Getting Away From PRIDE - Episode 55

It's just as prideful to say "I'm too good for this...I don't need this" than to say "I could never do this...He would never choose me."

Thinking you're "too good" is just like saying you're "so bad."  It comes from a prideful place often disguised as false humility. 

But God wants more for you.

In this episode, Justin and Don discuss how to remove yourself from the pride of the world, contrasting current cultural views of pride with biblical teaching that Jesus calls followers to deny themselves, that God opposes the proud (character misalignment), and that humility opens the way for God to work. They describe pride as often hidden, rooted in insecurity, and an “armor of darkness” that blocks truth, repentance, transformation, and even effective ministry. Using examples like seeking compliments, taking offense, and image-protection, they argue pride fuels anger, bitterness, and resentment, while humility brings freedom, healthier relationships, and spiritual growth. They connect pride to the Genesis fall and present the gospel as God sending Jesus—who served instead of being served, avoided personal glory, and sacrificed his own life—so people can repent, be saved, follow the Holy Spirit, and live in peace, joy, and rest.

Thebetteryou.org

Transcript

Episode 55 – Getting Away from Pride

Justin: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. This is Justin Olbrantz 

Don: And this is Don Schaefer 

Justin: And you are listening to The Wise and the Wandering podcast. For those who know the way and for those who are led astray. And if you feel like you fall into either of those categories, then you're in the right place. So let's dive in

Justin: So Don, what are we going to talk about today? 

Don: Well, I think a good topic that we're been discussing is getting away from pride, Justin. 

Justin: Getting away from pride. So pride right now is kind of a hot topic. We are recording this in the middle of June, right? 

Don: Yes, 

Justin: we are. So this, this is something that we need to get away from.

Don: This is true. This is true. 

Justin: So pride, I just wanna get into pride, right?

Justin: 'Cause pride is kind of a, uh, especially around this [00:01:00] timeframe, it's kind of confusing for people, right? Even when I went into the, the Merriam, uh, Webster Dictionary, there's, like, a bunch of different definitions, and they kind of mean, , different things. So it, , it's kind of a, it's, it's a little bit of a gray word the way they define it, right?

Justin: Oh, yeah. And, and I think there's a reason for that. Yeah. There might be a spiritual aspect to that. But the definition that I was able to get, , which is kind of generic, it says, "Pride is a reasonable self-esteem, a confidence and satisfaction in one's self." 

Don: Okay, I can 

Justin: go with that. So it is the confidence in yourself, right, in the self-esteem.

Justin: Mm-hmm. But we know from early episodes, we know from the Bible, right, the things that we've read is that Jesus, Jesus himself said to deny yourself, right? 

Don: That's right. 

Justin: If you wanna be a follower of mine, if you truly wanna follow alongside of me, you have to deny yourself. You can't do this in your own strength, right?

Justin: You can't- True ... you, you can't just, y- you can't [00:02:00] be completely consumed by yourself, is you can't be selfish. You have to do these things with me, right, is what he's saying. That's, that is right. It even says in the Bible that, you know, God opposes the proud, right? He opposes- He does ... I think that's in James, right?

Justin: So He is opposed because He does not look down on others. He's not a- Yeah ... prideful God, right? 

Don: Yep. 

Justin: It says in Colossians that He came down to serve, not to be served, right? This is true. That is, that is the opposite of pride. Very humble. That is humility, right? So I guess just talk to me about pride. What, what do you think about pride in terms of how it relates to culture, and contrast that with what it says in the Bible?

Don: Well, yeah. That's a good topic there, Justin, because, um, I think pride, you know, the Bible talks about, uh, pride goes before the fall. Mm-hmm. And a lot of times pride hides itself, , in a lot of different ways in the things that we do. And I know, , according to the Bible, pride is a, is an avenue that separates us from God.[00:03:00]

Don: God wants us to come humbly before Him- Mm-hmm ... and to be able to open up and reach out to Him. He wants to be able to make our lives what it needs to be. Mm-hmm. And therefore we have to be able to take our false, uh, areas in our life that are, uh, need some correction and some direction and give them to God.

Don: Mm-hmm. And a lot of times it's a very humble thing to do. You have to say, "There's something wrong with me." And I know we're in a society today where I think people try to build themselves up pridefully- Yeah ... in different areas. And I know myself, I have to be careful because the things you do, you know, uh, I mean, it's...

