think more
than anybody else only Ian knows here exactly how it was for us in the
early days.

How we were despised and rejected by all Christians and we said fine,
that's the way Jesus went so we'll go that way. And in a sense we were
safe in those days. Because we were outside the camp, despised,
rejected.

We had only God. But today we are in danger because we have the acclaim
and approval of many people who respect CFC. Our internet messages go to
about a hundred countries nearly and we get responses from all those
people.

They all know about CFC. We are in great danger and many of you have
also prospered financially and that is another cause of danger. I'm not
saying it's wrong to earn money with the cost of living going up.

It's right that we look for jobs with a good pay and get an increase in
salary. That's all okay. But along with money often if you look around
among worldly people and Christians pride comes in.

There's nothing wrong with a good salary. There's nothing wrong in
living a good house. There's everything wrong in being proud of it.

When we started CFC only I had a scooter and that was because I was I
had it from the Navy days. Nobody else had anything more than a cycle.
People used to come to the church meeting by bus or by cycle.

We were safe. I'm not saying poverty brings protection, but it's a
little safer. But now look at the number of people who have so much
wealth and cars and we need parking lots.

Nothing wrong in that again. The danger is if it makes you proud. You
can own a private jet airplane for yourself and not be proud.

But you can ride a bicycle and be proud. It's not the vehicle. It's not
the salary.

It's not all that poor people are humble. There are multitudes of poor
people in India, and they are not humble and there are many godly rich
people I have met who are extremely humble. So all I'm saying is we got
to be careful about sitting back and saying oh God has blessed us.

And people have appreciated us and that's the thing that we have to be
aware of. I want to begin with the verse in 1 Peter and chapter. See the
reason I mention is because if you study church history, I've studied
church history of the denominations that started well and where they are
today.

All of them, even denominations that started in the 20th century have
gone down and lost the grace of God. And many others from the time of
the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s. Many many many groups have come
up who came out of other groups because they said those groups
compromised the Word of God.

They're not preaching the whole counsel of God. They came out and that
was good. But over a period of time this group also declined and some
group came out of that.

That was good, but that group also declined. This has been the history
of the Christian Church particularly in the last 500 years. Some group
comes out with a great zeal for purity, to stand for the truth and there
are godly men whom God has raised up to lead this new group in that
direction.

But after a while, usually after about 40-50 years, decline sets in.
Sometimes it's a good group, maybe 60-70 years, decline sets in. And the
reason is very often they become almost invariably, they become proud.

We are the ones whom God has chosen in our generation to proclaim the
whole counsel of God. Aha! Beware of thinking like that. I often say to
myself God's work went on wonderfully before I was born and it will
continue wonderfully after I'm gone.

For a short period you and I are here on this earth let us do what we
can in humility and brokenness. Thankful that God gives us the privilege
of doing a little bit for his kingdom and never ever imagining that we
are somebody, we are nobody, all of us. 1 Peter chapter 5, I don't know
whether you've noticed the connection here.

Sometimes we read scripture and the Holy Spirit's put certain verses
together next to each other and we will see the connection. Here is one
of those passages like that. 1 Peter 5 verse 6, humble yourselves under
the mighty hand of God.

Therefore, why? Because in the previous verse it says, in the last part,
clothe yourself with humility towards one another because what is the
reason? God will oppose you if you are proud. It's terrible to have my
flesh opposes me, the devil opposes me, there are ungodly people who
oppose me, there are even Christians who oppose us. On top of all that,
if God himself opposes you, not just the devil, God himself opposes you,
there's no hope for any of us.

And it says here God is opposed to the proud. There's one group of
people that the Bible specifically says God opposes. We would think he
opposes the ungodly.

Some ungodly people are humble and broken like the repentant adulteress
whom Jesus forgave, like the repentant murderer on the cross whom Jesus
forgave, but the proud, like the other thief on the other side of the
cross, both were murderers. One was proud, the other was humble. That's
why one went to hell, the other went to heaven.

That's the only reason. It's not because one lived a better life. It was
humility that made the difference in the two thieves on the cross.

It was pride that made the difference. God is opposed to the proud.
Whether it's a person, whether it's a family, whether it's a church,
whether it's a preacher, whether it's anybody, apostle, prophet,
whatever, God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

When you ask God for grace, you'll get it only if you are humble. When
you ask God for the spirit of grace, the Holy Spirit is called the
spirit of grace and it's pictured in the Bible like a river of water,
and you know that water always flows to the lowest place first. The
humblest person sitting here will be the first among us to receive God's
power if God pours out his spirit.

I assure you, because the water always flows to the lowest place first,
and it's not about the question you think you're humble or I think I'm
humble. It's a question of whether God sees that you are humble. You
don't even have to pray for grace.

If a river is flowing, you don't have to pray that the river will come
to the lowest place. It'll automatically come. Pursue humility, dear
brothers and sisters, and then what will happen is, if you humble
yourself under the mighty hand of God, he will exalt you.

Exalt you does not mean that you'll become rich. It does not mean that
you'll become a great spiritual leader. It does not mean that you'll
become famous in the Christian world or in the rest of the world.

