Creflo Dollar - Defining Humility - Part 2
Now, arrogance, let's talk about that a little bit. Arrogance is also a sign that someone lacks humility. I love how, you know, we preachers do it. "I don't want to brag or nothing, but", and then you go ahead and brag, "I mean, I don't mean to be arrogant or nothing, but..." So let's look at some things. What's a synonym that the Bible uses for arrogance? Proverbs 16 and 18, Proverbs 16 and 18. He uses the word haughty or haughtiness. Let's look at it in the King James, Proverbs 16:18. He says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall," or arrogance. Now look at it in the NLT. Haughty spirit, that's arrogance. "Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall". Look at what you're setting yourself up. Humility, we see being exalted. Arrogance, the fall, the fall.
Look at Mark chapter 9, verse 35. So you see what I'm saying? You're looking at all these Scriptures and you're putting all these things together, and that's what we're going to be working on here. Mark 9:35 he says, "And he sat down, and he called the twelve, and saith unto them, 'If any man desire to be first, if any man desires to be first, then the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.'" So here he is saying the greatest is the lowest, the greatest is the lowest. That's the position of humility. Nobody under, everybody wants to start at the top. Everybody trying to be the boss at the beginning. The problem with that is if you're the boss at the beginning, you don't know what's going on below you. There's something about apprenticeship. There's something about begging somebody to let you spend the day or the week with them so you can absorb and see how these things work.
Though your beginning was small yet your latter end shall greatly increase. God has increase on his mind, but there's a generation that's like, you know, this generation is like, "I ain't trying to do no 9 to 5". And I ain't got no problem with you trying to do 9 to 5, but you ain't going to start off millionaire status either. So you might not do 9 to 5, but you going to start off low. "Well, I don't have to start off low". Well, you ain't going to start off here. "Well, such and such, such and so start off here". It don't last long when it doesn't go down the road of humility. It doesn't last long 'cause you don't have the necessary equipment to keep you there. Your talent can get you there; but your character has to keep you there, and sometimes graduating from low to high begins to build your character and equip you to maintain a level of success that you don't get, you know, somebody get one hit wonder, you get one big hit, you pop and you do this and then we don't never know what happened to you no more because we don't know what went on with you 'cause likely it was a character issue and a pride issue and an arrogance issue.
You made one great record and now you got, you know, people that follow you. You know, remember when Chef had his little band follow him, you know. Man, nobody know you. Stop. It's like a preacher starting a ministry. He got five members and he got security. What you need security for? I think you got that point. Luke chapter 17. The greatest is the lowest. The greatest is the lowest. Some of the greatest men and women of God I knew started off serving in their church. They did whatever needed to be done, an opportunity to serve. That ain't how that happen. We want to skip all that and we want the pastor to do a special impartation, and it's like it, whatever I impart in you ain't going to stay long 'cause there's things you learn from the floor up. My millennials ain't there with me this morning, man. "Well, I can just do this on the internet". Still, it's like I don't care what you start on the internet. Don't nobody know you. "Well, I can get started".
There's something you can learn if you will serve somebody who went from the floor up and they up, if you can say, "Can I please have the privilege of being on your floor"? Can't maintain it, and whatever you get won't last long. 'Cause you couldn't conquer arrogance and pride and those things, here's the fall. Amen. Verse 3. Excuse me. Luke 17, verse 3. Good Lord. "Take heed to yourselves". We're talking about becoming humble people, and in this series we're going to have to do a lot of self-evaluation, a lot of self-evaluation, a lot of honesty. Now, you ain't got to tell nobody what you evaluated. I mean, I was studying the Scripture and saw a point. I'm like, "Ooh". I said, "I think I almost did that". And the Lord said, "No, you did it".
You know, God will give you supernatural recall. I said, "Sure did". And that thing bothered me. I said, "Oh, man". And he's like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This journey is not about beating yourself up, this journey is about lifting yourself up from those things into my hands". "Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee," this is so good, "rebuke him". And this is what seriously I believe, he says, "And if he repent, forgive him". I believe that God, one of the reasons why God wants us to operate in humility is so that we'll be in a position to forgive anybody for anything no matter what they did. There's just something about, when you walk in humility, you always know, "That could have been me. I am ready to forgive. I am ready to forgive". You got to be quick to forgive. "I am ready to forgive. I am quick to forgive no matter what". And there may be some egregious things to take place against you, hurtful things, things that hurt your feelings, but humility puts you in a place of forgiving and being a person that will forgive.
