Participants: Jill Morikone
Series Code: HLFT
Program Code: HLFT000020A
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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, 00:34 toward the transformation that the Lord Jesus wants to work 00:38 in your heart and in mine, as women, as daughters of God. 00:43 If you're just joining us, we're in the middle of a journey. 00:47 The last few programs we have been discussing pride. 00:50 We started with the boastful heart, the critical heart, 00:54 the jealous heart, and our last program was on the fearful 00:59 heart, or the fear of what other people think of me. 01:03 Today is our last program dealing with 01:06 this subject of pride. 01:08 And we're going to discuss two different types of pride today: 01:11 the offended heart and the pride of false humility. 01:16 Our Scripture today is Psalm 36: 11. 01:21 If you have your Bible, open up and follow along. 01:23 If not you can grab a pen and jot down the references 01:27 as we share them today. 01:28 Psalm 36:11. Let not the foot of pride come against me, 01:35 and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. 01:40 Let's pray. Father we come before You right now 01:43 in the name of Jesus. 01:45 Thank You that You want to receive us as Your daughters. 01:48 Thank you that You want to cleanse us and that you want 01:51 to pour into us Your humility. 01:55 Right now we just come before You and ask that you could give 01:59 us ears, and minds that are open to hear what is in Your Word. 02:03 And we thank You in the precious and holy name of Jesus, Amen. 02:08 The air felt balmy and mild. 02:11 It was a mild day for January, and especially in the 02:16 mountains of Tennessee. 02:18 A slight breeze tugged at my sister's hair as we headed 02:22 across the parking lot. 02:24 I don't get to see my sister that often, because she and her 02:27 husband, and boys live in the mountains of North Carolina, 02:30 while Greg and I live here in Southern Illinois. 02:34 We had gotten together in January in Gatlinburg, 02:38 the Great Smoky Mountains. 02:39 And it's a beautiful place to go visit. 02:42 Our husbands were watching the boys. 02:44 She had three boys at this time, and she was pregnant with 02:48 her soon to be fourth. 02:50 We were going shopping. 02:53 And to spend time with my sister is always exciting. 02:56 But to go shopping is even more exciting, 02:59 especially outlet shopping. 03:01 To me this was a red letter day. 03:04 We had started off at a good clip, because we had a lot of 03:07 shopping to accomplish before we had to go back to the family. 03:11 We went to Oshkosh, and Children's Place, and Gap, 03:15 for little shirts for little guys. 03:18 Then we went to Stride Rite for shoes for ever growing feet. 03:22 Finally we did some shopping for ourselves. 03:25 We went to Old Navy and Motherhood Maternity for my 03:29 sister, for the soon to be baby number four. 03:32 All of a sudden I looked at the time and I said, 03:35 Oh Lynn, I have to hurry. 03:37 You know, we're not going to make it. 03:39 I need to step out to one more store. 03:41 I left her to finalize the color and the fit of what she was 03:46 going to purchase. 03:47 And as I stepped out of the store and went onto the 03:50 sidewalk, all of a sudden my eyes caught sight of a 03:54 man and a little boy coming across the parking lot. 03:58 The boy was just a little guy, probably no more 04:02 than eight years old. 04:04 He had both hands clasped tightly to his daddy's big hand. 04:09 They made quite remarkable progress across the parking lot. 04:13 Faster than I would have imagined. 04:14 I knew that I should be hurrying on to the next store, 04:18 but something told me to wait, and to see what 04:21 was really going on. 04:22 So I kind of idled on the sidewalk pretending to be 04:26 walking while really just watching them, 04:28 and seeing what was going on. 04:30 Something was different about them. 04:33 Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. 04:36 I wasn't sure what it was. 04:38 Was it a mental disability? no it wasn't. 04:42 What was it? Why were the little boy's eyes so tightly closed? 04:46 Why his tight grip on his daddy's hand? 04:50 And then it hit me, he was blind. 04:53 I watched as they stepped onto the sidewalk and 04:56 disappeared into the crowd. 04:58 And I marveled at the care of the father, and the total trust 05:03 of that little guy in his daddy. 05:05 Right now you're probably saying, Jill, what in the world 05:09 does offended pride have to do with blindness? 05:13 I have no idea where you're going with this. 05:15 You know, recently a friend said to me, I have a co-worker 05:20 who is very emotionally needy. 05:22 In fact, Jill, I've never met anybody who is as emotionally 05:27 needy as this person. 05:28 She never can see her own issues. 05:31 She never can see her own faults. 05:34 I believe offended pride is the inability, or the refusal to see 05:41 ourselves as we really are. 05:43 Have you ever seen yourself? 