24/02/2022
Pride
2022.02.20
1 Corinthians 10:13
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
God will not allow temptations that we cannot overcome but if temptation came to us, He will give us a way to escape or overcome it. Just pray that God opens our eyes to see those ways.
How to overcome every temptation?
Inside ourselves, there are 2 things. Pride and self-esteem.
What is the difference?
There’s very little difference between the two. Pride always comes from other people’s comments, reactions while self-esteem comes from himself.
Let’s look at these situations :
1. Naaman Story
This is the story of Naaman. He was a noble commander of the King of Aram. The king liked him. He was a great warrior and he did great things in the kingdom that’s why people respect him and clap him wherever he goes.
Naaman was kind to great and small people. He was respected and loved by everyone because even the slave has a concern about him. Naaman has leprosy and the servant girl told him to go to the prophet of Israel.
V9-10
Naaman listened. He went to Prophet Elisha. He was excited to go there. He brought many gifts with his servants. He humbly and patiently waits for Elisha to meet him. However, Elisha didn’t go out to meet him. It’s very rude. Naaman’s feeling was not good. Maybe, no one did like that to him. Even higher officials respected him.
Why Naaman was angry?
Do you understand Naaman’s feelings? We can understand his feelings. If it happens to us, surely our feeling is not good.
He was angry not because he needs to wash his body in Jordan River but because Elisha treated him rudely. He was one of the top officers and his pride was already high. He was hurt because of his pride.
In slave’s eyes, it’s so easy to bathe in Jordan River 7 times but why Naaman was angry? Because slaves have no pride. They are not easily hurt. That’s why they couldn’t understand Naaman’s feelings.
If we have pride, we cannot receive the grace given to us. We need to choose. Remove pride and receive grace or with pride and lost grace.
But Naaman was wise. He listened to his slave and he felt that it was easy to bathe in the Jordan River. (Remember that Jordan River is like a Pasig River. It’s dirty.) It can be very shameful to him. But doing this, all his pride can be put down. It means, he needs to die. Not only once but 7 times. 7 is a perfect number in the bible. It means that unless cleans perfectly and no more stains of pride, must do it continually.
God is always giving us the grace to change. Until we change, God will continually allow the same situations in our lives to change us not other people.
The strategy of Satan. Elasticity.
Satan binds us so that we can’t go to grace.
When we are trying to go to grace by endurance, we can easily turn back because we are bound to Satan. Must cut off this bond. Put down your pride. We should think, we are the servant and we are the sinners.
if we are sinner and servant it means we don't have any pride!
Spiritual Leprosy means arrogance or pride.
It means that if we want to be perfectly cleansed with spiritual leprosy, we must put down our pride.
2. The story of the Canaanite woman
Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus in Tyre & Sidon, A gentile place.
In this situation, a gentile woman who knows Jesus as a Messiah begged for her daughter’s healing. Even though she is a gentile but she knows the God of Israel and she heard many miracles happen to the Israelites.
Exodus 33:19
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
God said He can give grace and compassion to whom He wanted. It’s not because of the people but it’s up to Him.
V24
God chose Israel. His grace belongs to the Israelites.
The woman knew what God said to Israel in the past. That’s why even the disciples were angry with her. (Remember that gentiles cannot mingle with the Jews).
The woman experienced a very terrible and shameful situation with Jesus and the disciples. She has been rejected by the disciples and rejected by Jesus.
The woman could feel very disappointed because she expected that the Messiah was very compassionate and full of love.
To be rejected by the Messiah Himself means she cannot change the fact and she cannot change God's decision. (But remember, many people in the bible changed the decision of God.)
The woman didn’t leave the presence of Jesus. She remained there unless she receives the mercy of God.
V25
She bowed down.
The woman never said negative or bad words but humbled herself and bowed down in front of Jesus. She was a very violent and very desperate woman.
But after she bowed down, Jesus told her “you’re a dog.”
She rejected by Jesus again!
But still, the woman wasn’t hurt? Why?
Because she knows her value. She is lower than a dog.
It means she doesn't have any pride!!
Really ready to recieve the grace of God!
She was still thankful that even though she is a dog,
at least she is Jesus’s dog. She believed that if Jesus is the owner, she will receive more than she wanted.
This attitude surprised Jesus.
It means that people win over Him. He was impressed by her.
Once we have this kind of faith, nothing is impossible.
Every problem has a solution.
However, if we don’t believe, we will suffer.
Did you know how much we are hungry for the praises of man?
When somebody said good things about us, we are so happy.
When somebody said negative things, we are sad. And we are afraid somebody knows our past sins. Many people are living like this.
3. Hannah Story
1 Samuel 1:12-20
Hannah has no child. She was very sorrowful. She wanted to give her heart to the Lord. But Eli, the priest treated her negatively. He rebuked her because he thought she was drunken.
But Hannah never complain and said negative words to Eli because she believed that he was appointed there as a priest.
Not complaining is faith.
and In front of priest she doen't have any pride.
This can happen to us too. We can be hurt. We can hear negative words from other people or even from Man of God. But must understand that God appointed them here and must believe that God put you here also.
Many times, we pray for people to be changed. However, God wants us to change first. We must put down our pride and we’ll receive the grace of God. Even though we put much effort to change people, habits, or sins, they will not change unless we put down our pride. If we humble ourselves, grace will come to us and the grace of God will change everything.
Did you see a crazy man? Even though we said something very negative to him, he is not affected. He will laugh at you. Even though you told him bad words, it’s ok for him.
Why bad words were created? To hurt other people. But crazy man will not be affected.
We should be crazy too. We should be crazy with the Lord. Once we are filled with the joy of the Lord, we can’t hear bad words.
Jesus overcame everything on the cross. Must meditate that instead of us, Jesus received every bad word, cursed words, and spitting from people. Nothing more is painful than Jesus suffered.
