What Does It Take for You to Get Proud?

Category: Obedience to God’s Will
Key Passage: 1 Samuel 15
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: May 21, 2023

First Samuel, chapter number 15. We have a lot going on tonight, so I shouldn’t even say it. I am going to try to keep it shorter than typical. So let us dive right into First Samuel chapter 15. The title for the internet will be, “What Does It Take For You to Get Proud?” What does it take for you to get proud?

That will be the title for tonight. We are looking at the life of Saul, using his life as a springboard into this subject. We are going to start in chapter 15, verse—well, if I tell you the verse, you will not look at me; you will not listen to me anymore. You will be looking at it. Would you stand, please, as we read God’s Word together? 1 Samuel 15. We are going to start in verse number 16. 1 Samuel 15:16.

“Then Samuel said unto Saul, ‘Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord has said to me this night.’” And he said unto him, “Say on.” And Samuel said, “When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel.”

Now the next several verses discuss Saul’s disobedience. We will not read all the details there, but jump down in verse number 28, if we would please. Verse number 28. And Samuel said unto him, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou.”

What a sad ending to Saul. Of course, years after, jealousy and envy—over jealousy, I should say—and envy and all that stuff, just craziness. But really, the Spirit of the Lord left him at this point. He was just backslidden. What a sad, sad end it was to Saul’s life.

Saul started off real good. It is very interesting, even there Samuel said, “When thou wast little in thine own sight.” In fact, look back over chapter number 10, if you would, and let us just get a little glimpse of the way Saul started off. Chapter number 10 of 1st Samuel. Let us just see it here. We will start in verse number 20.

“And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken.” Now, he was about to anoint someone king in an open inauguration, if you will. “And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul, the son of Kish, was taken. And when they sought him, he could not be found.”

God chose Saul. Where in the world was Saul? “Therefore they inquired of the Lord further if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord answered, ‘Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.’” Maybe a little weird twist, but you do not call that a proud, haughty guy. You do not call that a guy wanting the attention of everybody. You do not call that a guy wanting the sort of attention. He is hiding. God clearly has chosen him to be the king, and he is hiding. He is not really after that at that point.

And he starts off—Samuel said he was little in thine eyes. By the way, that follows God’s work: you humble yourself, and He exalts you. That is God’s pattern. That is what God does. So, yes, they got Saul over there, anointed him king, and pretty quickly into it, he just got proud and big-headed, all about himself. I really believe Saul became narcissistic, and very much so. I have wondered sometimes, how quickly did this happen?

I want you to look over in chapter 13. I think it gives us a little glimpse of how quickly Saul got proud. By the way, the middle letter of pride is “I”—self-centered, prideful.

How quickly did this happen? Look at verse number one of 1 Samuel 13. The Bible there says, “Saul reigned one year.” Kind of seems like not too bad there. “And when he had reigned two years over Israel.” Now, we are not going to read this chapter, but if I read the header in my Bible over this chapter—not the text, but just the header to explain what is going to go on—my Bible says, “The Self-Will of Saul.” Really, from here on out, you see the downward spiral of Saul. It is just downhill from here. We will not read all the details, but I want you to notice: just two years. Just two years.

Now think about it: what caused Saul to get self-centered, prideful? Just two years of victories? Just two years of God putting His hand on him, God choosing him? Two years of people praising him? Two years of winning victories, military victories? Two years of being served? Two years of a position?

Now let me just stop. Let us very quickly try to get to the heart of it: What does it take for you, for me, to get proud? It is amazing. Sometimes we get proud of the dumbest little bitty victories. I do not know about me. Does it take just God maybe giving me a financial blessing, or maybe just God raising us up a little bit, bringing some kind of big… What does it take in our life for us to get proud? I wonder sometimes, maybe God says, “I cannot really bless you because if I bless you much, you are going to live like Saul.” I wonder how much that hinders.

I mentioned already, but look over in 1 Peter chapter 5. Very quickly in that. First Peter chapter 5—this is God’s formula. This is the way God works. We find it several places in the Bible, and I want you to see it maybe in one of the clearest places over here in 1 Peter 5. Verse number 6 is God’s formula for Him blessing, Him exalting you. Notice what he says there, 1 Peter 5:6. He says, “Humble yourselves.” That is important. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.” That is God’s formula. Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. By the way, he is not talking about it in front of everybody, trying to act like you are humble. Oh, I am so humble, you know. We can be very prideful in our humility, can’t we? Now, he says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.” James talks about in the sight of God. If you get humbled before God, there is a pretty good chance you are humble. You are not talking about in front of man. Elijah did not look real humble when he was over there saying, “Well, what is wrong with your God? He is sleeping. He is on vacation.” He did not look real humble, but I believe he was humble, or else God would not have blessed. It is a matter of whether we are humble before the Lord. But the formula there is, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Same formula He gave in Matthew 23:12: “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” That is God’s formula.

