Villains: Part 3

Hello. Hello, my beautiful Master moms. Welcome to part three of Villains. This is the last and final villain we're going to be talking about this series. I have had such a blast. I hope you've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it. But we are going to dive in to honestly the most evil villain you can ever come across. And I'm not talking about any fictional villain. We're going to be talking about. I am talking about something in the Bible that that explains this is the ultimate villain. So are you ready to put on your armor? Are you ready to go to battle and defeat the villain once and for all? Let's get started.

Welcome to Mom Mastery University. The education every mom should have had but didn't. I'm Hannah Keeley. America's number one mom coach and class is now in se.

As you know from our key verse that comes from First John 2, 16, 17, it says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father, but of this world. In our series, we talked about what does it mean to be in the Father? What does it mean to be of the world? We talked about the lust of the eyes, we talked about the lust of the flesh. So you probably guessed it today. We are talking about the pride of life. Now, I'm just going to go ahead and give you a caution here. This is a topic that a lot of people like to steer around, if that makes sense. The topics that are the most uncomfortable for us to listen to are probably the ones we need the most in our lives. You know, where we're challenged, if we're never challenged, we're never going to grow you as Master Moms. I hope you know this by now. If you're brand new to Mom Master University. Yeah, you're going to be challenged. Challenge. But hey, we're gonna have a fun time doing it and we're gonna grow in freedom together. So our key verse talking about the pride of life is Proverbs 11:2. It says when pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with the humble is wisdom. So if you have disgrace, if you have wisdom here, what are you going to choose? You don't want to be disgraced. You don't want to want to have a demise like most of our villains do. You don't want to have that difficult coming to Jesus moment where you realize you are so far gone, there's a lot of mess you got to deal with. Right? You want the wisdom, the wisdom that there's A reason that Solomon, out of everything he could have asked for from God, he asked for wisdom. Because with wisdom comes favor. You know, God is with the wise. You know, when you're making wise decisions, decisions through Christ Jesus, through God, through the Bible, there comes favor, there comes blessing. You know what I mean? So if you have disgrace and wisdom, what are you going to choose? Easy, right? You're going to choose wisdom. But here's the problem. We need to understand how do we get to both, how do we get to disgrace, how do we get to wisdom? And with being humble, it says when the Bible in Proverbs right here, with being humble comes wisdom, with being proud, with pride comes disgrace. So we need to figure out what path are we on and how do we steer towards being humble to that, to that wisdom. So we gotta ask ourselves, what is the pride of life, basic definition here, the sinful desires, which brings attention to yourself. Now, the reason this is a hard message to hear is because we love to hear the messages that are like, you go, girl. Like favor, on favor, on favor. Like, I am blessed. And that is all true. That's all necessary. But what's also necessary is for us to check our hearts for pride. Because if we get a little too into our success, if we get a little too into our favor, into everything God is pouring in our lives, sometimes the enemy can use the good from God and turn us to a place of, oh, I did this on myself. This is all me. And then we start to see people who are doing the same and say, oh, you know, you can't do it as good as I can. And the enemy can use that and turn us away from humble wisdom to disgraceful pride. And it happens without us even realizing it. So what villain are we talking about today? Who is the villain who has dealt with pride? Now, if you ask me, all of the villains that you can. You can show me any villain from Disney, from Marvel, from anything, any children's story, and you can point out the pride. That's because usually sin, when it's not dealt with, it leads to pride. So I did a lot of thinking, did a lot of digging. I had to watch all these shows, these Disney movies, like Poor Me, right? But I landed on the Incredible, the evil, the iconic Maleficent. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty? There have been so many remakes. Honestly, every Disney movie gets remade. But Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, you know, the horns she turns into a dragon. She gets Sleeping Beauty to prick her finger and she falls asleep. She puts everybody in the kingdom to sleep, I believe. And honestly, if you trace back to where that started, it was with offense. She was offended. Her story here, I'm not going to dig into it too much. If you want to wash Sleeping Beauty, it's a fun, it's a fun one. But what happens is she shows up to Aurora's christening, I think. I'm telling you, I watched so many of these remakes, sometimes I get confused. But it was her christening and she wasn't invited. And she has some relation to the king and queen and she's so offended by the fact that she wasn't invited to this christening, her doom is just laid onto this entire kingdom. To the girl, the precious, sweet, innocent Aurora, who did nothing, to the king and queen who didn't invite her in the first place. Which, I mean, I believe they have a reason to. You know, you have those people that you're throwing the birthday party for your kid, you're throwing