Now, think about a prideful person who gets hurt, a prideful person who has something done for them. They're ready to, "I'm going to get you back. I'm coming back at you". God wants us in a place of humility so we can be quick to forgive because pride, we thought it was unforgiveness that stopped certain things up. It's always going to be pride that blocks, pride that blocks. That's the only thing that's going on in your life. It's blocking you. Jesus taught us how to be lowly in nature so that we could forgive those who persecute us. You've been persecuted lately? You're still carrying it? You're still nursing it? You're still rehearsing it? It ain't gone yet? You haven't put it to bed yet? "Well, when did this take place"? "Five years ago". "It's not put to bed yet"? Ladies and gentlemen, somehow you got to start putting some things to bed. They're still wake. They're still moving around. They're still governing your life. You got to put them to bed.
So let's look at some characters in the Bible and see if we can discover some more things about humility as we continue to work on defining humility. Let's look at David. He's always an interesting character. And in the Book of Psalms 13, verse 5 through 6, let's read this in King James and then New Living Translation. Check David out. Let's see if we can see some of these things we have identified. Let's see if we can see them in some of these characters. I'm going to choose David, Jesus, and Paul. All right. So verse 5 says, "But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me".
Now, that's what he's saying now, but in verse 1 and 2 see, David is seeking the Lord's guidance, and he acknowledges his own powerlessness by asking hard questions of God. Look at verse 1. Just back up verse 1 and 2 and look at the questions he's asking. He said, "How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? For ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me"? I mean, he's acknowledging his powerlessness by these questions that he's asking. He doesn't have the answer, but he knows that God does. Ain't it interesting that he knew to humble himself to say, "God, I need you 'cause I don't know the answers to this question"? And notice when he humbled himself, if you'll check out those last two verses of Scripture, let's go to the NLT on these. Psalms 13, verse 5 and 6 he says, "But I trust in your unfailing love". That's humility. "I trust in your unfailing love".
See, we've been focusing so much on how much we love God. The question is, do you trust in his unfailing love? Do you believe his love is unfailing? Do you believe that that love won't fail? Do you believe that God loves you so much he's going to give you the answers? "I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me". Look at his faith. "I will sing to the LORD because he is good to me". That's humility. You are submitting yourself, making yourself subject unto his mighty hands. You're showing that you need him. This is humility here. This is one reason why this guy hardly ever lost any battle he went into 'cause he didn't go into it with his own prideful way, and God exalted him. Well, look at Jesus, man.
Luke chapter 22, verse 42; Luke chapter 22, verse 42. Here we see a submission to God's will. Verse 42 says, "Saying, 'Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will...'" Oh, something changed. Something changed. "Nevertheless not my will, but let thine be done". Here we see submission to God's will. This is a reminder that though we may desire one thing, God could have the other plans. How many times have you desired one thing and were not interested in God's other plan? Jesus said, "Take this thing from me". God said, "That's not the plan. That's not the plan". And then he humbled himself with one word. "Nevertheless not my will. Let me get it out the way. I want yours to be done". I believe it's time for us to get nevertheless in our lives. "Oh, God, I want this, and I want that, and do this, and do that". And God's like, "No, that's not the plan". "Nevertheless I'm ready to submit myself to what you want done in my life for this day".
The humble person will submit to God's plan just like Jesus did. And are you willing to submit to God's plan? Are you willing to even get yourself in a posture to receive God's plan? Do you really want it, or are we continuing to compare ourselves amongst ourselves and there the desire has been birthed in us 'cause of what we've seen in somebody else's life? When was the last time you fell on your face and said, "Lord, I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go, but I know you do," like David did, "and I want your plan. I don't want my plan because I have a long list of me trying to do what I want to do and I have wasted 10 years and years trying to do what I want to do. I don't want to do what I want to do no more, I want to do what you want me to do". Are you tired of being stuck, frustrated knowing that there's an anointing on the inside of you but have no idea what it's for?
"God, I want your plan". Somebody says, "Well, what if he don't give it that day"? Well, you just keep praising him until it happens because he says there's going to be a due time. See, just 'cause you ready for his plan don't mean you're ready to enact it. His plan is for mature people. You're still a baby. Somebody say, "How are you still saying I'm a baby? I've been saved for 30 years". And you're still getting offended, and you still won't walk in forgiveness, and you're doing all baby stuff. You still slandering. You still acting like the world. You still can't figure out, "Well, I just got a lust problem". You've been having it all your life. You still can't figure out how to do none of the things that mature people do. Yeah, he got a plan and he was trying to mature you to get you ready for the plan, but you weren't ready to go through your maturity.