Don: Y- you could say it's good and all that, but if, if I d- Like, I'll use an example here. Mm-hmm. Like, if I build a birdhouse- Yeah ... you know, and, and I paint this up real nice, and it's, it's- Mm-hmm ... a trophy, and I set it up. You know, this here could be a prideful thing. It could be... I'm just looking for people to say, "Don, you are a good birdhouse builder-" Yeah

Don: "and stuff." You know? Yeah. So, so sometimes the [00:04:00] things we do, we feed our pride. We don't even realize that we're doing that. Mm-hmm. But according to the Bible, we need to become humbly before Him. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We need to get this pride out of us. Mm-hmm. And that's where, uh... Yeah. We have to get away from pride- Mm-hmm

Don: and get ourselves into a place where God can work in our lives. 

Justin: Yeah, we gotta get away from pride and get closer to humility, right? That's right. Because it is through humility that you can, I think, truly live. You can truly be transformed. You can truly change yourself. You can truly walk in a different way.

Justin: Pride will not allow you to change. Pride will always keep you stuck in the same place that you're at. So if you say you're too good for somebody, or you're too good to do that, or, "I'm too good, I don't need that," that is going to be a perspective that keeps you stuck. You're not gonna go anywhere, and that's...

Justin: In a practical sense, that's why pride is so bad, is because it gives you a reason not to change, right? Yeah, that's true. The Gospel, the Gospel is all about changing and transformation, and the pride will always [00:05:00] keep you from understanding the Gospel message. This is true. It says in the Bible that the cross is foolishness to those who are perish- perishing.

Justin: Mm-hmm. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are just stuck in pride, right? They're not hearing it. Even in the Bible- That's right ... it says that we've been blinded, you know, by the enemy, be- the ones that are living in pride. Yeah. And there's a, a quote here I wanna read that I pulled, and I thought it was great.

Justin: And it says, I think it's, uh, Francis Frangipane. Uh, sorry if I'm not saying that right, but he's the one that said this. And it says, "God can never entrust His kingdom to anyone who has not been broken of pride, for pride is the armor of darkness itself." 

Don: Yes, that's good. 

Justin: Right? So just by having pride, you're surrounding yourself with a, , an armor of darkness.

Justin: Oh, yeah. 'Cause you can't see the light, right? Yeah. The darkness is completely consuming you and covering you. Oh, 

Don: yeah. 

Justin: And it might cover you in your sin, right? It might cover you in living a [00:06:00] harmful life. It might cover you in, in- Mm ... just going down dark paths, right? Yeah. And doing things you don't necessarily want to do, but you feel some kind of pleasure in it.

Justin: Mm-hmm. You feel some type of security because pride is, you know, rooted in insecurity, right? That's right. And, and it might actually give you, like, this false confidence, right? Yeah. Yeah. So the whole thing, when you think about it, is kinda based in lies.

Justin: That's why it's not good to live in pride because- 

Don: Oh, no ... 

Justin: in a short order, Jesus wants more for you. You know, jesus did not go to the cross and sacrifice His life so that we could be stuck in pride, right? That's right. He came to free us from that. 

Don: Yep, He did. 

Justin: So the, the idea here is that the reason you gotta get away from it is because there's so much more for your life.

Justin: Mm-hmm. There's so much more you can transform to be. You were never meant to do this life on your own, and you shouldn't have to feel proud and feel this enormous self-esteem and self-respect that you have, because you're [00:07:00] meant to do life with Him, right? That's true. Since the beginning, we've always been meant to do life with Him, and we wandered away.

Justin: We strayed. We ate from the wrong tree, and we- We did ... were introduced to the morality of good and evil, and now to this day, we still can't process it. But there's a way out of it, right? Yes. There's a light there. Oh, yeah. And there's somebody who called themselves the light of the world- That's true ... that you can follow to get away from pride.

Don: That's true. And He wants to get us away from pride, to be able to understand. And a lot of times in life, what it is is recognizing pride for what it really is. I know we can talk a message like this, Justin, and pride for a lot of people will keep them from receiving this message, because nobody- Yeah

Don: everybody- That's true ... it seems like with pride, they try to protect that. Yeah. You know, I am proud of who I am, I'm proud of what I do, and the things I might do bad, I've got enough pride that I don't want anybody knowing anything about this sort of thing, because I've got an image to keep. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Don: And that's where with, with God, this stuff has [00:08:00] to be broken. And a message like this is an opportunity, I think, for people to realize what pride can do in their life. But you know, like Jesus had mentioned at one time that, uh, to come unto God, we have to become like little children. Mm-hmm. And it seems like little children have no pride at all.

