Participants: Jill Morikone
Series Code: HLFT
Program Code: HLFT000019A
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00:24 Hello, and welcome to Heart Lift.
00:26 I'm Jill Morikone, and I'm so glad that you 00:29 have joined us today. 00:31 We're on a journey toward hope, toward healing, 00:35 toward the transformation that the Lord Jesus wants to work 00:39 in your life and in mine as women, as daughters of God. 00:44 If you're just joining us, we're in the middle 00:47 of a section on pride. 00:48 We talked about the boastful heart, the critical heart, 00:52 the jealous heart. 00:54 And no matter which heart we find ourselves saddled with, 00:58 God says, I want to bring you deliverance. 01:02 I came to set you free. 01:05 Today we're going to be discussing fearful pride. 01:09 This is totally different than the fear section we did 01:13 several programs before. 01:15 This is different than a worry. 01:17 This is fearful pride, and we'll unpackage that. 01:21 Our Scripture is Galatians 1:10. 01:26 If you have your Bible, open up and follow along. 01:29 If not, feel free to jot down that reference 01:33 and look it up later. 01:34 Galatians 1:10. For do I now persuade men, or God? 01:40 or do I seek to please men or God? If I still pleased men, 01:48 I would not be a bondservant of Christ. 01:53 Lord, in our own hearts and lives right now, 01:57 as I look into my own heart, I know there's still areas in me 02:02 that want to please man. 02:04 And so I just ask right now that You would create in me a clean 02:08 heart, that you would renew in me a right spirit. 02:12 I pray for the cleansing blood of Jesus. 02:15 I ask that for my sisters as well. 02:18 And right now as we discuss this topic of fearful pride, 02:22 I pray that You would come, and that You would speak 02:26 to our hearts and lives. 02:28 And we thank You in the precious and the holy 02:31 name of Jesus, Amen. 02:33 She was a young Middle Eastern girl; a beautiful girl 02:39 just coming into womanhood. 02:42 She lived at the palace because her mother had married one 02:47 of the local kings. 02:49 Herod they called him. 02:51 Now this woman, her mother, Herodias, 02:55 she was married to Herod. 02:59 And she did not like a certain person who began 03:03 preaching there in Galilee. 03:06 His name, you probably guessed it, was John the Baptist. 03:10 Perhaps it was the strange way that this prophet dressed. 03:15 Maybe it was the weird food that he ate. 03:19 Whatever it was, Herodias didn't like him. 03:23 She nagged, she talked to, she bugged her husband Herod 03:29 until he had the prophet of God imprisoned. 03:34 Did Herod think John the Baptist was really a bad person? 03:40 Did he think he was worthy of being imprisoned? no. 03:44 But he gave into the pressure from his wife. 03:47 Some time later Herod held a banquet for all the big 03:52 names around Galilee. 03:54 I would imagine Captains, and maybe Generals, maybe there were 03:59 some politicians there, and they all came for a time of, 04:03 feasting and frolic. 04:04 In the midst of their drunken feast, because the wine was 04:09 flowing pretty freely, in the midst of that feast, 04:13 they invited Herod's wife Herodias, her daughter, 04:18 to come out and dance. 04:20 She was that beautiful, young, Middle Eastern girl. 04:24 Her name was Salome. 04:25 She came out to dance, and she danced so beautifully, 04:29 and held those drunken men so captive that Herod was moved 04:34 in his heart to offer her a reward; whatever she wanted. 04:39 She ran back to Mamma and said, What should I ask for? 04:44 We hear the terrible request. 04:48 Herodias said, Say this, my daughter, Give me the head 04:54 of John the Baptist on a platter. 04:58 Now what type a woman is that? 05:00 That's just incredible to me. 05:02 Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter. 05:05 Herod was horrified. 05:09 I just imagine anxiously his eyes darting from one 05:13 drunken face to another. 05:14 I think some fully grasped the import of the message, 05:18 but they merely shrugged their shoulders 05:20 and lifted another glass. 05:22 Others maybe laughed, or told jokes. 