It means he will exalt you over sin. What do you want to be exalted
over? Over people? I hope not. Do you want to be exalted to be a great
famous Christian? I hope not.

I tell you, the passion of my heart for more than 40 years has been, I
want to be exalted over all sin in my life, and by sin, I mean anything
that is unlike Jesus Christ in my life, in my behavior, in my
conversation, in my attitude to people, in my attitude to money, in my
service for God, anything, anything unlike Christ, I want to be exalted
over it. I hope you have understood this verse like that. That's how I
understand it.

God will exalt you at the right time. What is the right time? The time
when he sees that you don't become proud over your victory. I remember
when I sought the Lord, I sought the Lord for victory for many, many
years, and I knew that was the right time.

And the right time was after God had broken me and humbled me through
repeated failures for a long time so that I would never lift up my head
to think that I got victory by myself. So that I would never lift up my
head and look down on another poor sinner or backslider as though I'm
better than him. God waited until that time.

He had to wait until he was sure that I will not lift up my head and
look down on a backslider, or look down on some sinner thinking that I
deserved salvation more than him. That is the proper time. And that's
why God is not able to exalt some of you, my dear brothers and sisters.

I love you, and that's why I tell you the truth. God longs to give you
victory, but there's a proper time. Already, even though you don't have
victory, some of you are already proud that you're better than somebody
here for some reason or the other.

Maybe you know the Bible better. Maybe you're a leader of some house
group. Maybe your message is that you preach a little better than
somebody else.

Maybe you can play a musical instrument better than others. God will
oppose you till the end of your life. He'll oppose you and destroy you.

Whatever you're proud of, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
That's what it says here. It's a mighty hand.

Imagine the Almighty God, hand of God, cannot humble you. What a proud
person you must be. And what is the mark? That you have humbled
yourself? Here it is.

God gives grace to the humble. And how do you know you got grace? You
know, the verse we have preached for 45 years. Sin shall not rule over
you when you are under grace.

All these 45 years, whenever I've slipped up even slightly in my
thoughts or with a rude word, I said, Lord, why did that happen? It
wasn't some gross sin, some small slip up. Why did that happen? And God
says, you did not get grace. Because if you had grace, you would not
have slipped up.

You would not have spoken that angry word. You would not have done that
wrong thing. You would not have got upset with your husband or your
wife.

You did not get grace at that moment. And then I say, Lord, why didn't I
get grace? Lord says, because you were proud. I give my grace only to
the humble.

So I learned that many years ago that whenever I'm defeated by sin, even
the slightest, supposing I find a thought I cannot conquer. Why? Only
one reason, pride. You continue to get irritated with your wife,
irritated with your husband, only one reason.

My brother, sister, don't say she is bad or he is bad. That is not the
reason. Jesus was surrounded by the most evil people in the world, yet
he never sinned.

Don't say, I've got a wicked wife or a bad husband. No, you are proud.
And you did not get grace.

That's the only reason you got upset and irritated and lost your temper.
At least remember that from today onwards. So that at least you can find
a solution for it by going to God and saying, Lord, tell me, how can I
get grace? And so whenever the Lord said to me, because you were proud,
you didn't get grace.

And because you didn't get grace, you slipped up there. The next
question I asked the Lord was, Lord, show me where I am proud. And
sometimes the Lord would show me something that happened the previous
week where God blessed me in some way and I was not quick to give the
glory to God.

While a little spiritual pride, I'm ashamed of it. But that's happened
so often in the past that now I'm very quick to immediately not touch
the glory of God. Do you know when you take credit for something that
God did through you, you're touching the glory of God? You're touching
something that's holy and if you did that in the old covenant, you'd be
smitten dead immediately.

Uzzah once touched the ark of God. He just touched it and he was smitten
to death. Thank God we are under the new covenant.

Have you touched the glory of God somewhere? Have you taken credit for
your well-behaved children? God have mercy on you. Have you taken credit
for the way you have prospered in your work or grown spiritually? God
have mercy on you. You look down on others thinking that you're better
than them instead of recognizing that it is God's mercy that's made you
what you are.

Humble yourself my brother and don't think that God cannot help you in
tough situations, difficult situations. It says in verse 7, cast your
anxiety upon him because he cares for you. I love that.

God is not only opposed to the proud. He gives grace and he cares for
you. I love that verse.

Oh father, you care for me. You care for me. So I don't want to grab
anything.

I don't want to fight with anybody for anything. I will not wrestle with
flesh and blood for anything. We've had a couple of examples in our CFC
churches of people who left CFC in some other parts of India and walked
away with the church building which was financed with CFC money.

I said take it. I will not fight with flesh and blood for anything. I'm
too busy fighting with Satan and evil forces.

I have no time to come down to the level of fighting with human beings
over silly things like property. Take it. Maybe you don't have that
attitude and that's why you're struggling with sin because that property
is more important for you than victory over sin.

No property on earth or church property or my property is more important
to me than living a pure Christ-like life. You take that attitude and I
tell you, you will come to victory very quickly. Your home life will be
transformed.

Your children will follow the Lord. So many wonderful things will happen
in your life which you're missing all these years because you're seeking
the wrong things first. Cast your anxiety on him because he cares for
you.

Never forget this verse. My brothers, I don't care who you are. He cares
for you.

