The Heart God Revives: Episode 3 - From Pride to Humility—Living in the Light

Hey family, Sheridan Correa here, and we are on the last episode of this, The Heart That God Revives. What we're doing is we're talking very clearly and very plainly and authentically. I'm sharing stuff from my own life, but we're going through two different columns. And on one side we have a prideful and unbroken heart and spirit, and on the other side of the list, the corresponding attributes and qualities, we are talking about what a broken and what a humble heart and spirit looks like. Our key scripture is from Psalm 51 verse 10 and 17. And last in the second episode, I compared it with Micah 6.8, or I brought in Micah 6.8 in supporting this lesson and this takeaway that God cares very much about the position of our heart. God cares about the orientation of our hearts, whether we are motivated for self or for God and others, whether we are loving ourself more or loving ourself the most instead of loving God and loving others. God does not enjoy and he despises and actually hates a proud heart. He can't work with it. It doesn't belong in the kingdom of God. Have you ever heard of two notes that do not belong together or nails on a chalkboard? That's what that is. It doesn't belong. It doesn't belong in the kingdom of God. We are called to walking humbly with God, to having and exercising our humility. And so any of the character defects that we are listing here, we want to offer those up as a sacrifice to God and say, oh my gosh, take this from me. It does not serve me or you or your kingdom or other people. It only causes harm and separation. And I keep sinning in it. And we're called to live blamelessly, not perfection, but to that when God looks at us and sees Christ, our identity as in Christ, that's what we are blameless in. And if we are exercising and walking out our identity, being humble is part of it.

Okay, so we are going back to the list. All right, here we go. Back on the list. Now before I talk about, before I get back to the list, I want to remind us we have two hearts beating inside of us. One is for self, one is for God. One is for self-preservation and self-protection, and one is not. One is open and trusting and willing and exercising our faith and our hope. And so whatever, the one that's going to dominate is the one that gets all the attention. Okay? The one that we are feeding, the one that we are giving all of our affection to, the one that we are giving all of our attention and energy to, that's the one that's going to get bigger and that's the one that's going to be dominating you. So you have a responsibility here. It matters to know what you are feeding, to know what you are continuously patternizing, I don't know if that's a word, to continuously exercising in a pattern of behavior because that kind of sticks around. And brain chemistry wise, if you are thinking in that way, it continues to create neuropathways, trails. That's how I think about it. Trails in our brain that easily default to that. And so praise the Lord, our brain is neuroplastic and we can heal off and stop doing those things and start doing the things of God and create new neuropathways and that helps us to become a new creation that helps us to renew our mind and our thinking. God designed our brains like that. It's so cool. So, so cool. All right. So the first one that we're back on the list, we are, let's see, want to be sure that no one finds out that they have sinned.

Their instinct is to cover up and hide. Become a cave dweller. I call these cave dwellers, okay? I'm a cave dweller sometimes and the Lord has to check me. The Holy Spirit have to say, no, come out of hiding. You're safe here with me. That song, I love that song. It's all about authenticity, that we are no longer called to live in caves, to live in hiding. The word of God says that there's no shame. There is no condemnation. mission for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so it's not embarrassing. Even if it is embarrassing, you still step forward, encouraged, knowing that God loves that and God cares and God sees and that God wants you to mature and become the fullness of the intention of what he has designed you to become. And so this is in my life. This is in my life. I will tell you this story. I was, let's see, I was at my discipleship center again in my transformation, my beginning stages of transformation and regeneration. And I remember meeting with my counselor and she asked me this question and she said, are you the type of person that when you do something wrong, you either go tell on yourself or you wait to be found out and you wait to get in trouble. And I was like, oh, duh, the second one that is smart. Nobody goes around like telling on themselves and like, yep, I did this, oh, I'm guilty over here. Nobody does that. Like I lived a life of hiding. That's what my flesh wanted.

