Clothed in Humility
Humility, Peace, and Strength  Part 2
1 Peter 5:5b	6-9-2013
Summary: Humility is supremely important. It is the opposite of pride, which has many different symptoms. Pride toward people is an "I'm important" attitude. Humility is a "You are more important than me" attitude. Clothing yourself with it means using it to equip you for your task, and having it be the way you present yourself to the world - the first thing they see about you. Our motive is that God fights against the proud (the worst possible calamity) and gives grace to the humble (the best possible thing). 
Introduction
The Meaning of Humility
The Opposite of Pride
Symptoms of Pride
1)	Anger
2)	Talking too much
3)	Talking about yourself
4)	Belittling
5)	Envy
6)	A lack of compassion
7)	People pleasing
8)	Being devastated or angered by criticism
9)	Making excuses
10)	Deceit
11)	Being unteachable
12)	Discord
13)	Lack of servanthood
14)	Greed
15)	Attention-getting tactics
Examples of Humility
Jonathan
Jesus
Clothe Yourself
The Motive for Humility: God Opposes the Proud and Gives Grace to the Humble
Opposes
Grace
1:25 Question

1 Peter 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.   

Introduction
Listen very carefully to these words I am about to read because Jesus said your eternal destiny depends on whether you understand them.
Matthew 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
When you think about what the big, important, essential things are in Scripture, it does not get any bigger or more essential than humility. Whether or not you are humble determines whether you will go to heaven or hell, because it determines whether or not you can know God. Jesus started the greatest sermon ever preached by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs (and theirs alone) is the kingdom of heaven.” If you have not been to church in a while you picked a good day to come because there is not any topic more crucial for knowing God than humility.
We have been studying verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter and the last several weeks we have been looking at the beginning of chapter 5. First he addressed elders, then the congregation, and now in verse 5:
5 ...All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another
Whether elder or non-elder, authority or subordinate, no matter who we are or what our position in the church, every one of us must clothe ourselves with humility. God requires humility every bit as much from elders and those in authority as from anyone else. There is no difference. If being humble and in charge seem to you like a contradiction, you do not understand the concept of biblical leadership. In the kingdom of God, being in authority and being humble are not the slightest bit in tension. The most humble man who ever lived was also the greatest authority who ever lived - the Lord Jesus Christ. So whatever your role or position, every one of us has the same responsibility to clothe ourselves with humility.
There are two sides to humility - humility toward God and humility toward people. Peter focuses on humility toward people in verse 5 (clothe yourselves with humility toward one another) and then toward God in verse 6 (humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God). For today we will just focus on verse 5 - humility toward people.
The Meaning of Humility 
So let’s start with a definition - what is humility, exactly? I am going to go way out on a limb and suggest that it is the opposite of pride. So what is pride? Again, there are two sides to it - pride toward God and pride toward men.
The Opposite of Pride
Pride toward God is when you put yourself in God’s place. Pride toward men is when you have an inflated conception of your own importance compared to other people. Imagine you are standing in line somewhere, and someone comes walking up and steps right in front of you in line. And he turns to you and says, “I am a very important person. I’m much more important than you, and so it would be ridiculous for me to stand in line behind someone like you.” That would be a little on the obnoxious side, wouldn’t you say? Even if he did not actually say that, but he had that attitude, still, that would be an incredibly obnoxious attitude to have – “I’m more important than you.” I think that is about as good a definition for pride as there is. Pride is when you are wearing your “I’m important” badge. And I don’t mean you consciously think that. It is not that you are walking around consciously thinking, “I’m so important.” That would be too obvious. Satan is much more subtle than that. This is not a conscious thought – it is an attitude, hidden deep down inside where you are not even aware that it is there. And so the only way to detect it is by the symptoms. And that is not even easy because there are so many different symptoms.
Symptoms of Pride
That “I’m important” attitude can be one of the hardest sins to diagnose, because it takes so many different forms. As soon as you deal with it in one form, it pops up in your heart in a completely different form. If a disease has 100 different possible symptoms, and you only have one or two of them, you might conclude that you don’t have the disease because you don’t have those other 98 symptoms. I think pride may be the spiritual disease that has the widest variety of symptoms.