And if God cares for me, why do I have to worry? I don't have to worry
about anything. People cannot take a hair from my head, cannot touch a
hair on my head without God's permission. He cares for us.

That's why we have no anxiety. And then this is the connection I wanted
you to see. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God because God
gives grace to the humble.

Because, verse 8, be sober in this area. That means be very serious
about this because your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion seeking someone to devour. How do you understand that verse? You
think it's persecution? Let me tell you something.

It says the devil's seeking to someone to devour. He has never in these
2,000 years devoured any Christian by persecution. Never.

Persecution purifies the church. Persecution purifies Christians. He
devours people by pride.

That's what that verse is referring to. That's why it is written in the
context of humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Verse 6, why
should you humble yourself? Because the devil who became the devil
through pride is like a roaring lion.

His roar is the roar of pride and he is seeking to swallow as many
people as possible, not only in the world, but even among believers and
even in CFC through pride. So be alert. Be sober.

I don't want to say that. Oh, I preserved myself so long. So I'll be all
right.

No. It is God who preserves me. But I have a responsibility to be of
sober spirit.

That means to be serious and not to think that Oh, I am beyond now. It's
gone well with me for so long. So it'll go well with me forever.

Then I'm in danger. I want to have a sober spirit which says I want to
be alert all the time against this roaring lion who's roaring and
roaming around and these roam around CFC churches and I'll tell you a
number of cases I have seen in the last 45 years elder brothers who have
fallen devoured by Satan not by persecution By pride they prospered
financially after falling away And you know what they say? Ah, see We
stood against CFC and God has prospered us financially. Just look around
the world and see who are the people prospering financially today in
other religions and you'll see whether it is a blessing of God or
something else Don't ever think that financial prosperity is the
blessing of God.

God gives us more than enough of what we need But that is not the
primary blessing of God That is the bonus he throws in, you know, like
you work in a company not for bonus You work in a company for a salary
The bonus is thrown in extra whether you get it or don't get it. You
work for your salary And the salary God gives us is victory over sin The
bonus is a little financial blessing of prosperity Always look at that
as a bonus And not a salary. None of you will work in a company just to
get a bonus You work for a salary I want my salary overcoming sin And if
the bonus is thrown in of financial prosperity, I accept it.

If not, it's quite okay But that's not what I live for so I was thinking
of this In relation to you know, the old testament is written as an
example. I want you to see a verse in 1 corinthians 10 which says about
old testament Why is three quarters of the bible old testament? We live
under the new covenant, but yet three quarters of the bible is old
testament stories and many things like that And there's a reason 1
corinthians 10 verse 6 says I believe this refers to the entire old
testament The things that happen there Are examples for us That we
should not crave for those evil things as they also craved of course
It's referring to the people in the wilderness Who disobeyed god, but I
can say it refers to all those people in the old testament Who made a
mistake of seeking something? So I want to give you a few examples as I
was studying this subject I found There are many more examples, but i'll
give you 10 examples Of people Who missed out on what god had for them
because of pride a warning for us And the first example so well,
sometimes we don't think of it is eve Eve disobeyed, but what was the
reason for her disobedience? The devil told eve Look at this lovely
fruit genesis 3 You know why god doesn't want you to eat it Because he
knows genesis 3 verse 5 you will be like him And he doesn't want you to
be like him He wants to be alone god You'll become like him And god is
scared that you'll become like him. So he doesn't allow you to eat it
Can you can you imagine how stupid eve was created perfect? she became
stupid because She thought thought that god did not love her And when
you see pride there the pride is feeling I know better than god I know
god has told me don't Eat this, but I know better I'll eat it Every time
you commit a sin, which god says don't do You're manifesting the same
pride.

I know better than god You make a false statement in your office to make
a little more money Okay, you make a little more money But you know,
it's unrighteous You know, it's a lie And you think god will bless you
in spite of that lie and you think I know better than god And that's why
you'll suffer See, this is how satan himself became the devil. He was
the highest of the angels Given authority over everything And he said I
want to be like god pride. I want to be like god I want to be up above
there you read that in isaiah 14 That's how he fell and the same
infection He gave to eve verse genesis 3 5 you will be like god That's
that is what he had in his heart and how he became the devil did he tell
eve that's how I became the devil by the way No And when you puff
yourself up about anything Does the devil devil remind you remember
that's how I became the devil.

Will he tell you that when you're getting puffed up? No He doesn't want
you to imagine that you're puffing yourself up and losing the grace of
god He doesn't want you to know that that's how the devil became the
devil He doesn't want you to know that he's coming as a roaring lion to
you at that moment What does peter say be alert Every moment be sober
don't play the fool with christianity be alert So that's the first
example And then we move to another example and that is some small some
big And that is noah, you know after god has blessed us I told you it's
easy for god to bless somebody But to remain In humble after god has
blessed us. It's difficult. You know the story of noah.