05:25 Still others, they probably never liked the Baptist, 05:29 so his death might be even a relief to them. 05:33 We pick up this story in Mark 6, Mark 6:26. 05:43 The Bible says, And the king... That's Herod. 05:46 ...was exceedingly sorry; yet because of the oath... 05:50 Because of what he had promised to his step daughter Salome. 05:53 ...and because of those who sat with him, 05:58 he did not want to refuse her. 06:01 Because of those who sat; fear of those who sat, 06:06 fear of what other people, what those big names around 06:11 his table, fear of what they thought led him to behead John 06:18 the Baptist; that forerunner of the Messiah, John the Baptist. 06:23 Fearful pride is a fear of what other people think of me. 06:29 It is always self motivated, self focused, and self driven. 06:35 To me its maybe being a people pleaser. 06:40 And if I'm being honest with you, I think of all the prides 06:43 that we've been discussing, this one is my biggest struggle: 06:49 fearful pride. This one really gets me. 06:53 We're going to look at our self evaluation. 06:55 As always, when you do a self evaluation be honest. 06:59 Put down which one you identify most closely with. 07:10 Is there any fear lurking there? 1. 07:39 And I have been there. 2. 07:59 And I have been there. The last one. 08:21 It's really the fear of what other people think is kind of 08:27 the fowopt experience. 08:29 Fowopt is an acronym that my friend, Bobby Davis... 08:32 He works here at 3ABN, and he came up with this acronym. 08:36 It stands for fear of what other people think of me. 08:43 Fear of what other people think, or the fowopt experience. 08:51 Fowopt. It's the reason we let a popular person gossip to us 08:58 about our best friend, yet we don't say anything. 09:01 It's the reason we don't want to get up and lead song service 09:05 at church when a gifted singer or song writer happens 09:10 to be in the audience. 09:12 It's the reason we don't step out in obedience and do 09:16 something that God calls us to do because we're afraid 09:20 someone's going to say, You didn't do it right. 09:23 You didn't hear God's voice. 09:25 You aren't supposed to do that. 09:28 Fowopt experience: fear of what other people think. 09:34 It dictates what we eat, what we wear, where we go, 09:39 who we talk to; the Fowopt experience. 09:45 I had a pastor friend once, and he said to me something, 09:50 this was years ago, but it stayed with me 09:53 through all those years. 09:55 He said, Jill, if you feel nervous when you get up front, 10:00 or if you feel nervous doing something, it's a sign of pride. 10:05 Now as soon as he said that, my own pride bristled. 10:10 I thought, How dare you say that? 10:12 That's not right! 10:14 It's not pride in me because I'm afraid. 10:17 But the longer I thought about it, the truer it seemed to be. 10:22 Why would I be afraid? 10:24 1. Say I'm up front speaking. 10:27 Why would I be afraid? 10:29 Well, I wouldn't want to mess up. 10:31 That's a good thing. 10:33 Now why would I not want to mess up? 10:36 Because people would think badly of me. 10:40 They might think, You didn't prepare very well, Jill. 10:43 Or they might think, You're not very good at speaking. 10:47 Or they might think, Why is she up there anyway? 10:50 You see how that pride, the fear of what other people think, 10:55 it covers and it springs into many, many aspects of our lives. 11:02 Now I want to caution you right now. 11:04 As we're talking about this, this does not mean that you go 11:08 out and you tell someone else who's afraid to get out 11:11 and minister for Jesus, who's afraid to speak for Jesus, 11:15 or to share, or to use the talents that God has 11:18 given them in ministry. 11:20 Don't go and tell them, You know what? 11:22 You've got pride in your life. 11:23 Because if we do that that's condemnation, and we know 11:28 that's from the enemy. 11:30 That's the critical spirit. 11:32 And we just went over that a couple programs ago. 11:35 Simply come to God yourself. 11:37 This isn't for anybody else. It's for our self. 11:40 Simply come to God and ask Him in the quietness of your heart, 11:44 Is there fearful pride in my heart? 