Now here is the thing: so we humble ourselves, we abase ourselves, and God comes along, and He exalts us. But how much or how long can we be exalted before we get proud? That is what happened with Saul. He was very humble, and God said, “Hey, I see the humble man; let me exalt him.” Boy, it did not take long. The older I am, the more I am impressed with someone who not only starts off humble but stays humble over the long haul. That is so critical. I pray that we stay as a church family, even when the Lord blesses the move of the new building and all that, we stay humble, exalting Christ, not exalting us, not lifting up how good we are—what are we doing? How good Christ is, how merciful Christ is, how gracious Christ is. What all Christ is and Jesus has done in the church is lifting high the name of Jesus. I hope we will always stay humble. It is so very, very important. I am so foolish sometimes about how quickly we can get proud.

Now let me give you very quickly three helps to staying humble. Number one: Admit it when you get proud. Now notice, I did not say, “Admit it if you get proud,” because you will get proud. Come on now. We have that sinful blood flowing through our veins, and we are all going to get there from time to time. If I do not want to admit I get there sometimes, that is pretty prideful in itself. We get proud. Of course we do. We all do. And the best thing I can do is just…

Pride is such a hindrance in the kingdom of God. I honestly think that the greatest hindrance to revival in America… But it is such a prevailing sin and such a hindrance. Fighting in the home—“Only by pride cometh contention,” Proverbs says. Fussing and fighting in the home? Pride. Fussing and fighting in the church? Pride. We will not grow as we ought to. James 4, those first five verses, are so depressing, if you will. As God is trying to grow us to another level, we just keep falling, falling, falling. But He giveth more grace at verse number six. Then He says, “But God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” God cannot grow me like He wants to. Why? Why do I never grow?

You can be, you know, about in the negative, thinking, “Man, I have so far to grow; you do not know my childhood, where I came from, how simple I am.” You can be way down there, but if you get humble, you stay humble, God can give you grace and grow you. He is very capable of doing that. When I get resistant and think, “Man, I have it all together, and I do not want anybody to tell me what to do,” and I get proud, God resists the proud. You cannot pull yourself up by your bootstraps; nobody can. But God can grow me if I just have humility. It is so high; I will not get close to the Lord. I love this verse—amazing verse. Psalm 138:6: “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” It reminds me of God resisting the proud. A little fellow, man, just swinging his arms, but that big old fellow has his heart. He is never going to get close enough. God resisteth the proud; you are not going to get close to God. He knoweth the proud afar off.

I thought about a man. He is in heaven now. He was a good man, and he was in our church years ago. God had blessed him. God began to use him and his wife, and they got several positions. God was really blessing and using them. And he seemed to get a little proud. You can tell a lot of times; they will start jabbing at you, left and right and all that stuff. I was so impressed with him. He did not get lower in my mind. He came to me a little bit later on and said, “Pastor, I am sorry.” That takes a lot for a man to do that. He was pretty high in his company, by the way, too. He said, “I just got proud.” I thought, “Wow, that is saying something for this man,” who made pretty good money and was high up in his company. He just came and said, “I am sorry; I just got a little proud.” Wow. How can I stay humble when God has blessed me, when I get proud?

He heard about that family. They had some compliant children. Boy, they just brought them in. They looked so good, just perfect. And my church was saying, “Well, look at that family.” They were very avid at giving instructions to everybody else on how to raise their children. Then they had another child come along that was very strong-willed. Well, all their advice dropped off quickly. We are just prone to pride.

It is very interesting. Some say about D.L. Moody years ago—of course, God used him so. Some say about D.L. Moody, he was an evangelist whom God used to shake two continents for Christ. D.L. Moody was greatly used by God, and he had preached somewhere, and God had blessed greatly. There was a group of men, if I remember right, maybe businessmen, and they wanted to meet with him afterward. When D.L. Moody got done, he just slipped out. Somebody went to D.L. Moody and said, “Hey, why didn’t you meet with those people? They love you. They want to help you. They are going to brag on you.” He said, “I know that.” He said, “I do not think I can handle it. I think it is going to affect me.” He was wise enough of a man. He said, “I cannot go to that meeting; I do not think I can handle that.” Wow. Maybe that is why God could use him so powerfully.

Staying humble. How do I stay humble? Number one: Admit it when you get proud. Number two: Give God the praise, the credit for the victories. Let Him know that. Continue to do that. Then number three, number three—are you there? Still there? Maybe in 1 Peter 5:6. Would you look back at that verse? Many of you know this already, but look at verse number six, 1 Peter 5:6. He says, “Humble yourselves.” There is a place in the Bible where God will humble you. You know the verse: “Pride goeth before destruction, and the haughty spirit before a fall.” That is true. Stay humble or stumble. That is all true. God is very capable of humbling you, and He will. But that is not what He is talking about.