When they talked about you, you quit. When you didn't get what you wanted to do at your church, you left. You know how immature it is, check this out now that I'm here. You know how immature it is for you to be at a church and they teach stuff to change your whole life and then you hear one sermon that you disagree with and you leave? You ain't ready because you got to understand there's a place called there. And what if stuff ain't going to work until you get to that place called there? You let offense move you from the place called there and you somewhere else trying to figure out, "Where's God"? He where he told you to be the last time. You ain't, but you mad 'cause the preacher said something you didn't like or you mad 'cause preacher came by and he had no towel. You mad 'cause he'd be going to the football game. That's worldly.
Well, we're going to have to talk about it when I get to heaven 'cause, you know, you're just like nobody wants to be with you 'cause you're just a fuddy-duddy. You're just not fun. "You know, Lord, nobody likes me". Look at you. Listen to you. "What's up, brother"? "You know, you shouldn't play with words. We're not talking about up. You should say salutation". Brother, look. You go that way. I'm going to go this way 'cause I ain't got time for no baby applesauce. I want to laugh. I want to... be around people that make you feel good and laugh. Don't hang around a bunch of stuck-up Christians trying to act like they deep in your presence and be cussing like a, and going talking about, "Excuse me". No. No. You do that a whole lot more than what you just did in front of me. You just get caught.
Okay. "I want your plan. Yeah, I have gone this way". But then Lord said, "That ain't the way you want to go". Okay, I want to immediately go that way. You know what I found out about God? 'Cause sometimes I decide, "Well, I want to do this". And God said, "Yeah, go and do it. That's cool. I ain't got no problem with that. Have a good time. Enjoy yourself". But I always want to be sensitive to, "Hey, we're not doing that today". "What you want to do today"? "I need you to help me with something". "Okay, God, whatever it is it's going to be my worship 'cause I present my body to you as a living sacrifice. You do in me and through me what you want to do". "Yeah. Yeah. I need some of your money today". "Okay. What you want me to do with it"? "Okay, such and so, such and so over there doing such and so, such and so, I need you to just go ahead and get this into him as quick as possible". "Okay, Lord, praise his holy name, amen".
He did that with me with a church, a building. Building is paid for. It's up for sale. Going to get pretty good penny for it. He says, "No, I don't want you to sell that, I want you to seed that". "Okay. Okay, I want your plan". What he said in completeness he says, "I want you to seed that so you will have a harvest for some things that are about to come into your ministry". See, God ain't never going to ask you to do something for no reason at all. I want his plan. Humility brings exaltation. Where is God about to exalt World Changers because they had pastors who were willing to say, "We're going to go with your plan today"?
And I told my chief of staff, I said, "Now, don't be surprised if somebody come and offer us a really attractive offer to try to get us to change our mind". I said, "We ain't changing our mind". And it happened. Just a show, somebody came and made an offer and I'm like, "Ooh, it's gone. It's already spoken for". And God's ready to do that with you. That's why you got to have a relationship with God. That's why you got to really know him. That's why you just can't be playing church. You got to really have a relationship with him where you talk to him and he talks to you and you have a personal relationship with him. It's not just go to church on Sunday and forget him until the next Sunday.
You have a real relationship with God because in real relationship with God there is koinonia, there is fellowship, there's a giving and a receiving that takes place 'cause you really know him. He's an unseen partner, that you talk to him and he talks to you. And when you have that kind of relationship, you can hear him when he says, "No, we ain't going that way. We're going to do this". Romans 12:16, let's look at the King James first and then the NLT. Let's look at Paul. He said, "Be of the same mind one towards another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Don't be wise in your own conceit".
Condescend to men of low estate, humble. Look at this in the NLT real quick. "Live in harmony with each other. Don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people". Just to did itself. "Don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people, and don't think you know it all". Somebody said, "There it is". Don't think you know it all. Paul gives followers of Christ a reminder. You know what he's saying here? He was reminding them don't be arrogant, don't be haughty.
We should let others consider us wise instead of trying to proclaim that quality for ourselves. Let other people consider you wise. Don't claim that quality for yourself or proclaim that quality for yourself. Don't be getting up there telling everybody how smart you are with your dumb self. Don't do that. It's all right for other people to say that about you, but be careful about what you say about yourself. Don't let it take you out of the running for being exalted. Okay. Y'all got about 5 more minutes? Let me close with this. There's some stuff I jot down. Let me give this to you. Without humility we cannot expect deliverance from the Lord.