11:48 Is there fearful pride in my life? 11:52 Nicodemus had a little bit of this fearful pride. 11:57 He came to Jesus, remember? John 3. 12:01 He came to Jesus at night. 12:05 Why? he was afraid. 12:09 He was part of the Sanhedrin. 12:11 He was a religious leader in their time, and in their day. 12:16 And Jesus was not so popular with the religious leaders. 12:21 The common people loved Him. 12:23 The children flocked to Him to sit on His lap, 12:27 to be blessed over by Him, to get a word of 12:31 encouragement or commendation. 12:33 The women loved Him because, in their culture, men didn't pay 12:39 attention to the women. 12:40 But yet He gave women value. 12:43 The common people loved Him, because He identified with their 12:49 needs, and He bade them, Follow Me. 12:52 The religious leaders had an issue, 12:56 probably because of pride. 12:58 Here was somebody popular. 13:00 Here was somebody that everyone was flocking to. 13:03 And what? Maybe their synagogue was a little more 13:06 empty that Sabbath. 13:08 Maybe their synagogue was a little dry and they said, 13:11 Why is everybody going over here? 13:13 He can't be the Messiah. 13:15 Nicodemus was one of those rulers, and he had this fear 13:21 in his heart; fear of what other people thought. 13:25 And so he came to Jesus at night. 13:29 He wasn't the only one who had an issue with that. 13:31 We see in John 12, John 12 we see that some of the other 13:39 ones had a similar issue. 13:40 We're in verse 42. 13:42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, 13:48 meaning many believed in Jesus, but because of the Pharisees 13:54 they did not confess Him, lest they should be put 13:58 out of the synagogue:... 13:59 And then this verse: For they loved the praise of men 14:05 more than the praise of God. 14:07 I have to ask myself every time I read that, Jill do you love 14:13 the praise of men more than the praise of your Father in Heaven? 14:18 If you feel that today, if you feel like, I love the praise of 14:23 men more than my Father in Heaven, there is hope. 14:28 We want to talk about the steps, the keys for us to experience 14:33 freedom, and deliverance, from the fear of men, 14:38 from the fear of what other people think of me. 14:42 There's four. How do we break free from the fearful pride? 14:47 1. Ask God to show you your heart. 14:52 Psalm 139:23, 24. I quote this often, but I love it. 14:57 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my 15:02 thoughts: and see if there is any wickedness in me, 15:05 and lead me in the way everlasting. 15:08 I just flipped there in my Bible. 15:11 In the Hebrew, the Old Testament's written in Hebrew. 15:14 In the Hebrew it says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. 15:17 Do you know what the word search means in Hebrew? 15:19 intimately examine. 15:22 So when we come to God we're saying, Really look at me. 15:27 Really examine my heart. 15:30 What is going on in there? 15:32 Is there fearful pride? 15:33 I might think, I don't have any pride. 15:36 I don't have any fearful pride. 15:37 I don't care about what men think. 15:39 I'm all focused on Jesus. 15:40 And all of a sudden something pops up, 15:43 and I hadn't even realized it was there. 15:45 Go to God and ask Him to show you your heart. 15:50 2. Trust Him to change your heart. 15:55 We can't change our heart. 15:57 Jeremiah 13:23. The Bible says, Can the Ethiopian change his 16:03 skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, 16:10 who are accustomed to doing evil. 16:13 We can't change our hearts. 16:15 We can't break free from that fearful pride. 16:19 Trust God to change your heart. 16:23 3. Trust Him to complete the work that He has 16:29 begun in your life. 16:31 Philippians 1:6. Being confident of this very thing, 16:36 that he who began a good work in you will carry it 16:41 forward to completion. 16:43 God says, Trust Me. 16:45 Trust Me to complete the work I have begun in you. 16:50 4. Is behold Jesus. 16:54 I'm jumping back here to Isaiah. 16:56 Behold Jesus. He was a young man, yet he'd been called 17:02 to a very difficult mission, a hazardous job, a thankless task. 17:09 And I think God wanted to give him a special calling, 17:12 a special equipping for service. 