Next week we can study the symptoms of pride toward God, but for now let’s take some time to think through the various symptoms of pride toward people. What are the various ways pride toward people can manifest itself? I am going to give you a list of 15 that came to my mind. This is by no means a complete list, but hopefully it will be enough of a sampling to help you have an idea of what pride is. I will just run through this list very quickly. Don’t feel like you need to write all these down. My advice is to just wait for the ones that especially apply to you and jot those down.
1)	Anger
I would say probably the most common symptom of inter-personal pride is anger. If you have an anger problem, nine times out of ten the main culprit is pride, because pride is impatient with people.
Ephesians 4:1 live a life worthy of the calling you have received 2 with all humility and meekness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.
Humility is patient with people and bears with people; pride does not. Someone cuts you off on the highway, and you get mad. Why? Because you are wearing your “I’m important” badge. You are so important. You are so much more important than that other person; there is no way that person should have that space on the highway that was ordained for you before the foundation of the world. It does not matter who that person is, he cannot possibly be as important as you. Some waitress does not do a good job serving you – you get upset. Why? Because you are such an important person that you should never, ever have an unpleasant experience while eating a meal. Can’t she see your badge? You are so much more important than she is – can’t she see that? The bolt you have in your hand drops down inside the engine compartment of your car and now it’s lost, or your computer crashes and you lose all your work, and you are furious. Why? You are far too important a person to have to deal with the inconvenience of an unexpected difficulty. You are a VIP - you should never have to undergo hardship of any kind. Whenever there is a temper problem you don’t have to dig very far to find an “I’m important” badge underneath it.
And anger can take a lot of forms (outbursts of temper, withdrawing, pouting, frustration, pent-up bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, etc.). The greater your attitude of self-importance, the stronger the reaction against anyone who says or does anything to minimize your importance. But when you do something that minimizes the importance of a truly humble person, he does not even notice. He does not consider himself important, so it doesn’t even register in his mind as anything unusual. That is why adults get angry when a server at a restaurant makes a mistake, but children don’t get angry at that. They haven’t developed the sense of self-importance that we have yet.
2)	Talking too much
Another place were pride manifests itself is in our speech - boasting. And boasting takes a lot of forms. Sometimes it is just a matter of talking too much. Ask yourself, do you find yourself throwing in your two cents more often than everyone else? Many proud people think that what they have to say is more important than what everyone else has to say. They don’t listen, because they really are not concerned about you or how you feel. When someone else is talking, the proud person is not really listening - all he is doing is waiting for his turn. He does not love you or care about you enough to genuinely think through what you are saying, he just wants everyone to hear what is on his mind.
3)	Talking about yourself
And when the proud person talks, he usually talks about his favorite topic: himself. When you are proud, the conversation inevitably revolves around you (especially when you are talking with someone who is humble, because both that person and you are concerned with exactly the same topic – you). And for the proud person, even when he isn’t talking about himself, whatever he is saying is designed to make people more impressed with him. We have clever ways of disguising our boasting so it does not sound like boasting. But really our motive in what we are saying is not really to edify or build up the listener – our motive is to impress that person with how smart we are, or how funny we are, or with how committed we are, or how strong or courageous we are, or even how spiritual we are.
4)	Belittling 
Another possible symptom of pride is belittling others. And any time your goal is to lift yourself up, inevitably you will do so by pushing others down. You may not do it on purpose, but when the “I’m important” badge takes over in your heart you begin to have a way of belittling everyone around you. You make people feel small. You want them to be impressed with you, so when they meet you they walk away impressed with you, and down on themselves. Pride pushes others down.
In Scripture the proud are often known as being mockers.
Proverbs 21:24 The proud and arrogant man--"Mocker" is his name; he behaves with arrogant pride.
Proud people are very often known for their sarcasm. They are really good at finding what is wrong with everything and everyone around them. They can tell you everything the government is doing wrong, everything the church is doing wrong, everything you are doing wrong - they find fault, and they mock.
And if you are not around, they gossip about you.
Psalm 101:5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.