Don: I, I look at my grandchildren when they're young and stuff. I mean, they have no pride. I mean, you take care of them. They're very needy. You know, they, if they have something that they want or whatever, they say it. Yeah. If something, something's hurting them, they say it. Yeah. It ju- just doesn't matter. Right.

Don: It seems like as you get older, you develop this sort of thing. And so many times, it distorts the way you think, the way you see things, because it's your pride. You can have truth given to you right between the blinkers, but you know, I got this all figured out, Justin. Mm-hmm. Don't tell me any different.

Don: Mm-hmm. You know, pride will do that to you. Yeah. You know, you can have the best information possible as far as life is concerned, far as how you should live life, but pride [00:09:00]says, "No, I got this all... Don't tell me any different. I don't even wanna hear this stuff." 

Justin: Mm-hmm. 

Don: But you know, and that's where pride is such a thing that we have to be broken away from it.

Don: Yeah. And that's where Jesus talks about the, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Mm-hmm. And the truth is we need to get pride out of our life. Mm-hmm. We need to come humbly before our Creator, allowing Him to make us the people. And it's interesting, too- 'Cause I see this in sports a little bit.

Justin: Yeah. 

Don: You know, uh, and I, I really appreciate this when they do- Definitely in 

Justin: sports ... 

Don: something great. Yeah, where they point up to Heaven. Yeah, 

Justin: yeah. 

Don: Where they say, "You know, it's not me." Yeah. And I, and I myself, I'm sitting there. You know, if somebody was to say, "Don, you do a good podcast. Justin, you do a good podcast," you know, we gotta be careful with that because there's so many elements where pride can slip into your life- Mm-hmm

Don: where you think you're something, where it's just, you're just glorifying God. Yeah. You're just an instrument and a vessel that God uses in a, in a special way. 

Justin: Mm-hmm. 

Don: And when, we have to be humble in our life, and this is a journey. Like, you talk about [00:10:00] dying daily and stuff like that as far as- Mm ... the flesh is concerned.

Don: The flesh loves pride. Mm-hmm. It thrives off of it. It feeds off of it. Mm-hmm. It's looking for the next compliment. Mm-hmm. It's looking, "Hey, Justin, tell me I'm great. Tell me I'm this or whatever," because my pride has to be fed. Mm-hmm. And I know when we come before God, humbly before Him, we have to say, "Lord, break this pride."

Don: Mm-hmm. "Help me to come humbly. Don't allow me to feed this anymore. I wanna be humble before you, and I want you to show me all of my faults and anything that I need to lay before you, because I wanna be the perfect person." 

Justin: Yes, exactly, and pri- pride will obviously stop you from doing that. Pride, this is why repentance is so powerful, because repentance comes when pride stops, right?

Justin: There is no repentance while you're still living a prideful life. Those two are opposites from each other, so this is why it's so important. You know, just to break down, I guess I just wanna break down, like, a more basic Gospel message, right? Because this whole thing from the [00:11:00]beginning started with a fall, and this thing started with pride.

Justin: Yes, it did. Right? And what happened was a very prideful serpent came up to Eve in the garden and said that, "This tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil," he says, "Surely God didn't say that you can't eat from this tree," right? He says, "If you eat from this tree, you will become like God." So what does she do?

Justin: She eats from the tree, right? God comes down and says, "Why did you eat from the tree," right? After Adam eats from the tree, scolds Adam. But He says, if you scroll down in, right, Genesis 3, He starts to say- " Behold the human beings, Adamah, they have now become like us." Right? Yeah. So what he's saying is what the serpent said to Eve from the beginning was actually the truth.

Justin: "If you eat from this tree, you will become like God." And he says, "Knowing both good [00:12:00] and evil." Yeah. And now they eat from the tree, and they know both good and evil, and God says, "They have become like us." Right? As we've talked about in the past, he says us because we're talking about the Trinity, right?