05:45 I mean really, really seen yourself? 05:49 How do you react to perceived slights? 05:52 How do you handle constructive criticism? 05:55 How do you interpret or misinterpret what 05:59 someone else says? 06:01 Has the spirit of offense ever risen in your heart? 06:05 My friend Shelley Quinn always says the spirit of offense 06:10 is the spirit of pride. 06:12 Let's take our self evaluation and see how much of this spirit 06:16 of offense, or of offended pride exists in our heart. 06:19 As always, be honest. 06:22 You don't have to share it with anybody else. 06:24 It's just for you to go to God and say, 06:26 Where do I think I fit here? 06:28 Keep an open mind as you look at these categories. 06:32 Which one best describes you? 1. 06:56 2. 07:17 I can see myself in both of those. 3. 07:44 I don't know where you feel today you are in that list. 07:48 You might say, I don't deal with that at all. 07:50 And if that's the case, Praise the Lord! 07:52 You might be a little more like me. 07:55 When I was a little girl, I was teased constantly, constantly. 08:02 Now my Mom used to say, Jill, they tease you 08:07 because you react. 08:08 If you would quit reacting they would lose interest 08:12 and do something else. 08:14 They just tease you because you react. 08:17 My sister used to mercilessly tease me. 08:20 And my family, my friends, even, I mean these are people 08:25 I loved, but they always teased me. 08:27 And so she told me that, but it was in vain because I had 08:31 my wounded pride to protect. 08:33 And so I would go off, much to their amusement. 08:37 It took years of unlearning, years of choosing to take each 08:43 thought captive to the Lord Jesus before that spirit 08:46 of offense began to rise up less in my heart. 08:51 In contrast to this is the heart of my friend Valera. 08:56 I've sat on school board meetings with her for years. 09:00 And when we would sit on those school board meetings I would 09:04 notice that she never took offense when she was questioned. 09:07 She accepted whatever responsibility was given her. 09:11 You could discuss her work objectively, 09:14 and she was not defensive. 09:16 In a world of me first, of overly sensitive women, 09:20 hers was a rare experience, rare but beautiful, rare but needed, 09:27 rare but attainable. 09:29 I asked her about that one day. 09:32 I said, Valera, how come, you know, she is very, 09:37 she's not defensive. 09:38 She's never defensive. 09:39 And I said, Now how come that is? 09:41 Were you raised that way? 09:42 And she told me that her Mom used to often quote a certain 09:46 Scripture when things got a little rough. 09:49 And the Scripture was this: Psalm 119:165. 09:55 In the King James Version it says: Great peace have they 09:59 which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them. 10:04 Nothing shall offend them. 10:07 There's that spirit of offense. 10:10 If you love God's law; if we train our minds, and our hearts 10:16 to think about God's law, you know what it does? 10:20 It releases that spirit of offense in our hearts. 10:25 Now I want to make an observation here. 10:27 We want to be careful not to confuse a sensitive spirit 10:32 with an offended spirit. 10:34 I think they are two totally different things. 10:37 I believe as women, God has given us a gift of sensitivity 10:41 and of compassion. 10:42 That is a beautiful thing. 10:45 Showing compassion to a struggling sister, 10:47 taking time to hear the cry of a child, 10:51 being open to the slightest whisper of Jesus 10:55 is a wonderful thing. 10:57 That's not what we're talking about. 10:59 Sensitivity and compassion are beautiful. 11:01 However, an offended heart becomes offended at what other 11:05 people say or do to me. 11:07 It becomes defensive when my faults are pointed out, 11:10 or my decisions are being questioned. 11:13 It reacts to jokes that are made about me. 11:18 You see the difference between the sensitive spirit 11:21 and the offended spirit. 11:23 There's a quote I love; someone texted this quote to me 11:28 some time ago when I was going through a hard time. 11:31 It was one of those times when I felt like other people 11:36 were talking about me. 11:37 I felt like other people were saying negative things, 11:42 and it hurt. And I took it to God and I said, God I don't want 11:48 an offended spirit, but I don't know how to change. 11:51 I don't know how to get rid of that pain in my heart. 11:55 I don't know how to release it to You. 11:59 And this friend sent me a text with this quote. 12:03 It's a powerful quote. 12:05 I do not know where it originated. 12:07 I do know they use it in AA meetings, but I actually don't 12:10 know where it originated. 12:12 And the quote is this: Humility is perpetual quietness of heart. 12:18 It is to have no trouble. 