I didn't even know that my flesh wanted that. That's just how I was trained. That's how I was influenced by the world because that's what the world, that's what Satan wants. He wants us to hide. He wants us to self-protect and self-preserve at all costs and nope, you can't tell nobody that you're wrong. You definitely don't go out yourself like that. And she's like, okay. And she didn't say anything to me about it, but about two weeks later, I'm sitting in bed and I'm just reflecting and just thinking whatever. And I sit straight up and it was like, oh my gosh, that's not the right answer. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be that person. I want to be open. I want to live a life of confession. I want to live a life of authenticity where I am not hiding, where I am not ashamed and embarrassed and have a veil over me and walking in darkness and blindness. I don't want to do that anymore. Lord, I want to live it openly in the light as a child of the light. And so I ran back to her, I think that next day and said, oh my gosh, I found out this was wrong. This was the wrong answer. And so I don't want to do that anymore. And so I, I, I confess that and I sacrifice that defect and continuously have to sacrifice and repent of that defect when I do find myself hiding because family, God calls us into a life of authenticity and honesty where we are living out honestly, includes some scary embarrassing parts, but oh, well it's for Christ's gain. It's so that Christ gets the glory, not us again. We can't, we can't exercise our pride and be so consumed and so concerned with our self image and reputation.

Oh my gosh. If other people knew this about me, they would think blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The word of God says we are not to do that. We are not called to that. So the opposite quality of that in a humble heart is that once we are broken, once that we have become humbled and broken, we don't care, doesn't care who knows or finds out about X, Y, and Z. We have no secrets. That is for freedom. That is freedom to not have any secrets at all. That's what recovery and restoration and the resurrected life looks like with God that we have no secrets. Satan wants us to have secrets. Satan wants us to keep things in a dark and to be children of the dark. God calls us out of the dark. His light comes into our darkness, illuminates those dark spaces and we are start, we got, we got to start confessing and being open about those things and allowing his light in to illuminate those spaces and to purify them and to, um, um, to regenerate and restore us back to children of the light. And we are willing to be exposed because we have nothing to hide and nothing to lose. And so there's no shame. There's no shame in his name. You know how we used to say, there's no shame in my game. I know that was like 1990s and that's going to age me, but I don't care. But now it's, there's no shame in his name because I walk under the authority of Christ. I walk in Christ, not in Sheridan. All right, here we go. We have a proud, proud heart. Have a hard time saying I was wrong. Will you forgive me?

That is, there are three things, three of the hardest, hardest. hardest, hardest things to say sometimes. One is I love you. Two, I can't remember. But three is I was wrong. I am sorry. Will you forgive me? Why is that so hard? Because our flesh doesn't want to be wrong. Our flesh doesn't, we're too arrogant. We're too prideful in our flesh. And so a humble heart, oh, excuse me. I'm like poking myself and I'm having a fight with my glasses. Did you see that? A humble heart is quick to admit failure and seek forgiveness when necessary. Remember, the first one of the cross wins. The first one of the cross wins. And if Christ is my king, I want to do everything. I want to do everything that I can to please him and to follow his decrees and his laws because he loves me. And that's how I know that I will be loved and that I am loving others well too. A proud heart tends to deal in generalities when confessing sin and separation. This is what it sounds like. Everyone sins, I'm just a sinner too. A humble heart, man, we get specific, okay?

And we grieve over the specific root cause of our sin and separation. This is what it sounds like. In my self-righteousness, I sin. I have hurt my husband in my self-righteousness and my pride where I think I'm better than him. I have hurt him. I have made him, I have caused him to feel less than and not good enough. I have caused him to feel like I am above him. By thinking that I don't need God, I have sinned. By holding resentment in my heart against another and gossiping about them, I have sinned. I have hurt not only God because God cares about that and it hurts his heart, but I'm hurting myself too and I'm definitely hurting other people by doing that. I'm harming, I'm causing harm. That is what it looks like to have a humble orientation and a humble position. And we grieve over that. We grieve over that. We have godly sorrow over that because it hurts and breaks God's heart too when we're acting like that. A proud heart has, oh, I already did that one. A proud heart is concerned about the consequences of their sin, meaning they ask the question or they think even subconsciously or consciously, how is this going to impact me? And that's all they're worried about is how they are going to be impacted and the ripple effect and ramifications