I don't have to tell you He was the one man one single man Who saved
this earth from destruction? All of us are here because of noah If noah
was unfaithful There was no one on earth that was faithful. This world
would have been destroyed you and I would not have been born That's why
i'm eager to meet noah when I get to heaven and say brother, thank you
so much because of you i'm in heaven Otherwise, I wouldn't even have
been born because god found one man to be faithful It's an interesting
thing that we see in the old testament and also in the new testament and
in church history very often God does his work through one man Half the
new testament would not have been written if paul was not there one man
One man It was like that in jeremiah's time one man who stood up for god
Just like that in noah's time And then when he comes out of the ark, can
you imagine? How he must have felt wow Because of me my family is saved
I am somebody God has blessed me now see genesis 9 And god blessed noah
verse 1 And verse 20 noah began farming and planted a vineyard and drank
the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent Is it
god's will? For a man to drink a little wine. It's okay, but to get
drunk and to strip your clothes and Lie down naked in an open tent Is
that a man of god how did it happen I believe it was pride See who I am
see what god's done through me And it doesn't matter whether it's old
testament or new testament.

It may be written only in the new testament But god has always been the
same. He resists the proud It's not that suddenly he started resisting
the proud in the new testament. He always resisted the proud Even if it
is his favorite servant noah That's the thing we have to remember I
mean, I would be ashamed if I get drunk and lie naked somewhere It would
mean that what lord what happened? I lost grace from you somewhere.

Wouldn't you be ashamed? It's really Amazing Warning these things are
written for us as a warning The next example I would mention is abraham
Turn with me to genesis 12 and see what god told abraham Verse 2 genesis
12. I'll make you a great nation And the last part of verse 3 all the
families of the earth are going to be blessed through you Imagine if god
said that to you. I sometimes read the scripture And I put myself in
that person's place.

It's a good thing to do How would I have felt? If god almighty came to
me among all the millions of people on the earth and say I'm going to
bless every family on the earth through you Oh I'd have to be really
watchful That I remain broken and humble before god and because And god
said i'm going to through your seed and remember abraham and sarah had
no children And We read that it made him a little proud That's why later
on you read that He went to egypt without consulting god God had told
him stay in canaan No, he said no. I think I can go to egypt. There's no
food here.

I'll go to canaan See it's a small little step god had told him you go
to the land I will show you and you'll be there Genesis 3 12 7 I did
i'll give you this land But when he went there It says in verse 10 there
was a famine in the land and that's what happens often when we obey god
we run into problems You get into jesus and cross the lake at jesus
command and there's a storm But the storm does not mean that you've
disobeyed god. No The famine does not mean you've disobeyed god you went
where god told you to go and if there's a storm or a famine You stay
there God told me to be here Did he consult god no I'll go to egypt. Hey
abraham.

God's told you to be in canaan. No, no, no There's no food here. I
better go to egypt And you know what happened in egypt? one big mistake
He saw that all the egyptians have got maid servants To help their wives
So he decided to get a maid servant from egypt called hagar And you know
the story How he got a son through hagar Which was the cause of problems
and problems and problems Even though god had told him I will give you a
son through sarah When he didn't get a son for a long time He thought
i've got to help god genesis 16 Sarah abraham's wife had no children So
they had this egyptian maid called hagar genesis 16-1.

Where did hagar come from? He would she would never have come into
abraham's house if he abraham had not gone to egypt See how one little
wrong step leads to umpteen problems that caused problems for abraham
and his children for centuries One little wrong step without consulting
god god tells you to go here And you have a little problem there So you
go somewhere else and then sarah said see I don't have any children. We
got to help god a little bit you know and abraham listened to his wife
Foolishly and he got a son It was the pride. I believe that there was a
pride that i'm the chosen one and I can do what I like that very often
happens like that Okay, let me give you another example that's Jacob and
you know the story of jacob.

These are examples written for our instruction Abraham was proud i'm
chosen one It says about jacob in genesis chapter 25 and verse 23 when
his wife Rebecca was expecting twins The lord said to rebecca and also
to isaac at that time genesis 25 verse 23 Verse 23 It's not just two
children in your womb. There are two nations in your womb One is the
nation of israel and another nation One will come through jacob. The
other will come through esau but the last part of verse 23 the older
esau will serve the younger Jacob will be the leader Even though he's
the younger twin and yet Jacob knew that And yet when the time came when
isaac said I don't want to go into all those details You read that in
genesis 27 I will bless you.

He called esau and said isaac knew that god had said the younger one has
to be blessed but the bible says that isaac loved the Dear meat called
venison dear meat so much That this is forget about what god said I love
meat that esau can cook and bring i'll bless you esau and jacob Rebecca
heard it and told jacob Hey, listen, your father's going to bless Esau
Today as soon as he brings the meat Jacob could have said I don't have
to help god my grandfather Abraham tried to help god and you know what
happened? Ishmael was born I don't have to help god. God can if god has
said i'm going to get the blessing i'll get it I don't have to fight for
it He never said that He listened to his mother You know the number of
believers who listen to their mother more than they listen to god I have
met numerous people like that They listen to their parents and want to
god. There are some of you sitting here.