12:20 It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore. 12:25 To wonder at nothing that is done to me, 12:28 to feel nothing done against me. 12:31 It is to be at rest when nobody praises me. 12:35 And when I am blamed and despised, 12:38 it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in 12:42 and shut the door, and pray to my Father in heaven, 12:47 and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around 12:52 and about, is seeming trouble. 12:55 That is a beautiful thing. 12:59 That is a beautiful experience. 13:03 I want that! I want that humility where all about is 13:07 seeming trouble, and all these challenges and things going on 13:10 around? None of that matters, because all that matters is that 13:13 I go in; I shut the door, and I'm at peace with my Father 13:20 in heaven, with the world. 13:22 To be at rest when nobody blames me or praises me; 13:26 none of that matters. 13:28 There's a quote I like, this came from the book, 13:32 the Desire of Ages. And it says something very similar. 13:35 It talks about Jesus. 13:36 It says, In the heart of Christ, where rained perfect harmony 13:41 with God there was perfect peace. 13:45 He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure 13:51 or disappointment. 13:52 Unless we make a total surrender of our hearts to God, 13:57 we cannot find peace. 14:00 And then this quote I like, I have it actually written 14:03 in the front pages of my Bible, I put my favorite quotes. 14:06 And this says, It is the love of self that brings unrest. 14:12 So you know what that tells me? 14:14 Anytime I feel unsettled in my spirit, anytime I have angst 14:19 inside, anytime there's trauma and stress and I just don't 14:23 feel right with the world, you know what I say? 14:25 Jill you've got self inside. 14:27 That self is not surrendered to the Lord Jesus. 14:31 That self is still alive. 14:34 God says, Surrender it back to Me. 14:38 We're discussing two types of pride today: 14:40 the offended pride, and the pride of false humility. 14:44 Now I think of all the prides, this one is the most difficult 14:48 to discern, and we don't have any self evaluation for it, 14:51 cause it's very tricky; it's very hard to sense. 14:56 The pride of false humility is a type that meekly grovels in the 15:00 dust, pretending to be nothing, while in my heart I really 15:05 believe I am something. 15:06 It would be someone who says, I didn't do a very good job 15:10 preaching, when in reality many people in the congregation 15:14 said that they were blessed. 15:16 It would be the student who says, I'm not very 15:18 good at literature, when they're getting straight A's. 15:22 It would be someone who says, I'm not doing very much 15:26 for Jesus, when in reality they have a 15:29 powerful ministry for God. 15:33 It's a creeping, and insidious pride, because it looks so good. 15:37 It appears humble. 15:38 What's the problem? 15:40 It's that it's self focused instead of Jesus focused. 15:44 It's concerned with looking humble instead of seeking 15:48 to please my Father's heart. 15:51 It's obsessed with what other people think of me, 15:55 rather than what God thinks of me. 15:58 It's entirely about myself while I still appear, 16:02 or try to appear entirely selfless. 16:07 I had a friend who used to talk fairly regularly 16:12 about her shortcomings. 16:14 She would say, Oh, I'm not a very hard worker. 16:18 Oh, I don't do a really good job at that Jill. 16:21 Oh, I'm just not really good with people. 16:24 And you know what the truth was? 16:26 She was a very hard worker. 16:29 She was excellent with people. 16:32 She had a beautiful smile, a sweet spirit. 16:34 She was good working with other people. 16:37 How sad that 1. It could have been lack of self-worth; 16:42 not seeing who God saw her as. 16:45 And that could have been it, or it could be the other, 16:48 the produce false humility. 16:50 And, you know, God never calls us to judge someone else. 16:53 He never calls us to say, Okay, that's your issue. 16:57 He never calls us to diagnose what is going on 17:01 in someone else's heart. 17:02 He only calls us to examine ourselves. 17:05 He only calls us to look at ourself and say, 17:08 God, is there any pride of false humility going on in my life? 17:15 C. S. Lewis says, A humble person will not be 17:19 thinking about humility. 17:21 He won't be thinking about himself at all. 17:25 It seems like the more I try to be humble, the more I think 17:28 about myself, and then the more prideful I've become. 17:32 So how do we break free? 17:35 I want to share five quick steps for how to break free 17:40 from this type of pride. 17:42 First one is in Galatians 6, Galatians 6. 17:49 First, don't be discouraged. 17:52 Galatians 6:9, this is my Bible's New King James. 17:55 It says, Don't be weary while doing good: 17:58 for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. 18:02 But I especially like it in the NLT, so I'm going to read it, 18:06 to you as well in that version, News Living Translation. 18:09 Lets not get tired of doing what is good. 18:13 At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing, 18:18 if we don't give up. 18:20 1. Just don't give up. 18:22 Don't feel discouraged. 