Notice again what he says, the first two words: “Humble yourselves.” I recall that verse over there we used for the nation, rightfully so. We went to the Ronald Reagan Library years ago. They had the Bible he was sworn in on—Ronald Reagan’s Bible—in a glass case, and it was open to 2 Chronicles 7:14. I think it was his grandmother’s Bible, maybe it was, and it had written in the little side margin there—it had faded over the years—it had written there, “Great verse for a nation.” I thought, “Praise the Lord for a president that had that Bible and had that verse marked out.” Somebody taught it to him. Great verse for a nation: 2 Chronicles 7:14. Here we go. What would you say it with me, if you will? “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Did you get that? Did you get it? “My people who are called by my name shall humble themselves.” He is not here talking about God humbling you, though He will. But He is talking here about us humbling ourselves.

You see, God does not just say, “I do not want you to be proud.” He goes farther than that. He says, “I want you to do more than just not get proud.” You are kind of like fighting a losing battle if you are there. He said, “I want you to do more than that. I want you to humble yourselves.” That is when God says to exalt you. You abase yourself; that is when God lifts you up. Number three of this: how to stay humble, is continually humble yourselves. Work at it. It goes against our nature. We do not want to do this, no. But that is what God said.

Back in the day when they had shoemakers and shoe cobblers. Now, a shoemaker was a little bit higher than a shoe cobbler. Typically, he started off as a shoe cobbler, repairing shoes, got good at it, and then became a shoemaker—before Nike, you know. Adidas was not around in that time. They did not have the old Converse back in the day. Shoemakers and shoe cobblers. They say William Carey, father of modern missions, was at a big ball. They had English military officers there—a very wealthy ball. The big shots were there, put it that way. They say that a jealous English officer asked the host—he was talking about William Carey. William Carey was very well known at this point. William Carey was very talented; he was a great linguist. He knew the languages, and he was a very intelligent man; he even studied botany and all those things. But the English officer was jealous of him, and he asked the host, “Well, was not your great Dr. Carey once just a shoemaker?” William Carey was in earshot; he heard him say that. Just that quick, before the host could reply back to the English officer, William Carey stepped up and said, “No, sir, I never made it to be a shoemaker. I was only a shoe cobbler.” Now, friend, you call that humbling yourselves? God’s formula here is if you humble yourselves.

I do not want to be like Saul, and I do not want to either. What do you do? What do we do? Number one: Admit it when you get proud. Number two: Give God the praise and the credit for the victories. Let Him know that. Continue to do that. Then number three, number three—are you there? Still there? Maybe in 1 Peter 5:6. Would you look back at that verse? Many of you know this already, but look at verse number six, 1 Peter 5:6. He says, “Humble yourselves.” There is a place in the Bible where God will humble you. You know the verse: “Pride goeth before destruction, and the haughty spirit before a fall.” That is true. Stay humble or stumble. That is all true. God is very capable of humbling you, and He will. But that is not what He is talking about.

I do not want to be like Saul, and I do not want to either. What do you do? What do we do? Number one: Admit it when you get proud. Number two: Give God the credit, the glory, and then work at humbling yourselves. I mentioned this morning in the morning service about R.U. It is an addictions program, a good program. Years ago, we had it in our church. We wanted to get it started, so we went up to the headquarters in Rockford, Illinois, and a couple of men from the church went through these different classes where they were training us. We went to this class, and the guy was supposed to teach us about how to start an R.U. program, a chapter in your church. He did not teach us about starting an R.U. program; he preached at us, man. He just preached at us for a while. It was a pretty good sermon—one of those sermons where when it is all said and done, you are like, “Did God speak to my heart?” I am kind of like, “Should I raise my hand? Should I come forward?” because he did not speak to me about one specific thing. No, but did he speak to my heart? Sure, he preached against every sin in the world. I am guilty somewhere along the line. I am sitting in the chair, debating whether I should go forward. And he made this statement, and in some ways that statement changed my life. I was down there probably out of pride, honestly, debating whether I should go forward or not. And he says this: “Never miss an opportunity to humble yourself.” Man, the Spirit of God convicted me. That statement has stuck with me all these years. Do I do it all the time? No, not like I would like to. But never miss an opportunity.

Interestingly, the Bible talks about Jesus. He made Himself of no reputation, as Jesus, our perfect example. The formula here: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Change.