I know Who have listened to your parents more than you listen to god
learn a lesson from what happened to jacob His mother said I want to get
you god's blessing really Listen to god and not to your mother If she
takes you in some other direction Honor god and jacob could have said
mom God's told me i'll get the blessing I can trust him I don't have to
try these secret techniques of pretending to be esau and telling lies.
No And because he cheated He had to run away And see how god finally
dealt with him genesis 32 God did not forsake jacob, even though he
deceived and told didn't trust him One day when jacob was alone genesis
32 24 Jacob was left alone You know the reason why god does not meet
with some of you I'll tell you Because you never take time To be alone
with god You like to meet god in the meeting here in the crowd of other
people. Yeah, there's a blessing here.

Definitely But there are personal encounters That we need to have with
god that you can have only when you are alone Jacob was left alone
That's the time god met with him And it says here god wrestled and it
says a man wrestled as god was trying to teach him For 20 years and more
i've been trying to wrestle with you To humble you break you to stop
trusting in yourself and to trust me But he did not succeed and then we
read that god dislocated jacob's thigh verse 25 And after that he had to
limp He was a young man By the standards of those days when people lived
up to 150 years and all A young man and from that day onwards he had to
walk with a cane When if you see a 25 year old young man walking with a
cane and some of you are 25 If you have to come walking with a cane to
the church every sunday How will you feel it's pretty humiliating. It's
all right for people who are 60 or 70, but 25 year old young man walking
with a cane Because his His hip socket was dislocated by god and that's
when god told him Now I have broken you jacob Now onwards verse 28 you
will be called israel Because You have prevailed It's very interesting.
The only time The time rather the time that god could tell is jacob.

You're becoming israel is when He broke him It was that pride in jacob
He thought he was very smart. He could deceive his father-in-law And all
that god broke him And when you turn to the new testament You see this
wonderful verse and some of you already know it, but let me mention it
to those who don't know hebrews 11 It's an amazing verse You know that
hebrews 11 is the chapter of amazing miracles abraham Had a son as an
old man Samson his mighty power manifested and killed lions Jericho the
joshua pulled down the walls of jericho moses split the red sea All
these things are mentioned in this And people were raised from the dead
It says here in verse 35 But in the midst of all these miracles
fantastic miracles It's written about jacob. What is his miracle?
hebrews 11 21 He leaned on the top of his staff That's his miracle.

He's walking with a cane You see what sort of a miracle is that to come
in hebrews 11? I think it is the greatest miracle in hebrews 11 That god
succeeded in breaking a proud man To teach him like you're leaning upon
this cane jacob Lean upon me for the rest of your life And so he had
revelation which his father isaac did not have it's a very interesting
story When isaac wanted to bless He was blind. That's how jacob could
fool him And he gives the blessing to the wrong person Isaac Gives the
blessing to the wrong person because he's blind You know, it says in
genesis towards the end of genesis that jacob was also blind When joseph
brought his two children elder son Manasseh younger son ephraim To jacob
and he made sure that you know, the right hand is the hand of blessing
So he brought manasseh towards jacob's right hand And ephraim towards
jacob's left hand And said I mean my father's blind. Let me bring him
there And you know what jacob did he crossed his hands And joseph said
no, no, no And the wonderful words of jacob you read that in genesis My
son, I know I know That's what a man of god says.

I know I know things you don't know This younger boy is going to be
blessed and you read the rest of the old testament. Ephraim was blessed
more than manasseh Where did jacob get such a revelation? Because he had
learned to lean upon his staff He had learned to lean upon god. He was
not the proud man He was in his younger days and if god can bring you
and me to that place where all our life Will say till the end of my life
lord.

I will lean upon you You will get revelation too. God will show you
amazing things in scripture That other people can never teach you Let me
now show you the example of moses in numbers the proud jacob and the
humble jacob what a difference In numbers it says something about moses
amazing word in numbers chapter 12 verse 3 The man moses was very humble
More than any man on the face of the earth The next person about whom it
can be said He was the humblest person who walked on the earth was jesus
christ But in moses day, he was the humblest man that walked on the face
of the earth You see moses wrote the first five books of genesis to
deuteronomy of the old testament, but This is put in brackets because
moses didn't write this somebody else added it there just by the way
Moses was the humblest man on the face of the earth. God inspired
somebody else to add that sentence there But this man who was the
humblest man on the face of the earth at that time One day when god told
him, you know when the people were asking for water and numbers chapter
20 and The people cried out for water we had we don't have any water to
drink numbers 20 verse 5 And they went to god and god said to moses
verse 8 take the rod And speak to the rock moses remember 40 years ago
In exodus 17, I told you to hit the rock And the water came out If I
were to paraphrase god's words But that rock being hit is a picture of
christ being crucified And he does not have to be crucified a second
time So this time when the water you don't hit it Because christ is not
going to be crucified a second time speak to it and the water will come
verse 8 numbers 20 verse 8 And the water will come but moses said i'm
the man whom god has blessed he was proud See people fall into sin only
when they are proud Moses took the rod and he lost his temper And he
said in verse 10 you rebels.

Are we going to bring water out of the rock? What do you mean we? Look
at the did you see that word? Shall we? As if moses can bring water out
of the rock amazing how We think that just because god used you to bless
somebody Say we We are the ones who blessed so-and-so garbage I want to
tell you my brother sister you can bless nobody Even if you're the most
spiritual man on the face of the earth only god blesses But this
humblest man moses Began to think we I Am the man who is blessed It can
happen to you. These things are written for our instruction And instead
of speaking to the rock, it says he lifted up his hand verse 11 and
struck the rock not just once but twice Does god bless? Disobedience to
his word. This is a very big question Here you see did the water come
out or not? What do you say? Yes, why because god loved those two
million people In spite of the disobedience of his servant god blessed
those people people ask me the question Women are not supposed to teach
god's word.