of their sin or even anybody else's sin. A humble heart is able to acknowledge specifics. It impacts the impacts to God, self and others when confessing their sin. A proud heart is remorseful over their sin, but not only by being sorry they got found out or caught. Okay, I've already told that story. You're remorseful over your sin. You're like, somebody calls you out or you get confronted with somebody and you get busted. Okay, and you're like, yeah, sorry, sorry I did that. Sorry you feel that way. That's, by the way, that is not a correct, that is not an apology. That is not remorse. That is not being sorry, especially if you're being sorry, you're feeling sorry for somebody else feeling that way because they just told you something. That's not how that works, family, okay? That's not how that works. The humble orientation and position on heart is truly and genuinely repentant over their sin and they're reoriented, they're repented and turned and evidenced in the fact that they forsake, they give up, they forget about, they put to death, they put on, they put to death and put off that sin. The word of God says that. Paul calls us to put to death our sinful desires and nature and to put on our divine nature. Paul calls us to that.

And so a humble heart knows that and is doing that. We're putting off and we're putting on. That's a biblical principle and part of your discipleship, part of becoming like Christ and pursuing the heart of God. All right, we got a couple more, a few more. So a proud heart waits for others to come and ask for forgiveness when there is a misunderstanding or conflict in a relationship. This is extremely passive. Passivity is a sin. We are not called to be passive. We are not called to pass up on doing right, okay? It says in the word of God, if you know you should be doing it and don't do it, you're sinning, you're already sinning. And waiting for others to come and ask. forgiveness first, knowing that there has been a hard conversation or a dissension or an argument, a conflict, and waiting around for the other person to come because we're too prideful. A humble heart takes the initiative. We are proactive. We are assertive to be reconciled when there is a misunderstanding or conflict in a relationship. They race to the cross, and no matter how wrong the other person may have been, why? Because this is about Christ, and this is about our hearts. The more that our hearts are stuck in this place of protection and preservation and pride, the longer and the farther away that we are from walking in the truth and receiving love and grace and walking in freedom, that harms us. That harms us. I know immediately when I lose my freedom, when I lose my sense of freedom and I have anger, I have bitterness, my pride is roaring and is totally taking over, every second that I am in that space. I choose to stay in that space to either justify the rest of my actions that are fixing to happen or the actions that I've even done because I'm not trying to own up to stuff. It is harming me. I am out of the alignment of God. I am out of the security and the safety of God. I am open to attacks from the enemy, to a continuation of my flesh getting bigger

and my spirit getting smaller. I have done this. I have walked in a prideful heart in this way, in this very specific way, for several, several, several, several months. God's voice became so, so, so small. If not, I could not hear it at all. The enemy's voice and my pride and my arrogance in the flesh just ruled the world, just ruled the world. It harmed me. It harmed my relationship with God. It kept me separated. The longer I was separated from God, the worse I got. I could feel my spirit man immature. I remember thinking and feeling and talking to people saying, I don't know what's wrong with me. I feel like I'm going backwards and I don't like this feeling. I feel like I'm a little girl who's like, just trying to protect and preserve. It took great humility and the word of God to bring me out of it and other people to bring me out of it. It took confession and honesty and humility to even say, oh my gosh, I've had it all wrong for so long. I want to stop doing that, Lord. I want to come back to you. I want to do life your way because your way, the way you do life is best. Your divine design is the best way and it, it, it keeps me secure. It keeps me stable and it keeps me safe and it keeps me whole. And so don't, don't follow after me. Don't follow after me. I tell you that so that it is an example to you. And just as a warning and an encouragement and grace, the, or the, the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God to where we repent and come and confess. And he, and you know, brings us back into the family now that we've lost status with the family, but we are back in relationship with the family is what I mean. It is amazing. It is amazing. And those are unlimited. You have unlimited amount of U-turns family. So use them, use them, use them, get back to the safety, get back to the security of our loving God. Proud heart compares themselves with others and feels worthy of honor or unworthy of love and support. We're arrogant and insecure again. You know, Jesus warns about this when he's like, Hey, when you're invited to a banquet, you don't take the seat of honor. You're like, Oh, thank you. And you go and take the best seat. No, you take the least of it. You take the lowest place and let other people let the room, um, let them call you into a different seat or a different space. Like that's how we're supposed to, um, supposed to live, um, on the opposite side of that. And I'll read this, um, compare themselves to the holiness of God and feel a desperate need for his mercy. So we don't think ourselves better than anybody else. We don't think that we're worthy of all the honor and respect, but God is a proud heart is blind to their true heart condition. Again, with children of the dark blindness, blindness is, uh,