the baby shower for your friend, and there are those people that you're like, you know what? Love them, God bless them, but they don't necessarily need to be here for this special moment in our family's life. And that's okay. It has to be okay with them because they're, you know, there's a reason, you know, something about that person that you're like, I don't necessarily need you a part of this. And I do believe that the king and queen were like, you know, this crazy woman who comes in, guns ablaze, and anytime she's not invited to anything, we don't need her here for our daughter's christening. So anyway, long story short, she's offended. There's this doom set upon the kingdom. These people fall into a deep sleep. Aurora falls into a deep sleep. If you are fact checking me right now because you know this story and I'm getting it a little bit wrong, I apologize, I really do. But this is the best. This is what I got up here. So here's the thing. Not being invited to a christening, not that big of a deal, right? So why does Maleficent go crazy and unleash her basically hell on this kingdom just for that simple thing that, that offense that she could have dealt with. What, what, what was, was because she had pride. A very intense, strong pride that she has not dealt with. There was no humble wisdom in her. It was just pompous and pride and all me, right? So normally if you don't get invited to some event, it's not going to bother me. Honestly, I Would prefer to stay home in my jammies, chilling on the couch, watching a movie with my husband and my kids. It's not going to offend me. But what was it that drove this woman crazy? It was because it hurt her pride. Now, usually when we have pride, when we're carrying pride and we're offended, somebody tries that pride, it isn't the action that bothers us. It's the effect of our pride that bothers us. That sick pride that we're carrying. When I say pride, I'm not saying, like, yeah, being proud in who you are. No, I'm talking about like a heavy, intense pride where it's all about me. See, sinful desires, which brings attention to. To yourself. It's all me, me, me. And pride can even show up as, hey, I'm so humble. Look at me, I'm doing so good because I'm so humble. Pride is that sneaky. So let's dig into it here a little bit. We can see pride in the Bible many times. Many, many, many times. I think about Jezebel. She had influence. She had sex status. She had control. And it was her pride that led to her demise. Even the devil himself, Lucifer, pride is what kicked him out of heaven. Pride is what led to his ultimate downfall, his ultimate defeat, because he is defeated in the end. I think about Haman in the Bible with Esther. Everything was about him. Everything was about him. Honestly, the wrath he was he was putting the Jewish people through, all had to do with his status and his control with the king that led to his ultimate demise. But there is somebody that I see not controls pride. I'm not going to say that he has a journey with pride. He deals with pride heavily in his life, and he actually finds a way to face his pride and do something with it. Someone like King Nebuchadnezzar, okay, he was a powerful ruler, very powerful. He had so much influence. But he says this in Daniel 4:30, he says, is not the great Babylon I have built as a royal residence by my mighty power. Oof. And for the glory of my majesty. Now, if you read through the Old Testament, these kings that we get to learn about, usually the ones who are giving God the glory and saying, it is God's residence. It is by God's might that we have accomplished this. Those are the ones that have favor and are blessed. So, you know, he's. He is getting ready for a lesson, and he gets one. So God humbled Nebuchadnezzar by taking away his sanity and reducing him to a state of living like an animal in the fields. So he's got it pretty rough at this point. God humbled him. See, humble, then comes wisdom. Being humble comes wisdom. This is God saying, hey, you need to gain a little wisdom here, buddy. If you are going to be an influence, if you are going to have power, you need to be humble. Because where the humble are, there comes wisdom. So God humbled Nebuchadnezzar by taking away his sanity. But here's what's crazy is this guy, and he's not often known for this, but he acknowledges God. He acknowledges God's power, his glory, his might. But what got Nebuchadnezzar to this place? Daniel actually warned him, separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right. Sometimes we need to hear that. Separate yourself from your sin by doing what is right. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity. He's saying, like, hey, buddy, your pride is going to lead you nowhere. But maybe there will be an extension of your prosperity if you're humble, if you do what's right, if you follow God. So years spent in the wild. Nebuchadnezzar spent years in the wild being humbled by God. I know that was not fun. But he did heed Daniel's advice. After that, his prosperity was actually extended. He acknowledged God. He said, God, this is all because of you. This is nothing having to do with me now. I don't want to have a Nebuchadnezzar in the wild moment. I don't want you to have a moment in the wild like Nebuchadnezzar did. So shouldn't we, instead of seeing where pride gets us, look into ourselves and say, how? How can I deal with this Pride? Or God, show me if I'm carrying pride? Because many people who carry pride don't realize they are actually caring pride. So you ready for this? I hope you're taking notes. Pride blinds us to God's authority and leads us to believe we are in control of our own success. That is a hard pill to swallow. But girl, you are not in control of your success. If you are successful, good for