Now this message is off the subject of the glory of God, although you can't really get off of that subject, considering everything we do, we're supposed to do for the glory of God. But this is something that the Lord has been teaching me for some 39 years. He started quite a while back and it's really a message for myself, but it's something he's shown me about himself. And I guess if you were going to really categorize it, it would have to do with the knowledge of the Holy or the knowledge of God, somehow getting to know God better. Brother Matt this morning, Sunday school, and he said, we're supposed to worship him in spirit and in truth. We think we know what that means, but we don't have a clue. When you're gonna worship him in spirit, you're gonna worship him based on what his spirit shows you and reveals to you and leads you into for his glory. If you're gonna worship him in truth, it's gonna be the truth that he reveals to you. And as you'll see before this message is over this morning, some of the things that we just take for granted, we think, oh, well, we got the answers. We don't have the answers. For 39 years, I'm going along in life thinking I got some of the answers to some things. And it was just a few weeks back that he began to show me some things about myself and about himself and how I'm responding to him and it was like a new awakening again. Anyway, have you ever been frustrated by anybody? You ever get mad at anybody? Inconsiderate drivers, do they bother you? How about coworkers? Inconsiderate shoppers? Employers? for some of you, employees. How about your neighbors? You know anybody who's fighting with their neighbor, battle over this, battle over that, have to live next door to them? You ever had friends that you got mad at? Mostly the ones you loan money to. That's like Judge said the other day. He said, man, don't loan anybody money ever. All it does is destroy friendships and hurts families. You loan them the money and then you become the bad guy. No good deed will go unpunished. That's the truth. Anyway, what about other Christians? And the worst of all, how about your own family members? You ever known anybody that's been mad at somebody for a long time? How come that stuff just sticks with you? Somebody offends you, and even if they don't know you're offended, and here you are suffering with this pain and agony, and you just keep on going for long periods of time. You ever known anybody get mad at their family members, won't talk to them for a long time? That's right. You ever fight with your parents, your siblings, your spouse, your children? Those are the ones you're supposed to love the most. How come that works like that? How is it that people can get on such an ounce with people and just stay like that? Would you like to have God's help with that? How would you like to have God start fixing some of these problems in your life? Well, he gave me some answers and I think he'll give you the same answer because it's right there in the book. It's just that when I'm looking for what's in it for me, I'm not looking for what's in it for him. When I started looking for what's in it for him, then he showed me what was in it for me. It's kind of like you show me and I'll believe. He says, you believe, and then I'll show you. I was going to title this a great message on pride. But I can't really do that because, like I said, it's something the Lord's shown me. This isn't a message for you. It's not a message to beat you up with or anything. So anything that I say that involves we or us or you, you can just figure that the Lord was showing me this stuff. Proverbs 31.10 says, only by pride cometh contention. We know that verse. Most of you, all of you know it by heart. You may not know where it's at, but you've heard that thing so many times. You know that. And if God says, only by pride cometh contention, he narrowed that field way down, didn't he? That's not a matter of, well, maybe this, and maybe this, and maybe this. No. One thing, one source. So what's pride? It's an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talent, beauty, accomplishments, wealth, rank, or elevation in office, which manifests itself in reserve, distance, in contempt of others. It manifests itself in rude treatment to others. It's a noble self-esteem springing from a consciousness of worth. That's what pride is. And just by reading that definition of it, you can understand how these things tie together. Distancing yourself, not speaking to your family for years, how people treat you. You go out there and you're driving down the road and somebody cuts you off. It's all right there. Where do they come from? Well, this is only by pride cometh contention. And did any of those definitions ring your bell? Do they reach you at all? Do you see yourself in these things? Or is that just like, it's the other driver. He's always wrong. They're always wrong. Or do you kind of get to the point where you started saying in your mind and your heart, well, if you only knew what they did to me. Self-justification is a major part of pride. How does that feel? It didn't feel very good for me either. Anyway. Like I said, it's not about you guys. This is about me. Now, back in 1960, I had a pretty good temper. And my brother did something to me. I chased after him. I didn't have