18:24 If you feel that pride coming all over you, go to Jesus. 18:28 He can forgive. He can cleanse. 18:31 Don't feel discouraged. 18:34 2. Spend time in the word of God. 18:38 I know many of you maybe have come from a broken home. 18:43 Maybe you suffered abuse in your past, or maybe right now 18:48 you're suffering some sort of abuse. 18:51 Whatever is in your life, and in your heart, you might have 18:55 because of that past, because of that pain, you might have a 19:00 warped picture of God. 19:02 You might say, I don't know if I can trust Him. 19:06 I don't know if I can love Him. 19:07 I don't know! That's where the word of God comes in. 19:14 Those are lies from the enemy. 19:15 But the word of God can straighten out whatever warped 19:19 thinking we have about God the Father. 19:22 Trust the word of God to do that. 19:23 Jeremiah 31:3 says, The Lord appeared of old to me saying, 19:31 Yes, I loved you with an everlasting love: 19:35 therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you. 19:39 If you think God isn't love, or God can't love me, 19:43 or God can't forgive me, go to the word of God, 19:47 and it can alter, it can strengthen our warped picture. 19:51 It will alter that so that it comes in line with who God is. 19:55 And we know that God is love. 19:59 Maybe you're not real comfortable with the Bible. 20:03 I was talking with a woman on the phone, and she said, 20:05 Jill, I'm just, I don't even know where to start. 20:08 I don't read my Bible. 20:09 I'm not very comfortable. 20:11 I don't know what to do with this. 20:13 And so I encouraged her. 20:14 Start in one of the gospels. 20:16 She decided to start in the gospel of John, 20:19 which happens to probably be my favorite gospel. 20:21 She started there. 20:23 And I said, Just read a few verses every day. 20:26 I think it's more important to read a short passage, 20:29 and to meditate on it, to see what God has for you today 20:33 in that passage than it is for you to read great quantities 20:39 and not get anything from it. 20:40 It's more important to spend time on just a little bit. 20:44 She said she got so into the word of God, in one week 20:48 she read the whole book of John, and how she had 20:51 learned so much in that. 20:54 So you start. Pick the gospels. 20:56 Pick a few verses every day. 20:58 And just ask God before you read it, 21:01 God will you show me who You are? 21:04 Will You show me about Your character? 21:07 And He will reveal Himself to you in an incredible way. 21:12 1. Don't get discouraged. 21:15 2. Spend time in His word. 21:17 Take those thoughts captive, as you read and study, 21:21 2 Corinthians 10:5, Bringing into captivity every thought 21:25 to the obedience of Christ. 21:28 Bring those thoughts captive. 21:32 And we can't even bring them captive unless we know what 21:34 the word of God says. 21:36 Spend time in the word of God. 21:38 3. Focus on other people. 21:41 God has blessed my husband Greg with a listening heart. 21:45 Many times maybe we'll go out with friends, 21:47 and we'll come back, and I'll say, Oh, but we were having 21:51 this discussion about such and such, 21:52 and you didn't share about that. 21:54 And he'll say, and when he does, it kind of rebukes me 21:57 in my heart, he'll say, It's okay Jilly, I don't need to tell 22:01 them about that. I was so blessed by what they told me. 22:07 God has blessed him with a listening heart. 22:10 Focus on other people. 22:12 As we focus on others, we focus less on ourselves. 22:16 Ask God for a listening heart, a heart that's going to hear, 22:20 a heart that listens, a heart that empathizes with others. 22:25 James 1:19 says, My beloved brethren, let everyone be 22:31 swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. 22:35 How often I'm swift to speak and slow to hear. 22:38 And God says, Jill, you have that mixed up. 22:41 Ask me. I can make you swift to hear and slow to speak. 22:46 4. Pray for humility. 22:50 Ask God to work in your heart and life humility. 22:56 1 Peter 5:6, 7 says, Humble yourself under the mighty hand 23:02 of God, that He may exalt you in due time: casting all your 23:08 care upon Him; for He cares for you. 23:11 So humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. 23:14 And finally, 5. Guard against the first step of pride. 23:19 Proverbs 4:23 says, Keep your heart with all diligence; 23:24 for out of it spring the issues of life. 23:28 Focus on what's going on inside. 23:31 Guard against that first step of pride. 23:34 1. Don't be discouraged if you feel like there is 23:39 pride in your heart. 23:41 2. Spend time in His word. 23:43 See who Jesus really is. 23:45 3. Focus on other people, not ourselves. 23:49 4. Pray for humility. 23:52 And 5. Guard against the first step of pride. 23:56 We're going to take a short break. 23:58 We'll do our practical application for this week. 24:00 We'll be right back. |
Revised 2016-05-02