What about all these women who preach on television? Does god bless
their word? Here's the answer She may disobey god's word, but god loves
the people and he blesses them But like god dealt with moses later on he
will deal with that woman for doing what bible tells her not to do A
woman is not called to teach god's word. It's a position of authority
She can testify she can share her testimony Share what she's received
from the god's word, but the moment she begins to teach she's going into
territory god is forbidden But does god bless such people sure? What
about all these crooked preachers? Who are making money from poor people
preaching the prosperity gospel making millions for themselves. Does god
bless what they preach? Yes Here's the proof disobedient servants of god
are blessed because god loves the people that Hundred thousand people
sitting there listening to them god loves them But he'll deal with the
servant later on and all these people who disobey god's word one day at
the judgment seat of christ.

He'll He'll deal with them when they say lord we did so many things in
your name We preach with this and he said depart from me. I don't even
know you here moses As soon as he disobeyed, okay, the water came out
because god loved the people but then moses the lord said immediately to
moses moses 40 years You were waiting waiting waiting to enter the
promised land. You're punished.

You will not enter the promised land verse 12 That was the biggest blow
if god had said to him you'll get leprosy that would have been much
better He gave him the greatest punishment that he could ever get you
will not enter the promised land Yeah, that's what happens to humble
people when they become proud They miss out on god's blessing now, you
know if You later on you read I don't have time to show you that it says
here in God, you know that god did bring moses into the promised land
once in matthew 17 on the mount of transfiguration with jesus It says
moses god said to moses. Listen, I don't forget that you were faithful
for 40 years So even though he punished you there i'll bring you into
the promised land in a better much better position when my son jesus is
there God is a good god. I tell you So merciful even when he's strict
and dealing with us When if you have been faithful to live for him He's
merciful.

I want to show you another example in book of judges And that's the
example of gideon You know gideon, by the way, I don't know whether you
know it Is the first person? About whom is written like this in
scripture The spirit of the lord came mightily came upon a person Where
do you read it first time in scripture? judges 6 34 The spirit of the
lord came upon gideon And he went out with his army of 300 people And
destroyed the whole Midianite army And he became a big man And the men
of israel genesis, sorry judges chapter 8 verse 22 When gideon got this
great victory and he was happy to see how god had used him The men of
israel said rule over us now both you and your son And gideon takes a
very humble position There are many lessons to learn from the old
testament. Gideon said I will not rule over you My son will not rule
over you. The lord will rule over you.

He said boy What a humble man. I wish he had stopped there But he didn't
stop there He said but you can do one thing for me Give me all your gold
Because I won this battle for you So he felt he won the battle You got
to reward me take off all your gold earrings and Give it all to me and
it says they in the next verse 24 And the weight of the gold earrings
verse 26 that he got was 1700 shekels boy That is tons of gold. He
became a billionaire How did it happen? pride He thought I did this I'm
giving you examples from the old testament like that.

I want to show you one more example and you know the story of samson
that's another great example in judges where I don't have to show you
the reference how god used him to mighty victories With one joe bone of
an ass he drove away so many philistines and all that but then he
thought I'm god is blessing me I can fool around a little bit with women
Do you know the number of preachers? in the last 50 years all over the
world Who've been mightily used by god When they were humble But they
began to think yeah, it doesn't matter if I fool around a little bit
with women now Watch a little pornography perhaps or fool around with
somebody who's not my wife Number of preachers Through pride and
arrogance I've missed out the blessing of god. It's easy for god to
bless a person Very difficult for that man to remain humble and to keep
on receiving god's blessing these things are written for our instruction
Okay. Now another great example is samuel Now, you know samuel was the
man when he was a young boy God gave a message To eli the high priest of
that time Through samuel listen to this one samuel chapter 3 verse 10
The lord came to samuel and at other times at samuel and samuel said
speak And the lord said one samuel 3 11 I'm going to do a thing at which
the years of everyone will tingle And he said About the sin of eli's
children And god spoke many things warning samuel about the way eli has
allowed his two sons to be wayward I'm going to punish eli And god and
samuel told eli and eli came next day to him.

What is the word the lord spoke to you? And verse 18 samuel told him
everything Now samuel became a prophet It's a tremendous thing. You
know, you're a young 10 year old and you're a prophet I don't blame
samuel. It must have been very difficult for him in that day.

He didn't have the example of jesus christ Not to be proud 10 year old
boy being a prophet And growing up year after year after year and
becoming a prophet but samuel grew older And you know what he did This
is another danger even samuel blundered One samuel chapter 8 verse 1 He
had two sons And he appointed his two sons As judges Why did he do that?
He didn't see god about it He thought I was blessed. So what I do god
will bless no Just because you've been blessed doesn't mean you've got
to bless anything you do Verse 2 He appointed his two sons and listen to
this verse 3 His two sons did not walk in his ways. They took bribes And
they cheated people they perverted justice took bribes from Criminals
and set them free And the elders the news went around samuel's sons are
wayward Whose are this whose sons are these the same man who had warned
eli about his sons? I've come across cases like this of preachers who
have warned other people about something They themselves go and do the
same thing people.