a driver's license yet. He was three years older than me. I was probably about 13. He was probably about 16. And I went after him with a vengeance. And when I'd get mad at him, he could not whip me, no matter what he did. And he did something to me, and he made me instant mad. I went after him. He went and locked himself in the bathroom. I destroyed the bathroom door and the frame and everything else. When I got in there, all I caught was his shoe going out the window that was above the shower. And he was going out all the way to the ground because he was trying to get away from me. And I tore his shoe right off his foot and broke the laces. I came back out of there, and there's pieces of the door laying all over inside the bathroom. And I said, whoa, wait a minute. Now, I couldn't do that in normal strength. I said, not only could I not do that in normal strength, I wouldn't have done this to reach my brother. And I said, I don't like anything controlling me like that. I don't like being out of control. And so from that point on, I got a handle on my anger. And when I'd feel myself start getting mad, it's like trying to put a valve on a pressure cooker. It starts going. You know there's something going on in there, but it doesn't explode. My wife's seen that a few times in my life. She'll tell you about some of them if you ask her. But it hadn't been that kind of destructive damage, tear everything up stuff. Then there was another time. I was on my way over to Fort Walton Beach driving along in a company car, going over there to do some project manager stuff. On the way over there, this young guy was following me. We're going along in two lanes. The traffic's real heavy. I'm in a hurry. He's in a hurry. Everybody's in a hurry. There's no way to pull around any of this traffic. The slow guy is both lanes, plugging the traffic all up. Nobody's passing anybody. There's the same distance between every car. I ain't thinking much about it. Somebody goes to pull off in the right lane or turn off, and the traffic slows down a little bit. This clown whips around, comes right in front of me, and stomps on his brakes. What in the world is going on here? Traffic starts going by us. The other side, he just keeps his brakes on. He's blocking me, blocking me, blocking me. I started to pull over when there was a break. He pulled right over in front of me. In my mind, there was absolutely nothing rational about what he was doing. He figured I offended him somehow. I could not believe my response to this guy. If I could have gotten my hands on him about that time, believe me, as a Christian, I would have put a world of hurt on him. I mean, he didn't do it just once. He did it for about five miles. Finally, I just sped up at one opportunity and passed him and left him behind. But I was so ticked off, I couldn't believe it. And so I analyzed that a little bit. I'm thinking, why in the world would I get so upset about that? Does that make any sense to you? He said, what's the matter? I thought you had your handle on pride, handle on that anger. Not at all. All I was doing was kind of suppressing it. For all those years, it's like that pressure cooker just took the right situation. He says, only by pride cometh contention. What is contention? Contention is strife, struggle, a violent effort to resist a person, basically road rage. You know what's wrong? You know why from 1960 until 1999, I didn't really have that aggressive desire to go do something? is because in the last days, men should be lovers of them own selves. Do you know why there's road rage now? Because in the last days, men should be lovers of them own selves. You know why there's more inconsiderate people today? Because in the last days, men should be lovers of them own selves. If there's anything we're going to need in these last days, it's going to be a handle on this self-control thing about our pride. Because a lover of them own self is directly connected to pride. That's what it's about. They're going to be proud, boasters, disobedient to parents. Proud. And those things are just tied right in together. It's like a double curse. Contention is also quarrel, angry contest. Basically, it's arguing or fighting over some offense or opinion. That's what it comes down to. Only by pride cometh arguing or fighting over some offense or opinion. You want to know where the stuff comes from? That's where it comes from. Only by pride. How much pride do you have? You got any idea? You think there's any way to measure your pride? Is there some kind of a pride meter we can hook up to? There's about four. There's probably more, but there's at least four. Measure number one. How often do you yield to the other driver, the coworker, the friend, or a family member? How often do you yield? How often do you just back up, get out of the way, and let them go by? That's a measure of pride. To the extent that you do that, you exhibit pride or element of humility. Now, my son and my wife would get on him, and he'd put up with her. You know how he'd yield? He'd get a stiff lip, and he'd put his hands in his pockets and make fists. And when you start thinking about that, that's not what God's talking about when He's talking about this yielding stuff. It isn't a matter of, okay, I'll endure it all, shut up, I won't say anything, see there, I