you. But it had nothing to do with you. It was where God put you. If you are trying to succeed, if you're in a place where you want to find success in a certain area, it's comforting to know I'm not in control. I just need to do what is right, where God has commanded me of. So just like Nebuchadnezzar, we can be humbled in an instant, just like that. If we fail to acknowledge that everything we have is because of God's grace. So take a moment now and acknowledge everything I have is because of God's grace. That already kills the pride that may have taken root in your life. Everything I have is not because of me. My job, my family, my career, my business. Everything I have is not because of me. It's because of what God gave me. And if I start approaching that with pride, with look at what I've accomplished, if I start approaching that area with sin and deceit, God is going to deal with that. He can humble that in a second, just like with Nebuchadnezzar. Now what's interesting here, something that stood out to me in the Bible today, is I was looking at the temptations of Jesus again. And the only person who had every right to boast and say, look at me. Look at how God has appointed me with somebody who humbled himself and that was Jesus. See, the enemy tempted Jesus to take pride. See, the devil tried to use the pride of life. With Jesus, he said, look at, look at everything here. You can have all of this, this whole domain. But still he denies going to a place of pride. He knows where God is leading him in his life. He knows his ultimate story. And so he says, no, I'm not going to take part in that, not even for a second. Because the Lamb must be spotless. Jesus must be sinless. So that is the point where he says, get away from me. And I think we can do the same thing when we hear that voice in our head that's saying, hey, look at all of this. It's because of you. And you could even have more if you just boast yourself up with all that pride. We need to look the devil in the eyes and say, absolutely not. Get out of my life. Get away from me, Satan. Because everything I have and everything I will receive is because of God's favor and God's grace. Now, pride can usually take us to one of three places, and I hope not for your sake, but sometimes all three. And that is self sufficiency. That is comparison and competition, refusal to admit fault. These three areas are the sneaky, sneaky bits of pride that enter our life and feel right. They do feel right. And sometimes the world tells us it's right. But that will ultimately lead to our downfall, to our demise. Just like Nebuchadnezzar. Our humbling. And we don't want that, do we? So self sufficiency. Pride often reveals itself when we rely on our own strength. I can do it. It's all because of me. And honestly, as moms, we sometimes take that on because that's the life we're living. Our kids are reliant on us. Our husbands, they need us. Our churches, they need us. Our companies, they need us. We are needed. But sometimes when we step into the role of mom, that can get a little twisted. Where we are raising kids who need us. They do. They need us. And sometimes that could get twisted into other parts of our life, and then pride can set root, and we can look at these wonderful things God has given us and say, yeah, it's all because of me. Yeah, because you need me now. Self sufficiency, it's that voice that tells us, I've got this. I don't need any help. Many people think that's power, but honestly, that is just pride. Sometimes what looks like power is actually pride in disguise. Write that down. That was a good one. So it's that voice that says, I've got this. I don't need any help. This self sufficiency makes us feel like we are in control, and we don't need to submit our plans and decisions to God. That's where self sufficiency can come into place. And we can hold a mirror up to ourselves and say, is that something I'm carrying today? Is that something I'm dealing with today? Now, comparison and competition. My goodness. Oh, we do it all the time. Sometimes we think we're not doing it, but if we change something about ourselves, if we dress a certain way, if we act a certain way because somebody threatened us in that area, that's a problem. That's comparison. Now, competition. My son, Roman, he is the picture perfect example of somebody dealing with the issue of competition. Everything's a competition. If we are getting our bags packed, we're going to the park, and I'm going to the car. He's gonna elbow past everybody to get into the car. Not because he wants to get in the car before everybody else, but because it's a competition. So we get in the car and he says, mommy, I win. Okay, buddy, great job. We run to the park. He gets there first. Mommy, I won. Okay, buddy, great job. Everything in his life is viewed as a competition. And that's cute and that's funny, but we do the same thing oftentimes as women. We scan other women, other families, and anybody we find threatening to us. Anybody who looks like they're doing better, they're happier, we ultimately go to that place of, wait, how can I improve myself now? It's great. To want to improve yourself. But if you want to because of something else that you see some other person that you see, that is pride. Now, refusal to admit fault, that is another aspect of pride that we don't realize we're dealing with. You know, you're in the middle of an argument and you get that light bulb of like, wait a second, oh, they have a good point. I'm in the wrong here. We're going to do everything we can to cover ourselves. We're going to do every, we're going to go through every excuse, we're going to look at every part of the story just to be like, hey, I promise, I promise I am not wrong here. Even at work, we'll be told to do something