They warned about some other people's children and they themselves Their
own children are going straight. Be very careful before you go around
criticizing other people's children Be very careful when you go around
criticizing other people's children. See what happened to samuel Leave
them to god if you want to do something pray for them There's a great
danger of some people sitting here Who look at the waywardness of the
child of somebody else in this church? And you speak against it because
you brought up your children so well.

Oh Beware of the same thing that happened to samuel can happen to you He
became proud And his two sons went astray Till the whole elders of
israel came to know about it and said samuel your sons are not walking
in your ways. They are wicked Another example from the old testament to
warn us. Let me give you one more example from the old testament and
that is Saul We read this in one samuel in chapter 10 When samuel's sons
failed They said give us a king.

We don't want any more of these judges So god said okay, let them have a
king They rejected me as king. Let them have their own king And they
took lots There were 12 tribes they took lots and different different
families and they took lots Because they believed in the old testament
that if you take a lot throw them throw the lord Ultimately god will
pick out the right person and they threw the lots for the whole Tribe of
israel and they picked out one man's name Saul Who was the son of kish
from the tribe of benjamin in one samuel 10 They looked for saul. Hey
verse 21 Middle of verse 21 saul was chosen and listen to this They
announced the name saul son of kish has been chosen as king come forward
I mean this crowd of people And it says he could not be found can you
imagine what a humble man he was One samuel 10 turning on.

Hey, I don't want to be king I'm, just an ordinary person. I can't do
this And it says in verse 22 he was hiding inside Some baggage some
people's luggage was there. He was hiding under the suitcases Can you
imagine the man who was chosen to begin he didn't want to be king and he
was hiding himself I mean so different from Today when people say I want
to make you A ruler or an elder there.

Oh, they rush forward. Sure because I think i'm worthy for it They
wanted to make jesus king and he ran away Saul was like that, but the
same saul One day Disobeyed god And we read also that he offered up
sacrifice as if he was a priest, you know in the olden days The king's
job was one the priest's job was another A king could never be a priest
and a priest could never be a king And there was a reason for it the
first king priest Was to be jesus christ. Nobody else The lord says that
you are a king, uh after the order of melchizedek a king and a priest
But in the nation of israel melchizedek was outside israel in the nation
of israel Nobody was allowed to be a king and a priest That was reserved
for christ But samuel but Saul we read in 1 samuel 15 he went and
Offered the sacrifice I'm, sorry.

It's 1 samuel 13. He offered the sacrifice when god told him not to do
it And samuel came just in time after that and said why have you done
this you've committed a terrible sin In doing this This is the same man
who once upon a time Did not even want to be a king but here we read
That 1 samuel chapter 13 verse 11 samuel said what have you done? You're
not supposed to offer the peace offering it says in verse 9 saul offered
it And the lord said and samuel said to saul Because you've done this
The lord has taken away verse 13 the kingdom from you Verse 14 your
kingdom will not endure You were called to be a king and you tried to be
a priest as well the same man who did not want to be a king It's easy
for god to bless someone difficult for them to remain humble once they
are blessed Okay, here's another example in david you know how david was
so blessed when he was looking after the sheep in the wilderness and
running off from Saul cave to cave. He was writing psalms.

He was writing scripture those days Many of the psalms that david wrote
were written Before he was 30 years old before he became king When he
was strumming the guitar and looking after the sheep when he was running
from cave to cave escaping From saul he wrote psalms inspired by god,
but once he became king This man was so blessed by god See what happened
to him one sam second samuel chapter 11 One time when the kings go to
battle in those days When an army went to battle the person in front of
the battle was the king He was the leader. He was the general of the
army And it says here in second samuel 11 verse 1 When kings go to
battle David should have gone But he says well i'm a big man now I don't
have to go for these battles and all let somebody else go And he stayed
at jerusalem second samuel 11 verse 1, you know what happened In the
evening He got up from his bed He's sleeping lazy He should have been
praying for his army The best thing to do when you get up from bed is to
pray Before you do anything else even before you get out of bed pray
David just got up from bed big man I'm the man who has written scripture
I'm the man who's killed goliath Tore a lion to pieces. I'm the man of
god And he walks on the roof and he looks out to the other across the
Wall and he sees a woman bathing.