did it. You haven't done anything, we've done that. All you did was just suppress it. Another measure is the kind of response to offenses or differences of opinion. What are you talking about? Well, from feelings of frustration, raising your voice, yelling, screaming, assaulting, bodily harm, and murder. You know why people kill each other? They kill each other because of pride. Only by pride come with contention. Another one is recovery time. The length of time it takes for you to recover from the offense. Some of you got some things still bothering you from years back. That's a measure of your pride. How many years you want to put up with that? You want to suffer with that the rest of your life? You like those feelings when you think about those people way back there that offended you, that still hurts? Would you like to get rid of that? Some of you haven't recovered yet. You guys may not qualify under this, but you probably do. Another measure is how much you consider the results of the confrontation, argument, or fight. Do you stop and think about it? You think I stopped and thought about that bathroom door before I tore the thing all to pieces? You think I would have thought anything at all if I could have got my hands on that guy at that moment that I had that desire to get my hands on him about the consequences? To the extent you stop and consider those things is a measure of your pride also. Are you going to stop and think about what you're going to do and whether or not this is a hill you want to die on? What else could you consider? Will the outcome improve anything? Help it or destroy it? Will I get a raise or get fired? You ever think like that? Not until it's over. Oh man, I wish I'd have never done that. Too late. Too late. What about, will it separate people or draw them together? Is this going to make things better or worse? You think about that? Nope. How come? Pride, that's why you don't think about it. Something's happening. And God showed me what it was. Will the divorce or the fines or the jail time be worth the victory? You say, well, it ain't going to be me. You're living in the last days. You have no idea what you're susceptible to. You think what he says in the last days, men should be lovers of themselves, proud boasters, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, covetous, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God and all those things. Do you think that that list right there applies only to the lost? It applies to us too and it's going to be a supernatural induction to a greater extent in the last days. Why is that? The Lord is going to use that somehow to bring about the tribulation and people are going to be ready to kill each other in a heartbeat. What do you think starts a situation like crimes of passion? It's words. It's the response from your pride. That's what begins it. I don't think you should have done that. Well, why not? That right there is the beginning. And then it goes from there, escalates how far? It'll escalate as far as the two of you have self-control. Or to the extent that you have pride, it may not even stop till one of you is dead. You ever think about what it takes for you to get offended or mad? Think about this a minute. I'm sure a bunch of you have gotten mad at people. You ever think about what actually caused that? Why do I have those kind of feelings? What makes me feel like that? It's your pride. That's what is offended. It's not your body. They didn't offend your body until they actually assault you. They didn't hurt your body. They didn't hurt your mind. They didn't hurt your spirit. They didn't hurt your soul. If only by pride cometh contention, then the only thing that can be offended is your pride. Because without the pride, there's nothing to offend. So every time, without exception, you feel a sense of response to somebody's offense, you realize that is your pride that's doing it. Can you do anything about pride? Well, I guess I'll just get humble. Boy, that's a lot easier said than done. You got a deceitful heart that's desperately wicked in your best efforts to humble yourself. All it's going to get you is an inflated ego and a sense of satisfaction that I'm getting there now. Well, I walked away from that. You just fed your pride. You can't beat it. True humility. Who could say they had true humility? Person with it won't say. He won't even think he's got it. Anybody who's talking about humility with any sincerity about that, they probably don't have it because humble people don't even discuss it. How about that? It doesn't leave us very much, does it? Can we control pride or eliminate it? Listen, Psalms 119, 165 says, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Well, if nothing offends them that love thy law, there's something about the love of the Word of God that makes a difference. But you realize love gives. Love is not just an existing state like a temperature. It actually affects people. It makes changes. If you love somebody, you seek after their benefit. What's in it for them? What can you do for them? When you begin to love the Word of God, you begin to love it because of who God is and what He wrote it for. And if you understand His glory, you begin to seek, how can I apply this so that you benefit more God? That's what the point is. When he says, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them, it's because somebody is actually acting on the Word of God. It says over in Psalms 119, 9, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Basically, you begin to start taking God serious and you start doing it his way instead of yours. That's what it comes down to. We know only by pride cometh contention. How many fights has that gotten you out of? You think of that right away, don't you? That's the first thing in your mind. That's the last thing in your mind after it's all over and you're miserable as you can be. Over in Job 41, 34, it says, he, Satan, is the king over all the children of pride. Now, you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, rulers of darkness in this world, don't you? Don't I? Yes, I do. And my pride gives him a great big steering wheel. It gives him a great big stick to knock me around with. That's exactly what's going on. He controls as a king, an absolute ruler over the children of pride. Now you stop and think about it. If Satan is controlling people by their pride, it's no wonder that confrontations result in pain, suffering, injury, and death. Because he's a destroyer. You want to know why you hurt when you think about people that have hurt you? There it is. Satan's right there causing all the pain and suffering he can cause. And he uses your pride to do it to you, and you don't even realize it. That's what's happening. Let me ask you this. Does it feel good to fight? You enjoy that? Man, well, I just can't wait to get in another fight with my wife. Making up so good? Yeah, well, she loaded the gun last time. Next time, she might use it. There isn't anything about fighting or contention that makes it worthwhile. There's not one thing. You don't feel good during it. You don't feel good after it. Some of that stuff lasts, like I said, for a long, long time. Do we fight on purpose? Is that something that we just decide to do and go ahead and do it? Well, I haven't had a good fight in a long time. You ever think of this? Maybe you're not in control. Well, if you're not in control, who is? If he's the king over all the children of pride, you just turned the reins over to Satan himself. It ain't no wonder that people kill each other. It's no wonder they get a baseball bat and beat each other's brains out. You wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and rulers of darkness in this age. Now we're supposed to walk as children of light, right? Oh, by the way, our father, he's the father of lights too. You ever try to cheer somebody up that's been offended? You ever had anybody try to cheer you up when you're mad? Oh, don't you just want to just cheer right up? Doesn't that really affect you? Now you tell me why on this planet somebody does not want to be cheered up. Our primary motive in life is to be happy. So why is it that when we get in that state we want to stay miserable? Somebody else is controlling you. They're controlling your feelings, your emotions. He's in full control of everything that you do right then. Even to the point of making you enjoy the misery and the suffering. Now that's about as weird as it gets. And no wonder it doesn't make any sense to us. We think it's something to do with us and it's not to do with us. It has to do with something else. I like to be happy. I would never choose misery. Never. Why at that time do we choose misery over pleasure? Good question, isn't it? Why does Satan choose misery over pleasure? He knows the end of this deal. So how come Satan don't get straightened out? Because that's just what he's like right there. Now we could go on. I could talk to you about all kinds of things, about the different kinds of pride. And believe me, there's a lot of different kinds of pride. It's not just one kind of pride. But bottom line is only by pride cometh contention. So let's cut to the chase. James 4, 5, and 6 says, God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble. First Peter 5, 5 says, God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Would you rather have grace or God's resistance? You've got a choice. At least someone would give you a choice. Don't eat of this tree. There's another one in the garden. If you just look around a little bit, you get it. You've got a choice. He gets plainer with you. God says, I'll give you grace or I'm going to resist you. Which one do you want? Every time you respond in pride, without knowing it, you're choosing his resistance. You have no idea what that even encompasses. It's not a matter of staying offended or getting over it. You know why? Because when you choose pride, you begin to choose God's resistance and something happens that you won't even believe. What is his resistance? Now listen real close, because we're talking about the one that speaks universes into existence. We're talking about the one that's mercies are new every morning, that loves you, that let his son come and die for you. God says, you want to know what I'm like? You really want to know? You think about this. Resist. Literally, to stand against, to act in opposition, to oppose. As an army resists the progress of an enemy actively by encountering and defeating it. Doesn't that just make you warm all over? Resist is to strive against, to counteract, to frustrate, to defeat. My goodness, do you