differently. The first thing we want to do is explain why it wasn't your fault that it was done wrong in the first place. If anybody can relate to this, give me an amen. Because we don't often admit we have a problem with refusing to admit our own fault, but we do. Everybody does. It is hard to say, oh, you're right, I was wrong. I am so sorry. It's a hard thing to do for many people, especially many people who deal with self sufficiency, which is pride. So what are we going to do about it, mama? What are we going to do? To nip these in the bud and to deal with pride once and for all. So here we go. Let's talk about self sufficiency. When we rely on our own strength instead of God's, it prevents us from experiencing his power and provision in our lives. So start your day with surrender. Wake up and say, hey God, I'm surrendering this to you. Everything I'm going to do, everything you're going to pour into my life, it's because of you, not because of me. Even if you feel like you don't have to, even if you feel like the self sufficiency issue is not a problem, do it. Do it because it covers your day with grace. Seek God's guidance when you make any decision before you make the decision, with your home, at work, with your family. Because it's not because of you that you have this incredible wisdom. It's because of God's grace. Every decision you must see, seek God. Now. Create a habit of gratitude. And I want to recommend this. At the end of the day, think of three things that you did or God gave you, or you got to experience and bring it to God and say, hey, God, this was because of you. This is something that you gave to Me. Thank you. Thank you. Now, comparison and competition. Pride causes us to measure our worth against others. It does, leading to a sense of superiority and insecurity. It's crazy how we can feel that superiority and insecurity at the same time. That is not what God designed for you. So point number one, bless. Do not compare. When you see somebody who makes you feel a little bit like, oh, I'm not doing so great myself, stop. Bless them. Say God bless them. They are doing so well, they are beautiful, they are happy. God give them even more. When you're in a place where you bless instead of comparing, then you can be blessed as well. Now limit social media consumption. If this comparison and competition is an issue in your life, I want to recommend take a break. Delete Instagram, delete Facebook, delete anything that causes you to close the app, go to bed and you feel like absolute crap about yourself, delete it, take a break fast from it and just see what God does in your life. Now. Celebrate others wins. Be very intentional about in the relationships you have and even in your marriage, your husband comes home after this amazing day, maybe you haven't felt like you're doing so good. Celebrate that win. Your friend who is doing way beyond what you are doing right now from your perspective. Maybe they got the happy family that you want, the body that you want. Celebrate their wins because you need the people in your corner who are also going to celebrate your wins as well. Don't isolate yourself from people because you feel that spirit of comparison now with the refusal to admit your own fault. I think we need to practice immediate confession when something when we're in the middle of an argument, especially when we're heated. I just want to recommend that you try to put on the spirit of confession because it's not going to hurt you, mama. It's not going to hurt anybody else just to say, oh, hey, maybe I did get that wrong. Maybe I was in the fault here. And just try to see how much peace is brought into your life. Ask for honest feedback. It's hard for us to do people that deal with pride from the people in your life, your leaders, the people that are pouring into you, your pastors. Ask for honest feedback. Is this the right direction? I need to be moving in, Hey, I did this. Was this the right move? Is this what I should have done? Ask for honest feedback from people. Because sometimes pride isolates ourself from good feedback. And when we're stuck in pride and we're not talking to anybody else that's going to pour back into us. We get a lot wrong, and I don't want you to get anything wrong. So ask for honest feedback. So these babies that pride conceives sounds weird, but it's true. Refusal to admit your own wrong. Your self sufficiency, Having pride in everything that you do. Comparison and contrast. These are three things that pride can use to take root in your life. And we're going to deal with that directly. So are you ready for your action steps? All right, so number one, make sure you have your workbooks ready. Which of those three manifestations of pride, self sufficiency, comparison, and refusal to admit fault do you struggle with the most? Why do you think that is? Go ahead and take a moment. Journal your thoughts. And it's okay to look pride in the face and say, hey, I'm not going to deal with you anymore. Sometimes that's a hard thing for us to do, but it's time to do it. Number two, how has pride affected your relationship with God and others? Has pride dealt with your relationships in a way that push other people away? Have you pushed God out of your life and how? So go ahead and journal that topic as well. Now, lastly, number three, what is the one step you can take this week to practice humility and put God first in your thoughts and actions? I pray that this blesses you. I pray that you are putting these strategies to use in your own life. I pray that you cover your life with gratitude for what God has given you, and I pray that you are blessed. I have enjoyed this so much. Thank you so much for tuning in to Villains Part 3.

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