Justin: There's the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, right? He says, "Like us." Right? But they have become like God, and since then, we have become like God, and our pride stops us from repenting and coming back to God. And God's plan, the next logical step for him, the best logical thing he can do, is to send his Son here- 

Don: Yeah

Justin: to come down And to not be served, but to serve, to completely love everyone that he comes into contact with- Yeah ... and to heal everyone, to the point that he, he's loving and serving and sacrificing to the point that he sacrifices his own life- 

Don: Mm ... 

Justin: so that we would come back to him, so that we would stop walking in prideful ways, so that we would [00:13:00] stop walking the wrong way-

Don: Yeah

Justin: and turn back to him, right? Yeah. That we would have the conviction. He did that with the hope. If you think about it, it is a, it is a act of faith on his part. 

Don: Yeah. That's 

Justin: true. He's a faithful God. He is. It is an act of faith on his part that he sent his own Son so that we would be saved, right? Yeah. So that we would turn back to him.

Justin: Mm. So it's, the moment that you are saved, the work was already done on the cross 2,000 years ago, but the moment you start believing in it is the moment you're saved. Yeah. Because you're saved from walking the path that you have been. Yeah. You're saved from going in the wrong direction. Yeah. You're saved from the suffering that you have.

Justin: You're saved from the constant anxiety and the depression and the loneliness that you have every day- Mm ... knowing that that was- That's right ... not how you were ever supposed to live your life- That's true ... because we were never supposed to eat from that fruit. We were never supposed to know both good and evil.

Justin: Yes. We weren't supposed to know evil. That's true. So now it's time to get away from pride. And when we get away from pride, a lot of the times [00:14:00] we get away from evil, because we start walking righteously. We start walking in the leading and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And he is a Holy Spirit, so he leads us back in the way that God would walk, in the way that God walked when he was in the flesh here.

Justin: Mm. So we have an example to live by, an example of humility. So if we wanna follow that, if we want true life, if we want eternal life- Yeah ... then we have to turn away from pride. 

Don: Amen to that. That powerful message, 'cause I know, , Jesus came to do that. He came as to set us free of all that. And it's interesting, 'cause if you go back in the day of Pentecost, you know, when, uh, Peter got up, full of the Holy Ghost- Mm-hmm

Don: everybody realized he was just a fisherman. They're figuring out, trying to figure out what's going on. Thought he was drunk. 

Justin: Yeah. Yeah, 

Don: they did. But, but, but he explained who Jesus was, and Jesus was an interesting, , character in what he showed. He says we need to follow him. He was an example, and he was probably, he was probably the most, , humble and meekest- [00:15:00] individual, a person would even wanna ma- uh, meet.

Don: Because it- Mm-hmm ... was interesting with the miracles and things that He did. He even told the people, "Don't go s- telling anybody who did this." Yeah. You know, it was the glorifying of His heavenly Father in Heaven. He didn't want anybody glorifying Him in the flesh walking here on this earth. Mm-hmm. It was all His heavenly Father.

Don: Yep. And I know Peter on that Day of Pentecost, when he explained who Jesus was, he was talking to a lot of pride at one time, and all of a sudden they were very humbled- Mm-hmm ... in realizing what they had done. And they asked, "What should we do?" And Peter told them the key to it all. He said, "You need to repent."

Don: You know? Yeah. You ne- c- need to ask for- Yeah ... forgiveness. Mm-hmm. And I know we've, uh, done studies on this where the Bible talks about the gift of repentance. It isn't like, pride a lot of times keeps us from getting ourselves to a place where we truly can repent and come- Mm-hmm ... before God. Yep. A lot of times pride will keep us from God, period.

Don: And we live life as, as [00:16:00] you were saying, Justin, with all these issues, uh, depressions, loneliness, anxieties, all this sort of thing, and Jesus came to take all of that away from us and allow our life to be peaceful and joyful. Mm-hmm. But it takes a broken heart, a contrite spirit, someone who is willing to ask God for forgiveness, and pride is an avenue that keeps us from that.

Don: And we have a, a generation of people right now that have no understanding of what Jesus came to do. He came to break that, and for us to understand, I need to come humbly. I know myself. I, there's areas in my life I need to humbly lay before my heavenly Father, because we can't correct them. And that's the, it's the, it's a beauty, but it's a hard thing, too, because- Yeah, definitely

Don: you know, if you got pride at all, you don't wanna receive a message like that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But if you can come humbly, He'll do all the work. He will do- Right ... everything that needs to be done- Yeah ... to get you into the place where you can glorify your [00:17:00] God in Heaven. And that's the beauty of what He is and beauty of what He came to do.