Slandering your neighbor in secret and having haughty eyes and a proud heart go together. If you have a gossip problem, you probably have a pride problem.
5)	Envy
Pride is the antithesis of love. They are opposites.
1 Cor.13:4 Love is not proud.
And so where there is pride, you will see an absence of love. For one thing, the more proud you are the less able you are to rejoice with those who rejoice. You hear about someone winning the lottery or getting some wonderful benefit, and instead of being genuinely happy for them, the prideful person is distressed because “someone else got that instead of me and I am the most important, so I should have gotten it.” Envy is a symptom of pride.
6)	A lack of compassion
So is a lack of compassion. We saw back in 1 Peter 3:8 that humility and compassion go hand-in-hand. But pride is the opposite. When you are proud you get so focused on your own suffering, you are oblivious to the pain of others, and so you feel very little compassion.
7)	People pleasing 
The only time you pay attention to others is when you are trying to get them to be impressed with you. Proud people tend to be people pleasers. When Paul made a case for his humility, this is something he often addressed.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 ... We are not trying to please men but God ... 6 We were not looking for praise from men
That is humility. But for the proud heart, it is essential to have the approval of people - or at least certain people. People-pleasers need to be constantly affirmed. And they will do whatever it takes to get that affirmation.
8)	Being devastated or angered by criticism
And if instead of affirmation they get criticism, look out. Proud people can rarely handle criticism. 
Proverbs 9:7 Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.  
They take all criticism as an attack and their reaction is defensive. Any criticism at all is a threat to their “I’m important” badge,” and that is intolerable. So they become defensive so they can keep that badge intact. 
Their favorite verse in the Bible is Jesus’ warning about seeing to the log in your own eye before taking the speck out of someone else’s. Proud people love to bring that up. Everyone who criticizes them has a huge log in their own eye and should just shut up. 
 “I don’t have to listen to you – you’ve got a log. Oh, so do you – and you - you’re all a bunch of log-eyed freaks.”
Proud people can never profit from criticism, because they always dismiss it on the grounds that the other person has no business giving it.
Jesus never said, “Don’t accept criticism from someone with a log in his eye.” If a log-eyed person corrects you, it does not mean the correction is wrong. It might be right on the money. And if you are focused on what they have wrong in their eye without dealing with the log in your own eye, you are doing the exact opposite of what Jesus said to do in that passage.
When the “I’m important” badge starts to take over your heart you develop an inflated opinion of your own goodness, so if someone brings up a criticism that is a weakness you didn’t know you had, you can’t accept it. And your way out will typically be to find fault with that person.
9)	Making excuses
And when the proud person does finally come to grips with something he has done wrong, his “repentance” is full of excuses and blame-shifting. In Leviticus 26:40-41, confession of sin is referred to as humbling one’s heart. Humility confesses, pride makes excuses. Pride says, “I’m really sorry I did that, but I was having a tough day, I was really tired, you provoked me, hormones, etc.” It is always, “I’m sorry, but...”
“I’m sorry but…” really means “I’m not sorry because…” On the rare occasions proud people ever do say, “I’m sorry,” it’s almost always, “I’m sorry but...,” and then some excuse. Or it’s, “I’m sorry you feel that way,” - which again deflects everything back on to you.
 “I’m sorry you’re so confused that you would actually think I did something wrong. I’m sorry that you’re such a moron.”
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a proud person to just say, “I was wrong. Please forgive me” - without adding anything else in their defense or pointing the finger of blame anywhere else. 
10)	Deceit
Proud people are slow to admit wrong. And for that reason, very often proud people become dishonest people.
Psalm 31:18 Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly 
Pride and dishonesty go hand-in-hand. Proud people exaggerate their stories, they lie about their sins, and they overstate their goodness, they cover up their evil. They develop a way of confessing sin that sounds honest to others, but really it is designed to hide the real truth. They have to keep everyone impressed with them, and so they cannot let the truth about their sin or stupidity get out there.
11)	Being unteachable
And as a result, they tend to be unteachable. 
Proverbs 13:10 Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Taking advice is the opposite of pride. VIP’s cannot learn anything from anyone except a very select few they respect. They are wise in their own eyes. In the book of Proverbs, just about the worst thing you can be is a fool, right? There is very little hope for a fool. But there is one thing worse.
Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Once you get so you are wise in your own eyes – you are done - almost no hope for you to recover. You become impossible to help.
Maybe there are two or three people you might listen to, but that is it. You cannot learn from some lowly person in the church. If someone has less education than you, less experience than you, less intellectual ability than you, or who is younger than you, you just cannot respect them or learn anything from them.
12)	Discord
A twelfth symptom of pride is discord - an inability to get along with people.
Proverbs 13:10 Pride only breeds quarrels
Proud people find themselves in constant debates, and in one personal conflict after another after another.
Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Proud people cannot live in harmony with anyone because that “I’m more important than you” badge tends to irritate people. And when people are irritated, they usually do not give you the treatment that you want, and that causes the proud heart to react, because pride is focused on how everyone is treating me.
I have found that of all these symptoms of pride, probably the hardest one to cure and the most destructive is the tendency of a proud person to always be policing how well others are doing at loving them. 
“He’s not loving me; that person didn’t greet me; she’s not very friendly to me; no one called me; no one missed me; no one helped me; people aren’t loving me.”
When you find your thoughts going that way it means pride as a death grip on your heart.
13)	Lack of servanthood
Do not expect proud people to do much serving. When Jesus gave us the model of humility in Philippians 2 it says He took on the form of a servant (v.7). Humility serves, pride wants to be served. Do not expect a proud person to volunteer or show up and help when some work needs to be done. Proud people are thinking of themselves, not others, so they usually do not even notice opportunities to serve. They do not notice other people’s needs, or the needs of the church as a whole because all they care about is their own needs. And when they are aware of a need, they are still slow to meet it because they are so important, their time cannot be wasted on things like serving others.
So proud people usually are not servants. And when they do finally serve, there is not much enthusiasm unless it is something enjoyable for them or that serves their interests. They might still serve because they want people to think well of them, but it is not in their heart to serve. Do not expect them to serve in some way that nobody sees. Do not expect them to serve self-sacrificially just simply out of genuine love for the body. And if there is not enough praise or recognition, they want to quit, because they are only in it for the strokes.
14)	Greed
Another symptom of pride is greed.
Habakkuk 2:5 he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied 
If I am the most important person, then the priority is for my desires to be fulfilled. So pride causes greed - especially greed for attention.
15)	Attention-getting tactics
This is not true with all forms of pride, but very often proud people will do things to attract attention, because pride loves being made much of.
Matthew 23:6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'
Notice me, honor me, make much of me – I am more important than everyone else. There are countless ways proud people try to get attention. They might do it through the way they dress, bizarre behavior, being rebellious, always talking about their problems, being a comedian, getting a tattoo, crying - the list is endless.
Proud people are consumed with what people think of them, and they can get very creative in the way they fish for compliments. Very often it is through false humility. False humility is when you are focused on the lack of your gifts and abilities. People like this are always down on themselves. 
“I’m terrible at this. I’m really bad at this. I’m just a worm, I’m unimportant, I, I, I…”
It is false humility. They keep telling you how humble they are, but where is their focus? Completely on themselves.
Humility is not putting yourself down. Jesus was the most humble man ever and He never once put Himself down. People who put themselves down are usually doing that because they want you to disagree (or at least feel sorry for them). That is pride.
Those are 15 symptoms of pride toward people. I hope you did not come out of that list as battered and bruised as I did (way too many of those describe me). But no doubt everyone got hammered by some of those, because we are all shot through with pride. Nothing is more natural to the flesh than pride. My parents never had to sit me down and say, “Ok Darrell, now here’s how to become selfish and prideful - memorize these 10 lessons.” Pride comes more naturally to the fallen, human heart than anything. Pride is the essence of sin, and it weaves its tentacles into every corner of our lives.
Examples of Humility
So what is humility? The opposite of all that. When they talk they draw attention to God and to others, not to themselves. They are givers, not greedy. They promote unity rather than discord. They are honest and easy to get along with. They accept correction and confess their sins without excuses. They are teachable - by anyone.
