Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Am I Confident or Arrogant?

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Am I Confident or Arrogant? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Well, am I confident or am I just arrogant? We get this question
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  a lot because we have to answer this question for ourselves. But lionheartedness and
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  humility are not contradictions in God's will, Nor are they contradictions in the life
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  of the Savior. He came to bring peace, and he aim to bring
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  a figurative sword. But in our own lives we must figure out the difference
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  between confidence and arrogance. And that's the challenge a listener named Max wants to
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  figure out today. Hello Pastor John, Max writes in his email to us,
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  My question for you is this, Can we feel powerful or confident or
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  have a high self worth? And who God has made us to be through
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  Christ? How do you distinguish this from pride that leads to destruction? If
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  so, how do we do this? How do we pursue the feeling of
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  power or confidence or high self worth in living out what God has created us
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  to be? But humbly so you seem like someone who does it, well,
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  thank you well. I have to admit that I gag on the term
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  high self worth. The reason I do is because I have watched now for
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  fifty years, yes, fifty years, that term and its sister term self
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  esteem be used by secular godless culture as an explanation for most negative psychological conditions
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  and as a remedy for how to make a person more useful and productive.
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  Lack of self esteem is the diagnosis for a thousand problems. Today, higher
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  self esteem is the prescription for a thousand improvements. And the reason for that,
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  it seems to me, is pretty obvious. When God disappears, the
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  next most likely focus for esteem and confidence and reliance and trust is me self.
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  I think that was exactly the temptation in the Garden of Eden. I
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  think that's the biblical essence of sin, replacing God with self as our treasure,
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  our trust, our esteem are worth. But Okay, now I've got
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  that off my chest, the question is still valid because I do know from
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  the Bible that God intends for us to lead lives that are significant, effective,
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  productive, joyful, confident, courageous, fearless, competent. And I
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  mean, the world was just default to interpret every one of those in terms
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  of self exaltation, and I don't interpret any of them that way. The
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  Bible worldview says all those words in a completely different view of things. God
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  intends for us. When our lives are done and we have trusted Him for
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  his enabling grace for every good work, he wants us to hear the words
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  well done, good and faithful servant. It's not wrong to want to hear
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  from Christ the words well done, You've been faithful. The question is will
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  he say well done to a person who had high self worth or to a
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  person who has been a God dependent, God centered, god reliant, christ
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  exalting servant of others. That's the question. So I would rephrase the question
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  that I'm being asked something like this, what's the difference between acting in pride
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  and acting so that our lives are significant, fruitful, fearless, competent,
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  productive, happy, confident without pride, without pride. So here are eight
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  diagnostic questions to detect the rising of pride in our lives as we pursue those
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  goals. One do I believe and happily embrace, and that they're both important.
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  Believing in your head and happily embracing in your heart, you will do.
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  I believe and happily embrace the fact that my very existence and personality and
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  gifting are owing to God, not me. One Grintain fifteen ten. By
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  the grace of God, I am what I am, not that we are
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  sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us. Our sufficiency is from
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  God, God Tewod Corinthians three to five. What do you have that you
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  did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as
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  though we're not a gift? First Corinthians four to seven. The question is
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  not just do I believe this principle? But do I love to have it?
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  So? Do you delight and revel in the absolute dependence on God for
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  who you are? Number two? Do you believe and happily embrace the fact
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  that every one of your circumstances, in all of their details, are owing
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  to God and not yourself. You ought to say, Jim says, you
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  ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this
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  or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such
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  boasting is evil James four fifteen. In other words, if something happens in
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  life that takes you up or takes you down, it's from the Lord.
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  Are you glad that He's in charge to that extent in your life? Number
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  three? Do you believe and are you happy to embrace the fact that all
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  your hard work and your personal effort and your will power to accomplish things are
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  owing to God. Some people say, well, yes, God is in
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  charge of my circumstances, but what I make of them, that's owing to
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  me. And that's why I can be proud and boast I've pulled myself up
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  by the bootsteps while other people are languishing down there. That's not true,
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  Paul said, I worked harder than any of them, but it was not
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  I but the grace of God that was with me. So Paul attributed to
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  God's grace not only his existence and his salvation and his circumstances, but also
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  his willpower to work hard. Are you glad that, when your day's work
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  is done, you can say, of all your efforts, not I but
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  the grace of God that was with me. Are you glad? Or does
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  that feel like God is robbing you of something? Number four? Do you
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  make it your aim to be consciously dependent on God in all your doing in
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  such a way that when your service is complete, God will get the glory
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  rather than you. I'm thinking of first Peter four eleven. It's been just
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  a hallmark of my prayer as I move toward any ministry like I'll move toward
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  a ministry midday today that I need help with. Whoever serves, let him
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  serve by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may
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  be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory forever and ever. Amen.
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  So what that says is it's not only true that God gives me what
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  I need. I actively trust Him in the doing it. I'm conscious of
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  the fact I'm nothing here. I can't do anything on my own. Number
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  five, are you hungry for the praise of man? And do you try
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  to position yourself so that people will see your good works and give you praise?
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  Jesus warned against those who love the praise of man. Woe to you,
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  pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in
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  the marketplaces. Oh, how we need to test our hearts when we're twenty
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  five and seventy five? Do I love and crave and angle for the praises
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  and recognition of other people? Number six? Do you associate with the lowly
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  or do you always need to be hanging around with important people? Romans twelve
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  sixteen live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate
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  with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight? Number seven,
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  Do you feel entitled to recognition and and respect, so that you're angry when
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  you don't get it, instead of responding the way Jesus said to namely,
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  rejoice when people persecute you, speak evil of you, don't give you the
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  respect you deserve. A sense of entitlement is one of the clearest signs of
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  deeply rooted pride. Number eight. Finally, and swimming among all the others,
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  do you love to see Christ magnified? Do you love to see Christ
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  made much of above all things? Whether you get any recognition or not,
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  He must increase, I must decrease. Paul said. My eager expectation and
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  hope is that Christ be magnified in my body, whether by life or by
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  death. I think that was one of the first sermons I preached when I
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  came to Bethlehem. My goal, folks, my eager expectation is that Christ
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  be magnified. I want to preach in such a way. I want to
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  write and th that's a way. I want to do podcasts in such a
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  way so that Jesus looks great. People come away saying Christ is great.
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  God is great. So by all means, this is circling back now to
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  the essence of the question that I think he was asking. By all means,
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  use all your gifts and all your intelligence, and all your circumstances and
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  relationships and competence and courage to live the most productive, significant life possible,
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  and do it all to make Christ look great and beautiful and precious. By
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  saying and by loving the truth from Him and through Him and to Him,
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  are all things. To Him be glory forever endeavor aymen. Thank you,
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  Pastor John. And speaking of Philippians one twenty, that reminds me of a
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  past episode on Flippins one in chapter three, those two chapters that we recorded
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  a while back on finding Purpose in Life. That's APJA eleven thirty two,
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  looking at what it means to make Christ look great in our lives. It's
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  an essential text to understand Christian hedonism and what we are called to be as
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  Christians. APJA eleven thirty two is the episode available right now at askpastor John
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  dot com. Thanks for joining us today. Have a question of your own
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  to ask Pastor John. Email us at ask Pastor John at Desiring Good dot
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  org. Well, in our Bible reading together this weekend, we'll be looking
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  at a Psalm ninety, an amazing rich psalm that contains within it a morning
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  practice that we need every single day, every single morning to start our day.
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  Right. That's up. Next time, I'm your host, Tony Ranky.
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  We'll see you on Monday,