Justin: Yeah, and I like what you pointed out about Jesus. As He's doing these things as the Son of Man, right, as He's doing these miracles, these healings, first of all, He's calling Himself the Son of Man. He's not calling Himself the Son of God, right? Yeah. But second of all, He's not taking the glory. He's always giving the glory to the Father.

Justin: That's right. Right? If He was a prideful person, He would've gassed Himself up, right? Yeah. He would've hyping Himself up. He would've been putting out His name out there. That's right. And He wouldn't have been telling them not to be quiet. You know, He was- That's right ... go tell everybody about me, right?

Justin: Yeah, come see 

Don: Jesus. 

Justin: Yeah, I need that self-esteem, right? Come see Jesus. So the fact that He didn't do that shows you the way, right? Yeah. And, and if we really wanna follow this, we wanna follow the way, right? He, He was the way. He called Himself the way. So this is just something really important to understand.

Justin: You know, I went through this , When I was early on, like walking with the Lord and kind of walking with the Holy Spirit, and he was showing me, , you know, when I was [00:18:00] going through my purifying fire moments, which, which were tough. I mean, those are- Yeah ... those are hard. I mean, you go through...

Justin: Well, when you really wanna start following and walking, , there's trials, and tests, and spiritual battles, and stuff that happen, and a lot of it is a test. But when I was going through those things and really trying to purify myself and rid myself of things like pride and stuff like that, I remember I went through a moment where, , God was kinda speaking to me, telling me that every time that you get offended, you're living in pride.

Don: Yeah. That's true. 

Justin: So any time you're offended by anything, and that might seem kinda drastic, like, "Wow, I don't have the right to be offended by anything?" You really shouldn't be offended by anything. You know, if, if you look in the Bible, it doesn't say anything productive about getting offended.

Justin: You know, it's hard to say that now because that is our modern-day culture. You know, people have- Yeah ... an opinion about everything on social media. Everybody wants to be offended about anything. It's almost like a [00:19:00] good thing. It's like, uh, it's like, uh, popular to be offended about things. But I went through this trial, I went through this moment where I...

Justin: Once I heard that from Him, I was like, "You know what, God? I want you to purge anything that I get offended by. Completely remove it from me. Remind me of anything that is offending me- Mm ... so I can get rid of it." That's right. "Because I want this pride gone." Amen. "I don't wanna live- 

Don: Amen. "

Justin: I, I don't wanna live- That's good

Justin: at the sake of other people and having to get turned off, and having to get discouraged- Yes ... and put in a mad- a bad mood just because they control me by what they say." That's good. "I wanna be controlled by you, God. I wanna be- I want you to father me. I want you to show me the way of humility." Mm-hmm. "I want you to teach me," because when I started learning that, when I got away from pride, you know what stopped?

Justin: A lot of things that stem around- Yeah ... spiritual things that stem from the same root, like anger, like bitterness, resentment. When I [00:20:00] got away from pride, it was easier to pull those roots out, too. Mm. Because those all are protected- That's good ... and sheltered by that armor of darkness that we were talking about in that quote.

Justin: That's right. That armor of darkness, it is an armor. It covers your whole being, and once you can pull off that armor, you can really start peeling back layers, right? Mm-hmm. There is a, , you could call it self-discovery, but you could also call it holy discovery, right?

Justin: Yeah. Because there's certain things that you find that you had that you don't want, and then there's certain things that you find and learn about through the power of the Holy Spirit that you want, right? Yeah. He empowers you. He doesn't just- 

Don: He does ... 

Justin: convict you. He convicts you for the sake of correction- Mm

Justin: to turn you into the person that you were meant to be. And if you're constantly getting offended by people, you will never become who you were meant to be- That's true ... because you live at the expense of other people. 

Don: Oh, yes. That's very good, Justin. I- it brings to mind, 'cause I know the Bible talks about the spirit of offense, and, [00:21:00] um, what happens- Yep

Don: a lot of times is it's hard to even leave the house. I mean- Yeah ... if you, if you have a prideful way about you, anybody can wreck your day. Yeah. The, uh,, anybody can rain on your parade at any time. 

Justin: Uh-huh. 

Don: Because that's what pride does, you know? And that's where you get yourself into the place where you come humbly.