Jonathan
One of my favorite men in history is Jonathan, son of King Saul. If we wanted to illustrate all those symptoms of pride we could easily do it by looking at Saul’s life. But if you want a wonderful portrait of humility, look at Jonathan. He is the rightful heir to the throne, he is eminently qualified - the guy was a superhero. He once took over an entire Philistine garrison single-handedly - just him and his armor bearer. He was a mighty man of valor, had great wisdom, great leadership skills, loved the Lord. But all he cared about was God’s will, and God’s will was for this shepherd kid to take the throne. And all Jonathan wanted to do was serve him. He was the #2 VIP in the nation, and yet in his heart was a “You’re more important than me” attitude. No trace of envy in his heart. When good things happened to David, he genuinely rejoiced.
Jesus
And that is the essence of humility. The greatest chapter in Scripture on humility is Philippians 2, and it starts this way:
Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.
That is humility. Pride toward others is when you have an attitude that you are more important than them. Humility toward others is when you have an attitude that they are more important than you.
And the ultimate example of that is Jesus. He considered our need for salvation to be more important than His own glory in heaven. And so He gave that up to come and serve us, and to give His life for us.
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats (1 Peter 2:23).
Jesus was never more silent than when He was receiving the worst injustice that has ever taken place. 
Think about that. He deserved nothing but honor and glory and worship, and yet He did not react in anger when He was mistreated. We deserve the eternal fire of hell, and we get angry when we get something far more mild. We get mad when people speak the truth about us. Think about it - what would you do if someone said in public the very same things you say to God about yourself in private prayer?
“God, I’m a worm. I’m a vile sinner. I have greedy and lustful heart. I am an arrogant, selfish man. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the Lord I love.”
We say those things to God in prayer, but what happens if someone else says those things about us? 
“Oh, Darrell - yeah, he is a vile, selfish, arrogant pig-headed jerk.”
“WHAT???!! How dare you say those things about me! Take it back!”
When people gossip about me or slander me, a lot of times what they are accusing me of isn’t true. And so I get upset. But if I am honest - even though those things are not true, the real truth about me is even worse. When Shimei was showering King David with curses and insults and throwing rocks and dirt down on him and calling him names in front of all David’s men, Abishai said, “Let me go take off his head,” and David said, “No, what if the Lord wants me to hear this?” How many times do we get angry because someone treats us in ways that, if we were honest, are actually better than what we deserve if the real truth about us were known? But in Jesus’ case the real truth was nothing but good, and yet He still did not get angry. And instead of selfishness, Jesus was full of compassion. And no one was too lowly to have his time and attention. He did not care about the opinions of men - only the pleasure of His Father. That is the portrait of humility
Clothe Yourself
And Peter tells us, “Clothe yourself with that.”
What is the meaning of that figure of speech?  What does it mean to clothe yourself with an attitude? There are two main purposes we have in the way we dress ourselves: function and looks. We put on clothes that will be suitable for whatever activity we are doing. If you are going to a work day at church, you wear clothes suitable for work. If you are going swimming, there are certain kinds of clothes that work better for that. If you are going to be in windy, sub-zero weather, you need certain clothes for that. We need the right kind of clothes for the task at hand – that is function.
Our other main goal in how we dress ourselves has to do with how we want to present ourselves to others. If you want to be thought of as rich, you wear expensive clothes. If you want people to be attracted to you or to be impressed with your looks, you wear clothes designed for that. And that can be for vanity - or it can be for love. If you want to make people feel at ease around you, you might dress a certain way for that. I knew a guy who used to wear a suit to church every week until one day he talked to a guy who would never go to church because he couldn’t afford formal clothes. And from that day on this guy wore very casual clothes to church every week. He was the most casually-dressed person there, just so that no one would come and feel out of place. Sometimes we dress a certain way out of love. You would never go to a funeral in your swimsuit. That would be a huge insult to the family.
I would much rather be wearing shorts right now, instead of a suit. But my job is to deliver the authoritative Word of God to you in an authoritative manner. And so anything I can wear that will help you take the Word of God more seriously, I’ll do it.