What should he have done? He should have immediately turned around and
gone back to his room but no He keeps staring And he's tempted And you
know till today people talk about david and batsheba All because he did
not go to battle when he should have gone he did not go to the prayer
meeting He was too lazy slept And when he got up from bed, he didn't
pray he said i'm okay i'm a big man And the calamity that came it's
happened to many many people after that. He was proud And he lost the
grace and grace of god upon him And the last example I want to give is
of course judas iscariot Says in luke chapter 6 see the context in which
it comes Luke 6 This is the one time in the bible where it says jesus
went and prayed all night And he prayed all night for one reason because
he wanted to select the right 12 people to be his apostles He had 70 he
had others but he's among these 70 who's the one i'm to choose And it
says here he went out to pray a whole night verse 12 And what was he
praying? father Show me who should be the 12 who should be the 12 who
should be the ones i'm to select to be the leaders of my church This is
not a sudden decision Small decisions you can pray over two three
minutes and take a decision But this is a major decision that's going to
affect the world for the next 2000 years Major decisions you have to
pray longer He prayed all night And when the day came he had it clear in
his mind the father told him Verse 14 simon Andrew james john philip
bartholomew matthew thomas james simon judas And judas iscariot verse 16
who became a traitor. He was not a traitor then When it's somebody when
it says somebody became a leper It doesn't mean he was always a leper
When it says he became a traitor means he was not always a traitor.

He was selected to be an apostle. I believe That he could have written
the epistles that paul wrote Because judas iscariot was the cleverest of
all the disciples He was a postgraduate But he missed the crown, you
know that verse in revelation chapter 3 which says hold on to your crown
Let somebody else take it in revelation 3 judas iscariot Was to be given
a crown but paul got it paul got his crown and judas's crown as well And
judas iscariot now. This is before he became a traitor He's selected and
can you imagine out of all these disciples standing out jesus calling
out names? And judas his name is called ba i am one of the chosen and
that went to his head And he became a traitor he didn't go to the head
of the others What are these things written for these things are written
for our instruction? Turn back to the verse I read in 1 corinthians 10
These things happened as an example for us Remember this That's why
three quarters of the bible is the old testament These things have
happened as an example for you and me God may bless you mightily like
all these people But see what happened finally They were confident in
themselves the failure of all of them Was they began to have self-
confidence and I believe That is the danger that can happen to us when
god has blessed us It's the thing that has happened to many many groups
through the years that god has blessed us and he'll always continue to
bless us God has blessed cfc for 45 years He will continue to bless us
Not necessarily my brother sister Humble yourself under the mighty hand
of god Don't look down on other denominations Don't say like the
pharisee lord.

We thank you. We are not like the other churches We understand the new
covenant lord God have mercy on us If we ever come to that place but
There are individuals sitting here and there in our cfc churches who
think like that And that's why the grace of god is not upon them or upon
their children if it goes well with you Give the glory to god if it goes
well with your children Please listen Don't ever ever ever Compare your
children with other people's children. That is how your children will
get ruined And some of you have ruined your children Because you have
secretly boasted about them As if they are better than others Where are
they today you've encouraged them to be proud That they are better than
others and superior to others spiritually and where are they now Don't
blame them Oh brother, they are going astray You led them astray because
you were proud of them and filled their heads with pride thinking making
them think they are better than others They have a tremendous
responsibility as fathers and mothers Don't blame others take the blame
yourself Say lord I failed These things are written remember what
happened to samuel Classic example.

Oh eli's children are like that. Uh-huh Samuel just wait till your
children grow up. Let's see what happens These things are written as an
example for us families churches Humble yourself under the mighty hand
of god I've come across so many different christian groups in my life
I've come across very fine preachers and different ones, but i've tell
you i have seen very very few people in my entire life Who have
consistently and heard of very very few people Who've endured until the
end? In humility Who never say? Lord, I thank you that i'm not like
other men I thank you that my children are not like other people's
children I thank you that my church is not like other people's church.

I thank you that we have understood all things better than other
churches very few people it's amazing how pride comes in So people have
asked me this question through the years brother zach What is the secret
of remaining in humility Always very simple If you walk with a humble
man You'll be humble And the humblest man that walked on the earth was
jesus christ Walk with him every day When you begin a day, this is how I
begin my day and I before I get out of bed The first person I talk to is
jesus christ first person Lord jesus I want to walk with you today I
don't want to be a great preacher I don't want to do any great things
for you I just want to walk with you in humility in brokenness In purity
or sin In my thought life In my conversation that I never get angry
Never get never murmur or complain about anything In my relationship
with my wife who's the one I see every day Lord, please preserve me. I'm
a weak person I'm the chief of all the sinners, but I know you can keep
me In with the grace of god upon my life till the end of my days I will
encourage you walk with jesus Walk with him every day It's the greatest
honor we can have The king of kings that I can walk with him. You will
never Never become proud of anything in your life Amen And the grace of
god will be upon you till the end of your days may it be so Amen, let's
pray Let's bow our heads in prayer brothers and sisters please Remember
and meditate on what we heard Or listen to the tape again later Listen
to it often So that you're reminded of the failures of other people
learn from the failures of others And never never say it will not happen
to me Lord have mercy on us We are in great danger.

The devil is Walking about as a roaring lion seeking to devour people
with pride And yet in the midst of all we hear your word saying come
learn from me For I am humble of heart And you shall find rest for your
souls we want to learn from you lord Lord jesus, we want to see your
example in the little things we read in the gospels And walk that way
till the end of our life. We thank you for your mercy upon us We thank
you that your mercy has preserved us and our children and our families
and everything else. We give you all the glory Heavenly father for being
such a loving father to us warning us in advance of dangers.

We will face We thank you in jesus name Amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/oIv0NvlOoXs.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/gods-warnings-against-pride/
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