realize what's happening? When you react in pride, you got the bad side over here doing everything he can to make you miserable, and you got God doing everything he can to keep you away from him. He says, I don't want nothing to do with you. You wonder why Christians get mad at somebody and stay mad at them for 20 and 30 years? Because God says, about that thing right there, I don't want nothing to do with you. That's pretty serious when you start thinking like that. I said, Lord, how come you're showing us that? Because you wanted to know what I'm like. He didn't show it to me for 36 years. He didn't show it to me until just recently. So God stands against, opposes, strives against, counteracts, frustrates, and defeats all pride. All of it. God resisteth the proud, giveth grace to the humble. Well, I'm saved. That don't matter. Doesn't matter a bit. Not to God. No wonder when you get mad, you stay mad. How come? Because you're fighting against God. It's pretty bad, isn't it? You ever ask God to fix a problem between you and so-and-so? Does he do it? How come he doesn't fix it? Because he's resisting you. You're asking him to act contrary to what he already told you he was going to do. If there's anything that fixes it, it's not going to be God fixing it. It's going to be you yielding. It's going to be you humbling yourself. That's what's going to fix it. And then God will back off. But until you humble yourself, God's not going to move. He already told you, I resist the proud. Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. No, son, ain't going to happen. Why? That's not what I want. That's not my desire. You're asking me to do something I don't want to do. And I will not act in opposition to my will. What about that? Lord, I sure wish you'd fix this problem between me and my wife. You fix it. You fix it. I'm not going to. That's a sad state of affairs. You know anybody who's been mad for years? Can't get over it? Now you know why. It's because even as Christians, they can't get God to intervene and help them solve that problem. If you got somebody in the back of your mind or you know some people that have been mad at each other for years and prayed about it and begged God to solve these problems between family members, between other friends, between other Christians, and they can't get victory over it and they think back on those instances and they kind of relive that thing and the pain still hurts and the frustration is still there, It's because they've never humbled themselves about that thing and they continually get resistance from God about that particular subject. That's what's going on. Anybody gets mad will probably stay that way until they die unless God eases up a little bit and they respond. That's what God's looking for. It's just like salvation. God will give you so much, you don't respond, He doesn't give you any more. You begin to respond, he says, okay, I'll give you a little bit more. You respond to that, I'll give you a little bit more. So you want to understand a little bit more about yourself? Okay, you start responding. You want some of your prayers answered like this? Do something about what I've already started to show you if you want to know more. If all you want's relief, I'm not interested in that. Why not? Because it's an issue of pride with God. This thing's serious to him. They get mad, stay mad, God doesn't respond to them. God, I'm gonna get mad at you now. You're not being fair. You did this, you did that. You know anybody ever got mad at God? Did you ever get mad at God? I have. How come? Pride. Got a great ending, doesn't it? Considering he resists the proud. Listen, I told you before, he not only won't play by your rules, he'll make different ones. When you get done with a thing, you're going to be on the short end of the deal, and there's no question about it. By the time you get through dealing with God about some stuff and acting, responding out of pride, you'll end up on the short end of the stick. Some people think, well, it takes two to tango. You've got to have two people to fight, right? Contend with each other. You ever got mad trying to get something done, can't get it done? It does take two to tango. One time, my dad was working on a car engine. He couldn't get the thing to run right. He got so mad at the thing, he took a sledgehammer and beat the engine. Did that engine offend him? Did it? What happened? In his right mind, in a rational thought process, there's not any reason on this planet to react like that, is there? It's insanity. What happens? They say you get mad. You know what a mad dog is, don't you? About like a mad man. acting absolutely irrationally with just nothing but vengeance and viciousness. So he beats this car up. You think it was all by himself? Oh, there was three of them there. It was Satan controlling him and God resisting him. And you could have taken Satan out of the equation. It wouldn't have made much difference. You know why? Because God resists the proud. Oh, God, fix this engine, man. I'm fixing nothing for you, buddy. How come? Why are you contending with me? Why would we contend with our Creator? Pride. Have you got any pride? Oh my, oh my. I wish I hadn't asked that question. Well, if you don't like the problem, then what are you going to do about it? Are you going to straighten