Live Free with Josh Howerton - How Does Pride Disguise Itself? | Ep. 51 | Monday April 17, 2023

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

We all have blind spots in our lives. That’s why the psalmist in Psalm 139 prays: “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” In today’s episode, Pastor Mike helps us get after pride by opening our eyes to how pride can hide itself in our lives. This time of reflection is followed by a focused prayer for humility today. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Mike Bro, and grateful that we get to spend a few minutes each day just learning how to walk with God. And by the way, that's what we were all created to do. And there's nothing like it. Now, I'm not talking about religion, because that's a dead end street. I'm talking about a real relationship with the living God where you let his love define you, his truth, realign you, and his presence lead you throughout the entire day. A songwriter once wrote, your word is a light to you. my path. And that's what

many of us are experiencing these days. We're just looking at God's Word together. We're finding some hope. We're finding some joy, some truth, some wisdom, and some direction for our journey. We have been walking through a little letter tucked in the back of the New Testament called Philippians. And we are in Chapter 2,

and we've been talking about for a few days now laying our pride, laying our ego on the altar, and embracing the same radical approach to humility that Jesus himself modeled. And before we get to this last section about Jesus' humility, let me just share a few questions that have been really helpful to me and may help you as well. I've often found it helpful to go to God and just

pray that prayer from Psalm 139, search me, O God. Anything in my heart that needs to get fixed? I mean, would you get your eyes on my character? I may have some, no, I know I have some blind spots. So could you take a look at my heart? And I also have some good friends that I can go to and ask those exact same kind of vulnerable questions, and when I do that in regard to my ego, I've learned to ask this, first of all, in what ways does pride play out in me? And just be honest as you evaluate that. Again, ask God to search you, but also do a little personal, honest inventory, and then ask somebody else that you trust. How does pride play out in me? Do I exaggerate? Do I do the humble brag thing? Do I get defensive? And why?

Do I seem consumed with how I look? Do I post too many selfies? And why? Do I compare the number of Twitter followers someone else has and why? Am I envious of other people's stuff, of other people's talents, of other people's lives? Do I have trouble showing affection? Do I have a hard time showing weakness? Is it pride that keeps me from being vulnerable and getting the help I really need?

Just be honest and invite God and a trusted friend to the process asking, what does pride look like in me? The second question I found helpful is this. How does pride disguise itself in me? Because pride is really good at masquerading. It'll fake you out. I heard this really condescending guy on a sports talk radio one day, and he was kind of defending himself to a caller who called him out for his arrogance.

And he came back yelling at the caller about, I'm not arrogant, I'm just confident. And I thought, nope, you're just arrogant. You see, pride can disguise. itself with intellect, with wit, with fashion, fitness, religion, ethnicity, financial status, even false humility. You could even do good things, noble things, kind things, and still make it all about craving recognition and praise for yourself. So you've got to get real honest and ask, in what way is this pride disguise itself in me? And then the really big question

I ask is this, how much longer am I going to let pride control my life? Why would I let this known assassin like this, take open shots at me, when am I going to finally embrace the liberating lifestyle of Jesus and just walk free from myself? And gang, it is liberating, and it is the pathway

to greatness. I love the last period of this passage in Philippians too about what happened as a result of Jesus lay down my rights, serve other people, lay down my life approach to his life. It says this, therefore, verse 9,

God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above every other name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So our role model says the best way up is down.

So what do you say we get after this sinister thing called pride and lay our eagle on the altar and let's just start right now. Would it be okay if I let us all in a time of focused prayer for just a minute or two? You could just say in your own words, but let me just lead you through this. Maybe you can just pray, God, would you drive selfishness out of my life, especially as we relates to my family right now? Help me to put my ego on the altar, empty myself, and choose the same attitude as Jesus.

God, would you drive selfishness out of my life as it relates to my friends? as it caused me to be envious and play that stupid comparison game, it prevents me from truly rejoicing with those who rejoice. I want to be able to celebrate with other people. God, would you drive selfishness out of my marriage? Now, I'm only responsible for what I bring, and I don't want to bring my ego. I don't want to bring self-interest.

I don't want to bring self-centeredness. I just want to bring a humble self, a surrendered self, to my marriage. God, would you drive selfishness out of my workplace today? I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to give me joy to choose a non-complaining, non-sentical, positive attitude as I go to work or when I go to another job,

I just want to serve you with humility, knowing that it's really you that I'm working for. Shape me into the right person in that place today. God, I ask you to sweep selfishness out of my relationships at school, because sometimes, God, I get real self-centered, even judgmental toward other people. Help me not to focus so much on me to never take part and make fun of other people, but to stand with the underdog and just show me ways to

serve God, so people will see Jesus and me. God in my church, I pray that I would never be the reason for a lack of oneness, for a lack of true community. God, please drive away from me any selfish ambition or vain conceit. Help me to see others as better than myself. Forgive me for the times, God, that I've tried to be the great somebody. So Father, together today, we choose to embrace the lifestyle that Jesus had. We are ready to lay our ego on the altar today as we ask the Holy Spirit to remind us throughout the day when our prize starts to rear its ugly head.

We want to live free and light and gracious like Jesus, so we lay down ourself. And it's His name we pray. Amen. Hey, thanks for joining us today. We'll pick up where we left off next time. in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out?

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