Pride is often one of the biggest obstacles we face in our walk with God.

<p>Pride is often one of the biggest obstacles we face in our walk with God.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hope Channel

InVerse 2nd Quarter 2026: Relationship with God

Jemimah Brown

RJ Gamboa

Joe Reeves

Paul Samuel

01 Reality Check

02 To Know God

03 Pride Versus Humility

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Joe Reeves, with Inverse.

Pride, what do you think of when you hear that word?

We are looking at the stories from the Bible and examining our own hearts right here on Inverse.

I am your host for today, and I am joined with friends here at the table.

And you, the viewers on the other side of the screen, for being part of this Bible study and exploring what the Holy Spirit has to speak to us.

And you know, as we study the Bible here at this table on inverse.

And sometimes we read familiar passages I've read many times, and I learn from my friends, and I see new insights, and it's a great experience.

So let's ask the Lord to do that again for us today.

Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity to come and learn more about you so that we may strengthen our relationship with you.

Father, we ask for the Holy Spirit that He may open our hearts, open our minds for understanding, Lord.

Pride versus humility is what we are studying in this episode.

And considering you can read the Bible study guides at inversebible.org and all of our past seasons.

You can watch our episodes, things that we've studied before at hopetv.org forward slash inverse.

Today, we are reading from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 18.

It's a story of Jesus and it's meant to teach a lesson for you and for me.

And Paul, can you read to us from verses 9 through 14?

Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

2 men went up to the temple to pray, 1 a Pharisee and other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Okay, 1 story, 2 worshipers praying, coming to God.

RJ, tell us the difference between these 2 worshipers.

You got the church leader, you know, you got someone who went to church probably their whole life and knew everything of what the Bible says or what have you.

And then you had the tax collector, who's a sinner who understood his condition, kind of like what we were talking about in the last episode, right?

You got to first, that's the very first step of coming to God is really understanding your condition.

So, you know, it's funny when I was reading this, you know, like, I mean, for in our day today, I'm trying to pick it up practically in our day today.

Like, no 1 really is going to go to church and be like, hey, look at me and thank God I'm not like this person.

Thank God I'm not like what that person does.

And look at me, I give, I fast twice a week and I give, etc.

But what was going on in my mind, Brother Joe, was it's like, we don't do this, but we probably think this somehow, some way in our lives, right?

We probably think that, man, you know, I eat this certain way, I dress this certain way, and this person look at, you know, and it's funny because The reason why we think this way is because it's to lift ourselves up to thinking that I'm better than that other person.

You know, and again, we need to be very careful of just not, yeah, not maybe proclaiming this, but actually thinking this in our heart somehow, some way, like a real true self-examination.

There is an aspect of pride here from this prayer, and which actually makes me think, is there a wrong and right way to approach God?

That's a topic for another conversation, right?

This conversation, I think there is a right and wrong way to come to Him.

So we see here that the Pharisee is approaching God with a heart of pride, you know, and Okay, hear me out.

I, there's some times and maybe, maybe I need the Holy Spirit, but there's some times where, based off of the trajectory that my life was going, you know, I was out in the world.

I was, I was the lukewarm church, you know, just, you know, in and out on the river, in the bank, didn't want to offend my friends, but then I also didn't want to be all the way in with God.

And I, I'll tittle and tattle like wherever it benefited me.

If it was good to be a Christian today, I was, if it wasn't, and I needed to party, I would, you know?

And, and sometimes I, I thank God that He pulled me out of that lifestyle and helped me make the decision.

But sometimes I look around and I'm like, I can see where my life could have been.

And in my reflection, I'm like, thank you God that I didn't get there.

So there's an aspect of understanding that.

And I wonder if this Pharisee had a little bit of that.

Thank you, Lord, that you've maybe delivered me from being an extortioner or being a tax collector.

But I think the part that was missing on this part was that he looked down on those people, not understanding that he also was in the same position before and having compassion towards them.

So if he's saying, God, thank you that I'm not like this anymore, his prayer should have continued to say, and please help those individuals that are struggling with this.

I think your question is actually really helping us parse where the real problem is.

There's obviously a real attitude difference between these 2 worshipers.

And it's okay to thank God for delivering me from a destructive path that I almost went down or delivering me from something that I I used to be stuck in an addiction, whatever it be, that's all okay.

But it's this attitude of contempt towards the other person that changes the whole story.

You know, someone said, thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.

He's saying, oh, I thank you, I thank you.

But right as he says thank you, he begins to compare himself.

And we've heard about comparison being the thief of joy.

Here is thankfulness that is sort of, it's upside down.

It's a sinister type of thankfulness that classifies sinners, that has no real, you know, his eyes are myopic to say, has a very narrow understanding of sin.

And all of these contribute to God saying, I'm not interested in this.

Yeah, and I like that you mentioned that He's comparing Himself, right?

So the measure that he's using to judge himself is other people and not God.

And so therefore you're always gonna come up better.

If I'm looking and I'm like, well, I know I'm better than Joe at this.

But if I'm looking to Jesus, I'm always gonna be falling short.

And my attitude is going to be the attitude of the tax collector.

Because I understand the standard that you have.

You're a holy God and that's what you call me to, but I do not measure up.

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Series

InVerse 2nd Quarter 2026: Relationship with God

03 Pride Versus Humility

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Reality Check

29m

02 To Know God

28m

03 Pride Versus Humility

29m

Sound Doctrine