out God? You're going to say, I don't think it's fair for you to do that, God. I'd like you to straighten Him out. I'd like to watch. Let me know who wins, will you? So why do we continue? Because we don't understand. You ever meet anybody that's been mad at the world? They just hate life. They just hate it. Nothing ever works good. Nothing makes them happy. They're just constantly bickering and griping and complaining. They're just on the edge all the time. That's God's resistance. Happy is the man whom God corrected, therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty, for he maketh sore and he bindeth up, he woundeth and his hands make whole. What's the matter with you, fella? I hate God's chastening. Oh, really? Okay, well, have it your way. Don't be a sad state of affairs. Now stay with me about this stuff, okay? We're made for His pleasure. Proverbs 6, 17. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Who's your enemy? Sometimes it's your wife, sometimes it's your husband, sometimes it's your kids, sometimes it's Christians, sometimes it's your best friend, sometimes it's the other driver. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. How come? Keep the contention down. How can my ways please you? I give grace to the humble. Guess what you have to do to get there? Let's keep going. So if we're not pleasing, then we get no peace with our enemies, and we end up with confrontations, we respond out of pride, we end up miserable. And that's what happens. If we respond, we react to anything anybody else says or does to us, we are only doing it by pride. You can't respond any other way when you react. Somebody cuts you off, idiot. I always get the slow drivers. No wonder I get slow drivers in front of me all the time. How come? God's resistance. You know, if you'd soften up, God would put you behind some people and move right along, maybe. You ever think about that? Don't you seem to have kind of a repetitive pattern to some of these things? Don't you realize where the storm comes from? He make us sore. Man, I'm getting sore at you, God. Well, I guess you are. I'm making you sore at me. I guess so. We don't think like that. We just think about relief. Fix the problem. Take this stuff away. I don't like it anymore. I want you to make me feel good. I like to feel good. Anyway, so it's kind of a circular thing and you've got to break this up. How are we going to break that up? We react out of pride. God resists. He acts in opposition to correct us, to stop us from doing that. We respond in pride, He continues to stop us. If that wasn't bad enough, He takes away the very thing that we need to solve the problem. What do you think that is? It's grace. He says, I resist the proud. I give grace to the humble. So the one thing that you need to get beyond these problems I'm not going to give you. Not only that, I'm going to resist you. I'm going to do everything I can to defeat you. And I'm telling you, when you've got God against you, you've got somebody against you. He can work inside of your head because he already lives in there. He can work through all the things around you, put slow drivers in front of you, frustrate you with employees, frustrate you with family members. He can just keep on rubbing that thing until it's so sore you can't even stand it. Say, Lord, I sure wish you'd bind this thing up. I sure wish you'd make it whole. God says, I sure wish you'd listen to me. I wish you'd start doing what I've told you to do. It's going to be my way or your way, and guess what? I don't change. I already told you that. If anybody's going to change in this deal, it's going to be you. Well, God, I'm not comfortable the way I am. I want some grace. God says, you don't get any. Matter of fact, I'm going to take away what little bit I did give you. What is grace? Grace is favor, kindness, goodwill, favorable influence of God, divine influence of the Spirit by renewing the heart and restraining us from sin. You don't suppose there's any sin in pride, do you? A state of reconciliation to God. virtuous affections, such as generous disposition, faith, meekness, patience, proceeding from divine influence, spiritual instruction and edification, favor, mercy, pardon. I'd like a pardon, God. Well, that's what you get through grace. I'd like some favor. I'd like some sweet influence by your spirit. Not if you're proud, you're not going to get it. You're not going to get any grace. No wonder you stay frustrated. No wonder your prayers don't get answered. Because you're going to God with pride. God, you know what they did to me? Man, they got what they deserved. God says, OK, you're going to get yours too now. How come? There's something about pride, buddy. There's something about pride. Also, 2 Corinthians 9.8. This thing here is really important. This is access to about everything. You say, what are you talking about, about everything? This thing over here in 9H says, And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. You know what you just missed out on when you miss out on grace? You miss out on that whole deal. All things Every good work? It isn't any wonder we can't get anything done. God says, you got no grace? You don't get any of that stuff. You missed it all. How can I get in on that, God? I already told you. I'll give it to you. But I ain't