Don: It's interesting in relationships- Mm-hmm ... because I, myself, I'm working on this, but I seem like I can relate to anybody- Mm-hmm ... because I have no pride in a lot of areas. Mm-hmm. So whatever they might say or even do, I walk away and say, well, if it's bad, I say, "Well, they got a problem. I'm not gonna let that be my problem."

Don: But, you know, but pride would allow me to be offended, would allow me to think nasty things- Yeah ... and maybe even do nasty things. Yeah. You know, and nobody likes that. But, you know, when you can come humbly in a relationship, whether it be a wife or anybody in life, , you can connect real quick. You know, people can sense that.

Don: When you're [00:22:00] humbly before them just sharing with them, talking about things, you're very open in whatever the circumstances might be because pride always tries to protect itself. 

Justin: Yeah. 

Don: You know, it doesn't want anybody to come into their little tiny corner- Mm ... of the room or whatever it might be, and it's a hard place to live.

Don: Yeah, it is. Because y- 'cause you realize you can get banged up any day, any time. And you talk about an armor, you know, yeah, you gotta be armored up all the time with pride because, , somebody could look at you in the wrong way, and it could wreck your day and whatever it might be. Mm-hmm. And that's where to be able to come to God, and a lot of it, as we're saying here, , is forgiveness.

Don: Yeah, yeah. Asking God for forgiveness no matter what the circumstance be. You know, we don't have a right to be angry with people, to have bitterness, all this stuff. We have no rights. When we come to God and say, "Lord, ... We are just a vessel- Mm-hmm ... that you created- Yeah ... to be on Earth to show the glory of who you are.

Don: You had made a plan for each and every one of us, and , I [00:23:00] humbly lay my life before you. However you wanna use that plan, I will be game for that. I am not gonna allow pride to step in the way," because as soon as it does- Mm ... God stops working 'cause he can't work in a prideful soul. 

Justin: Yeah, you know, the best thing, I think, in my opinion, about Jesus' ministry is Jesus didn't come...

Justin: He didn't just come to do the work, to sacrifice, to die on the cross. He also came, and while He was teaching, He was showing His disciples the Kingdom of God. He was showing them how to advance the Kingdom of God. Yeah. It's not only am I gonna do this in full servanthood, and I'm gonna put my life on the line.

Justin: But you're gonna do better works than me. This is going to continue because I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit to you, right? And by showing them that, we now know how to advance this kingdom. But what I can tell you is that you're not going to save souls in a prideful manner. No. You're just not gonna do it.

Justin: No. [00:24:00] I see too many people that become very prideful in the way that they preach to people, almost like they're just constantly preaching against something. And you don't wanna be preaching against something. You wanna be preaching for something.

Justin: There needs to be productivity in what you're doing. It says in the Bible, it says that, Solomon says that, "He who wins souls is wise." Mm. Now, think about that. You're not gonna win souls. You're not gonna win over the mind, will, and emotions of people if you just go around condemning them and preaching against them.

Justin: You have to do it in the way Jesus' ministry was so effective, because He was loving on people, healing them, showing them the kingdom, right? It's the same thing that we are to do to win them over. And to do that, we can't do that in a prideful way. You're not gonna wanna save anybody. You're not gonna want to Y- y- you're not gonna hurt for anybody, truly.

Justin: You're not gonna hurt for anybody. You're gonna see the sin in them, and you're gonna wanna call it out. You're [00:25:00] gonna, what I often hear them say is, like, "You hate the sin, but love the sinner." But that's not true if you're just still hating the sin. You gotta just love the person. You gotta y- you gotta hurt for them that they're lost and they're going the wrong way, and they haven't believed like you.

Justin: So you gotta help them believe, right? That's 

Don: right. 

Justin: And if you're in pride, you're not gonna wanna do that for people, 'cause it's gonna be all about you, and how much knowledge you know, and how much Bible verses you know- Yeah ... and how much they need to learn what you know. Yeah. But we don't need to do it.

Justin: We don't need to approach it that way. We have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is gonna work in that person. Mm-hmm. But we gotta show 'em the way. We have to convict them t- so that they come to repentance, right? Yeah. Not that they get turned away. Yeah. Not that they get upset or that, not that they get hurt by the process, and they, , they use it as a way to justify different ways that they've been hurt in the past.