So all that to say the two main purposes of clothing are to help us carry out our task, and to present ourselves to others in a certain way. And so Peter says, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” As a child of God, the outfit most suitable for your task is always humility coveralls. The word for clothe here means to tie something on with a knot - like a work apron that slaves would wear, or some other kind of protective clothing designed for work. Dress yourself for service. And the work coveralls that you need for the Christian life is humility. 
So let that define who you are. When people see you coming, let the first thing they see be your humility. Cover yourself with it. Wrap yourself in it. Adorn yourself with it. Let that be your new look. Define yourself by humility. Let it cover you from head to toe. Clothe yourself with humility. 
The Motive for Humility: God Opposes the Proud and Gives Grace to the Humble
And if that sounds like a difficult goal to strive for, Peter gives us a little motivation at the end of verse 5.
5 Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
That is a quotation from the Greek translation of Proverbs 3:34. Our motive in this is, as usually, a massive motivation. If you believe God exists, what could be a more compelling motivation than this?
Opposes
Would you agree that the worst thing that could possibly happen to a person would be to have an almighty, all-powerful God against you? The more powerful your opponent, the worse off you are. If your boss at work turns against you, that can make things pretty difficult. If the IRS is against you, that is really scary. If the mafia put out a hit on you, you would have reason to be afraid. Whenever I read about the weapon systems that the United States military has I always think, “Man, I would hate to be in the army of some country that has to fight against the U.S. in a war.” But none of that even approaches the calamity of having God against you. The IRS, the mafia, the military - they are powerful, but they don’t always succeed. God always succeeds. And so to whatever degree He opposes you, you lose. In whatever area of life He opposes you, you lose. Other forces can oppose you and you can still be happy. But not if God opposes you, because He is the only source of happiness.
So the worst that could ever happen would be for God to be against you. And God is against the proud.
Proverbs 16:5 The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 6:17 says there are seven things that God hates and that are detestable to Him, and the very first one is pride. God has declared war on the proud. And every prideful action or motive or thought or inclination - every movement in the direction of pride, is movement toward the losing side of that war.
Proverbs 15:25 The Lord tears down the proud man's house 
Grace
So there is a lot of reason on the negative side to fight against pride in your heart. But that is not the biggest motivation. There is also a positive side. If you are humble, what will God do? Just declare a cease fire in His war against you? No, He goes way beyond that.
5 God ... gives grace to the humble.
Would you agree that while the worst thing in the universe that could possibly happen to you would be to have an almighty God against you, the best possible situation would be for an almighty, perfect, loving God to be for you?
Psalm 118:6 The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
What could possibly go wrong if God is for you? What could you possibly have to fear? Nothing.
And if you are humble, God is not only for you, but He gives you grace. We studied the concept of grace back in 4:10, and we found that grace is valuable stuff. Take everything we need - every physical need, emotional need, and spiritual need - every single thing we will ever need, put it all in a pile, and that is grace. Grace is nothing less than God's favor on your life.  And when you receive grace from God, the results are as follows: salvation, honor, upbuilding, strengthening, holiness, joyful generosity, gratitude, every kind of good works, self-control, satisfaction of soul, encouragement, hope, successful, and fruitful ministry. That is what you get from God if you are humble.
Two choices: you can have all that from God, or you can have God as an enemy fighting against you. Which do you want? And the amazing thing is you do not have to earn all that. All you have to do is be honest about the black hole of need in your life. You do not have to fill that hole. God will fill it with grace if you just admit it’s there.
We will talk more next time about how to obtain humility. That has to wait because learning how to be humble toward people starts with being humble toward God. So we will look at that in-depth next time. But for now, whatever areas of pride have been uncovered by God’s Word and His Spirit today, confess those to God. Let go of all the excuses, confess the sins of pride to God, and repent. And if you do that, He will forgive you.

Benediction: Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
1:25 Question
1)	Which of the marks of pride toward people are the biggest threat in your spiritual life? (Anger, talking too much, talking about yourself, belittling people, envy, lack of compassion, people-pleasing, defensive when criticized, making excuses for sin, deceit, being unteachable, discord, lack of servanthood, greed, attention-getting tactics)
2)	What would be a good plan for increasing in humility in those areas?