Blindness is darkness. And again, that's why I would go tell my friends like, Hey, I got blind spots. I know I got blind spots. There are things that I'm aware of. There are things that I'm kind of aware of. There's things that I'm definitely not aware of and I need help in those spaces. So between the Holy Spirit and my A team, you know, we are not called to be children of the dark family. We want to walk in the light. We are called to be children of the light and to walk in the love of Christ. And that's in the New Testament, Paul writes about that. And I'm so sorry, I can't think of the exact book. But he writes about that often about the difference between lightness and darkness and walking in the dark versus walking in the light. I think even James does too, if I'm wrong, I'm sorry. A proud heart don't think that they have anything to repent of, right? Because they do no wrong. They don't do anything wrong. What do you got to repent of? You don't do anything wrong because you're so prideful, but a humble heart realizes the continual need for a heart attitude of repentance, a continual need of renewing, a continual need and a lifelong pursuit of repentance, renewal, restoration like that. Those are patterns and cyclical habits and rhythms that should be a part of our new life in Christ. As we are walking out this identity in Christ and our journey in faith, those have to be a regular rhythms and habits of our life. That's how we continuously stay refreshed and stay renewed. A prideful heart. This is the last one. We're coming down to it.

A prideful heart doesn't think that they need revival, but sure as heck they think everybody else needs revival. They don't think they need to be brought back to life. They don't think that they need to be revived or recovered or repaired in any way to be quickened to the spirit. They don't think that they need to be saved or rescued. I don't know about you, but I still, I still need to be rescued often from myself and from my flesh. Okay. Cause my flesh and my pride can be so big sometimes still, and the grace of God covers all of that. The goodness of God offers us a chance to turn every single time. And it's in those areas where we are disciplined, corrected, being realigned because of the, because of God's love for us. In fact, family, it says in Romans 2, 4, or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. That is what God's kindness does in God's kindness. He convicts us with his Holy spirit, with his, in his word, in God's kindness, he points out the things that don't belong, not because he's like, Oh my gosh, look at you again. It's not. And to discourage us, it's because he wants us to take a knee. He wants us to offer and sacrifice and turn and reorient our hearts and our minds and our behavior and our life back to him. Because again, we are called to please God. We are called to glorify God and that's in the way that we live. And that is done by offering our whole life. And these things that we're finding and being convicted of even today, bringing those to the altar and offering them up, confessing them, reorienting our hearts, turning away from them and asking God to restore in us a clean and pure heart, a contrite spirit,

one that is steadfast and faithful and loves God and not continuously is going back to these prideful places and creating this chasm in this grand Canyon, um, uh, between God and us, because that's not what he wants for our life. And I'll say this again, it's only harming us. It's only harming us. And if we are harm and wounded, guess what hurt people hurt people. But if you can change that and turn that coin over, found people, find people, healed people, help heal people. And that's what, that's what this is all about is what the kingdom is all about. I hope you've been encouraged. I hope you've been inspired. I really hope that also you've been convicted because it is the goodness of God that tells us that when we are doing wrong and when. we need to turn and get a, um, our, our character defect traded in for the correct orientation and the correct identity. And so family, I love you so much. We here at victorious love you so, so much and until next time, have a good day. Bye. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents P.O. Box 2751 Greenville, NC 27836 or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living magazine free of charge in bulk with or without staples.