17:17 I'm talking about, of course, the prophet Isaiah. 17:20 We see his call in Isaiah 6, Isaiah 6:1-4, 17:26 we're going to look at initially. 17:28 In the year that king Uzziah died, I... 17:32 This is Isaiah speaking. 17:33 I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, 17:38 and the train of His robe filled the temple. 17:41 Above it stood seraphim: each one had six wings; 17:46 with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his 17:51 feet, and with two he flew. 17:53 Verse 3. And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, 18:01 holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth 18:05 is filled with His glory. 18:06 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who 18:10 cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 18:15 You notice that? Isaiah was beholding God. 18:18 Not beholding God for, Okay, God's on my level. 18:22 He saw God for who He truly is. 18:26 There's a difference. 18:27 He saw the holiness, the majesty, the glory of God. 18:33 He saw the way the angels treated Him. 18:36 The, what's it say? the posts were shaken. 18:39 I mean this was incredible; the glory of God that he saw. 18:43 And notice the next verse, verse 5 is in contrast 18:47 to the glory of God. 18:49 Verse 5. He said, So I said, Woe is me! for I am undone; 18:58 because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst 19:01 of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, 19:05 the Lord of hosts. 19:08 What's he saying there? 19:10 When he truly saw God for who God is, 19:14 he got a picture of himself. 19:16 He got a picture of his own unworthiness, 19:20 and that picture humbled him. 19:23 It humbled him into the dust. 19:27 He realized who he was in relation to God. 19:32 You know, so many times when I think I'm doing well, 19:35 or I'm afraid of other people. 19:38 You know what? I'm looking this way, sideways. 19:42 I'm looking between me and other people instead 19:46 of looking vertically; looking between me and God. 19:51 If we really get a sense of who God is, I realize I'm nothing. 19:55 And at the same time, I won't have some sort of false 19:58 humility, because I will realize I am something. 20:01 I am the daughter of God! 20:03 He created me, He loves me, and He has a plan for my life. 20:08 When we truly see God for who He is, then we can see others, 20:14 and ourselves, for who they truly are. 20:18 I believe its important to go to God for approval. 20:21 How often I want to go to other people. 20:24 Maybe you seek for approval from your boss, 20:27 or from a co-worker. 20:28 Maybe you're seeking approval from your spouse, or a neighbor. 20:34 Maybe you say, I can never be good enough. 20:38 I can never live up to their expectations. 20:42 I can never be what I think they want me to be. 20:47 God says, You are enough. 20:50 Come to Me for approval. 20:54 Come to Me. And you know what God's going to say? 20:57 I made you. I love you. 21:00 I want to cherish you. 21:02 I want to protect you. 21:04 I have a plan for your life, and its way better than the life 21:10 that you're currently living. 21:12 So ask. Ask God to show you where the fearful 21:16 pride is in your heart. 21:18 Ask God to show you who you look to for approval. 21:23 2. Trust God to change your heart. 21:28 Recognize that you can't do it yourself. 21:30 Trust God to change your heart. 21:33 3. Trust Him to complete the work that He has 21:39 begun in your life. 21:41 Trust Him to finish it. And, 21:44 4. get a picture of who God is. 21:48 Get a picture of His greatness, and awesomeness, and majesty. 21:53 Go to Him for approval. 21:56 Look to Jesus until He becomes more important to you 22:01 than anybody else. 22:03 I think that's really the key. 22:05 As I spend time in His Word, as I spend time getting to know 22:09 Jesus, as I look to Him He truly becomes more important to me 22:15 than anybody else. 22:17 We need to take a break at this time. 22:19 When we come back we're going to talk about our practical 22:22 application, something you can do to carry you 22:27 through this week. |
Revised 2016-04-25