Justin: No, we don't wanna relate to that. We wanna show 'em a new way. It has to be good news. Mm-hmm. You have to bring good news to somebody. That's right. It can't be bad news. Yeah. [00:26:00] If it's bad news, it's not gonna be attractive. You know, Paul says it's the goodness of God- That's right ... that leads people to repentance.

Justin: And repentance is a hard thing to come by- Mm ... when people are in pride. So the best thing that you can do is to completely walk it out in humility and show people what humility looks like. Because if you just try to c- correct somebody- Mm

Justin: without convicting them first- Mm ... they're not gonna hear you. The conviction has to come first. Yeah. ' 'Cause c- Because when I got saved, there was a lot of conviction, and it took ... It, it wasn't an instantaneous process. It, it's not that you're gonna go ... We're almost prideful to think that we can go preach against somebody and- Yeah

Justin: preach at them, and we think they're gonna get saved on the spot. No, sometimes it takes months. Yeah. You know? Sometimes it takes a while. It's a process. A process. They go through their convictions. A process, yeah. But when I saw what I was doing wrong, I never wanted to do wrong again, you know? Amen. And the more I didn't wanna do [00:27:00] wrong and the more I wanted to do right- 

Don: Yeah

Justin: I was shown how to do right, right? Yeah. I, I no longer, I, I no longer wanted to live in doing wrong. I no longer wanted to be a prideful person because I saw what that produced. Yeah. And when you're shown the goodness, right, you no longer wanna go back to the filth. That's right. You don't wanna go back to the dirt.

Justin: You wanna keep walking that because you wanna be as close to Him as you can. Mm-hmm. Because the more ... The closer that you walk with Him, the more He's going to do things, the more He's going to make sure that your faith does not stop, , that there's no questions that you have that don't go unanswered, right?

Justin: Yeah. He's going to be there for you. He's gonna make sure that your faith grows so you can continue walking the purpose that He has for you. 

Justin: I remember reading phrases, you know, 'cause like God would just show me signs of things that I was always trying to grow in.

Justin: It would always be like scriptures or things in devotionals or lyrics or anything like that. But it was, He was showing me something that it, it was saying, you know, whatever [00:28:00] you do, do it unto the Lord. Mm. And I started realizing when I need to do things that I don't wanna do, I do it for the Lord.

Justin: I do it for God, right?

Justin: Because my trust is in Him, I've walked away from the pride. People might not necessarily deserve it. You know, my wife might not necessarily deserve things, my friends might not deserve things, but they are going to benefit from it because I'm doing it for God, right? Yeah. So when I do these things, I do it for Him, and they are benefiting from it.

Justin: But at the same time, when they see that- Mm ... and they see you do things that you don't necessarily wanna do, and they see that humility, they're attracted to that. Yeah. They are inspired by it. That's true. They actually want it, and it actually does part of planting seeds, and it does a part in the process of bringing people to conviction.

Justin: Mm. Because they, they see that, and they're thinking, "There's something [00:29:00] changed there. There's something different." And it, it's, it's almost like you now wanna do those things. Yeah. And for maybe different reasons. And, and maybe you do feel okay just doing it for other people, 'cause now you've grown away from pride.

Justin: But for me, it was like a slow process- Mm ... because it was, I always felt like I didn't want to do things for somebody if they weren't doing things for me first. Yeah. And that's just a selfish way of looking at things. But Jesus didn't think that way, right? He was always just serving. So if we can get to that mindset where- Mm

Justin: we're just doing it unto the Lord, I'm just doing it for God, and if other people benefit in the process- Yeah ... so be it. 

Don: Yeah. 

Justin: That's right. Then you're gonna live a much better life. 

Don: That's right. Yeah, and realizing that God loves everyone and has designed each and every one of us, and that's where today when we talk about getting away from pride, this is just a principle.

Don: This is just something, uh, in the Bible that God talks about, and it's, He's always there trying to show us a better way. And if we can get [00:30:00] away from the pride, if we can recognize it in our life and lay it out before God, our life can be made a whole lot easier. And that's where Jesus says, "Come unto me and I will give you rest."

Justin: Mm-hmm. 

Don: And if we can get the pride out of our life, we will get the rest that Jesus is talking about. 

Justin: Amen. Well, I think that wraps it up for today. 

Don: This was a good one, Justin. 

Justin: I think so too. Hey, we're glad you guys found your way here today, and we hope you can join us again next week for another good word.

Justin: Until then, stay blessed. 

Don: By the best. 

Justin: See you guys.