Interesting story they tell back in the day about Booker T. Washington, a great, famous Black educator, very famous at the time, and rightfully so. He had just taken the presidency of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama—a very prominent position. He was walking in a very wealthy neighborhood, where all the wealthy people live. He was stopped by a wealthy white lady. She did not recognize him; she knew the name, but she did not know the famous Mr. Washington by sight. She asked him, “Would you like to earn a few extra dollars by chopping wood?” Mr. Washington did not have any pressing business at the moment, so he said, “Sure.” They say he smiled—the way I read it—rolled up his sleeves, and proceeded to do the humble chore he had been requested to do. When he finished the chores, he took the logs that he had split and carried them inside to the place they were supposed to be. When he did that, there was a girl there who recognized him. He did his chores, and she left very pleasantly, no problem at all. But when he left, that little girl went to the lady and said, “Do you know who that was?” She was like, “I do not know; it is a fellow hired to do some work for me.” She said, “No, no, no. That was Professor Washington. That was Booker T. Washington—that is Mr. Washington.” She said, “No, that could not have been.” “Yeah, it was.” She checked it out, and sure enough, it was. The next morning, the embarrassed woman went to see Mr. Washington in his office at the Institute and apologized repeatedly. Mr. Washington said, “It is perfectly all right. Occasionally I enjoy a little manual labor. Besides, there is always a delight to do something for a friend.” She was amazed. She shook his hand warmly and assured him that his meek and gracious attitude had endeared her to his work. Not long after that, she found some of her wealthy friends, told them the whole story, and they donated thousands and thousands to that institute because a man was wise enough and strong enough to humble himself and do some everyday chores. Friend, God exalts those that humble themselves.

How many have ever listened to Adrian Rogers on the radio? How many listen to Adrian Rogers? I like him; I enjoy listening to him. I think he has very sound doctrine. He uses the King James Bible and never used anything else. Adrian Rogers said that when he was a young man, God called him into the ministry, and he was really trying to get going in the ministry. He grew up in Florida, and he had been a high school quarterback. Now, in some parts of Florida, we think of the beaches and tourists, but there are a lot of country bumpkins there. We call them “Florida Crackers” where I come from. In those little country towns, if you are the high school quarterback, it is like everybody is bowing down to you; you are everything. That was Adrian Rogers, but he got called into the ministry. One night he went out to that football field when nobody was there. He was walking in the middle of the night on the football field, out of high school, and he was praying, “Lord, would You use me? Lord, if I am going to be in the ministry, I want You to bless and use me. Lord, would You use me?” He said he felt like the Spirit of God said, “You are not low enough for Me to use.” It kept coming back: “You are not low enough for Me to use.” So Adrian Rogers said he got down on his knees. Nobody was there on the football field; he was there alone in the middle of the night. He got down on his knees and said, “Lord, would You use me?” He said the Lord said, “You are not low enough yet.” So he said he put his head down, got down on all fours, if you will, and said, “Lord, use me.” It seemed like the Lord said, “You are still not low enough yet.” Adrian Rogers said he got down all the way; he laid down all the way on the ground and said, “Lord, would You use me? If I am going to be in the ministry, Lord, I would really like it if You would use me.” He said he felt like the Spirit of God said, “You are still not low enough yet.” He said he was there, and he really dug a little groove out from his nose to go on the ground. He said he laid out all the way down as low as he could with his nose in the dirt. He has said this more than once: “I would be lying if I did not tell you that I really think God put His hand on me that night in a special way.” Friend, God said, “When I humble, then I exalt you.”

If Saul had just stayed humble—God, He was the first king. God had even told him, “Saul, I am going to let you and your descendants be king forever.” That was His plan, if you will. But he got proud; it is so vital. How do you do that? Admit it when you get proud. Give God the credit for the victories. And then continually humble yourselves.

Jesus is a perfect example in every area. It is amazing in every area of your life. When you are going through issues, if you study the life of Jesus, you will find out how He went through that. The Holy Spirit is amazing how He will let Jesus live in your life when you look for that, what you are going through. How did Jesus go through it? He is a perfect example. It is amazing. Philippians 2 talks about Jesus. He knew who He was; He knew He was God in the flesh. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet He found Himself made in the fashion of a man. I am reading for you now, Philippians 2:8: “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” They were lying about Him, falsely accusing Him; they were slapping Him; they were spitting on Him. They took the kind of nine tails; they were beating Him. They made Him carry the cross. All that Jesus was going through, and He said, “All right, I will humble myself even unto death.” Of course, the next couple of verses talk about how God highly exalted Him. That is where it talks about every knee will bow because no one has ever humbled themselves like Jesus did.

Original File: What Does it Take For You to Get Proud - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 05212023

# What Does It Take for You to Get Proud?

What Does It Take for You to Get Proud?