giving it to you like you are. You're still so messed up, you wouldn't even know how to use it if you had it. You'd mess with it, play games with it, try to use it for yourself. And I'm not going to give it to you. I know how to give good gifts. What about 2 Corinthians 12, 7 to 11? This thing here is really rich too. What's that say? And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation that was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffen me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. What's going on? Where do you think the pain and the suffering you got comes from? It's coming from Satan. He wants you to hurt. He wants you to suffer. You think God's actually making you suffer? Who do you think made Jesus Christ suffer? You think it was God Almighty? You think the Father was chastening Him? It pleased God to bruise Him, but God didn't do the bruising. He just turned it loose so the other ones that would do the job did the job. He doesn't have to do that stuff to us. He turned Satan loose on Paul. How come? For a purpose. And then when Paul tried to get his way instead of God's way, God says, look, I gave you this thing for a reason. I turned Satan loose on you for a reason. Why is that? So that you could have grace. What's that? Grace to endure what? Pain and suffering. That pain and suffering you feel from pride, the reason you're not getting over it is because God's not going to give you nothing to get over it. You're just going to have to put up with it. Just going to keep on going and going. Now the real question is, do you want God's grace or His resistance? I know I'm talking to a bunch of people that want His grace. You don't want God's resistance. I don't want His resistance. Don't you understand that your pride is offensive to God? That's the whole point. There's something about pride that is so offensive to God that he resists it in such a way that even the children that he loves, when they move into that realm of pride, he goes, I don't want nothing to do with you. You don't get a thing. And we all have just a little bit of pride, don't we? Like I said, you can measure your pride by those things. Anyway, if you want His grace, God says this, James 4.10, 2 Peter, He giveth grace to the humble, right? Humble yourself. Okay, how do we do that? Well, a great place to start is to realize who it is that's offended by your pride. That's a great place to start. If you were to look at God right now, what do you think you'd see? You think you'd see an old white-haired man? If you could see God and not get destroyed by him, because no man can see God and live, you'd be looking at an energy source. The one that you pray to when you say, I have a father, he is there in a form of light that you can't even describe. When he showed up on a mountain, covered old Moses up, he'd come down glowing from just the energy that oozed in between his fingers and the cracks there as he was going away. That's who you're talking about. When you start thinking about those things, if you realize who this is that you're making mad, you don't want him upset with you. You don't want to frustrate his love. You want to encourage it. You know, come on, Lord, help me out here, Lord. He said, when you start doing it my way instead of yours, I'll help you out. As long as you're going to do it your own way, you're just going to have to reap the consequences. You've got to realize who you are. What do you mean? We're all sinners. What's that mean? That means we're all drowning. We all fell in the ocean. We're all under the water, and we keep looking it over at that guy and the other guy and saying, well, I'm closer to the top than he is. I'm closer to the surface than she is. And you're all drowning. It ain't going to be long. If the Lord doesn't make a fisher of men and get you out of there, you're all going to die anyway. We're all just looking at each other and comparing ourselves among ourselves and by ourselves and that's a lack of wisdom. God said, I told you that too. So why is it when you get in a fight, you think that you're right and they're wrong and you compared yourself to them and you know they're wrong and you're right. And you just exude a lack of wisdom. What's that? Foolishness. Anger rests in the bosom of fools. God's put the stuff in here. But until we start looking for what's in it for him, you're not going to bother showing us. Why? Because we still got too much pride. We've got nothing of our own. We brought nothing into this world. We can take nothing out. We justify our existence by the pleasure that he gets from us. If we're made for his pleasure, then to the extent that you bring in pleasure, you justify the fact that he made you and provided you with everything that he's given you. Because the only reason he's done it was for his pleasure. The extent you do that, you justify being here. What else? Our pride is self-destructive. Realize that you're not just hurting the other person. It's destroying you. It's hurting you. Humility now is better than embarrassment later. And I mean big embarrassment. We're not talking about just a little bit. Humble yourself now is better than having God do it. You want God to do that? You think what happened to Joan was just an accident? You think that thing was a fluke? What if I'd have got a hold of this stuff without having him have to do that? Wouldn't that have been a whole lot better? Wouldn't it have been a whole lot easier for me to understand the glory of God because I read those verses and started thinking about Him and moved on in that direction rather than have Him do what He did? I wonder what else God's doing in our lives that we don't have to have Him do if we just started looking beyond ourself. Start thinking out of the box a little bit. I'd rather humble myself than have him do it. What do you have to be proud of before God anyway? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Before the one that is offended by pride, it's no wonder he's offended by pride. We have nothing to bring him. And we act like we're somebody. God says, I hate that, I hate that so bad. How come you hate that so bad, God? Well, Satan started this thing, and that's the one thing about him I couldn't stand. And I threw him and all his buddies out for it. Yep, that's what's going on. Anyway, what's real humility? Humility is having a low opinion of oneself and a deep sense of unworthiness in the sight of God. Do you have a deep sense of unworthiness in the sight of God? If not, then he's going to resist you. If you can't remember who you are and what's going on and why you're here, instead of taking this thing back on yourselves and it's all about you, then you're just condemned to repeat the thing. 2 Peter 2.21 is in God's acceptable will. What's that? That is, when you suffer for your faults and you take that patiently, that's nothing. But when you suffer for doing right and you take that patiently, what's that? Being offended by your spouse, being offended by your kids, being offended by your boss, coworkers, other drivers on the road. Do you realize that God accepts that with pleasure because that's in the acceptable will of God? Pride's kind of messing you up, isn't it? Pride's kind of messing me up. I know that's so. It's counterproductive in what I'd like to do, which is to bring him pleasure. Remember, a soft answer turneth away wrath, Proverbs 15, 1. And that's the first thing that pops into your mind as soon as they raise their voice, isn't it? I used to think, oh, I've got to reinforce my argument instead of raising my voice. I wanted to reinforce my argument with that guy in the car. And I mean enforce, too. What would I do now? I don't know, but recently I had a situation come up and it grieved me. Not because it was hurting God, I didn't understand that. It just grieved me because my attention was on me and I hated that feeling. I hated that feeling of me first and being offended. And it was so strong, it was eating me up. And I just wanted God to take it away. I mean, it's just, oh man, God, I hate this. I can't stand it. And the Lord began to say, okay, you really wanna do this for my glory? Then I'll start to show you some things about your pride. Like I said, it's a whole lot easier for us to humble ourselves than for him to have to do it. What else? Pray for your enemies with sincerity. Do I have to do that? Listen, Job 42.10, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends who he'd been fighting with about who was right and wrong for 33 chapters. Isn't that interesting? Don't you feel like you're being held captive by your pride? That's exactly what it is. You get caught in this trap and the pride gets Satan on your side, helping you wallow in your pride, God's resistance, and there's just no end to it. So how do you get over the feelings that you've had for people that have offended you for years and years and years? Well, start praying for them. Pray for them with such sincerity that you want God to benefit from their existence. You want anything that he can give them. to make their lives better so that he derives more pleasure from them. And if you can't pray that with sincerity, you're crippled too high for crutches, especially knowing what we know now. I'm going to close with this thought. If you're in a long-term argument that continues to hurt, especially if the other person doesn't even know how you feel, maybe it's not them, maybe it's God's resistance that you feel more than the pain they caused. Think about it. If you've got a quick temper that continues to hurt you and others, you can't get the victory over it. You're going to have to straighten things out with God before you straighten anything out anywhere. And the only way you can do that is humility. Now, if God's dealt with you at all about this, I'm not talking about, oh, well, he's preached on pride, you know, and the only thing that's going to keep me in my pew, and I don't want other people to think that I didn't respond. You know, I'm not talking about that. Once in a while, God will ease up and he'll give you a chance and he'll say, you want another chance? You want another chance? Okay, I'll give you another chance. If he's dealing with you, he's giving you another chance and he's giving you a chance about something I've never understood my whole life until just recently, which had to do with pride and God and how he feels about it. If he's dealt with you, you got a chance. You just tell God how you feel. You understand more about it now than you've ever understood before. The Bible says, to whomsoever much is given, much shall be required. Let's close in prayer.