Selected Proverbs: The Dangers of Pride

Introduction

WNBA - Caitlin Clark - attendance swelling - Arch rival Angel Reese: "I'll look back in 20 years and be like, 'Yeah, the reason we're watching women's basketball is not just because of one person,'" she told reporters Monday night. "It's because of me too, and I want you all to realize that."

Sounds like a cry of self-importance: “I matter too…” Tempted to call Angel Reese arrogant or prideful, but I’m the same way. Rival in piano as a child: “I matter too…” Pastoring a struggling church while my friends pastored thriving churches: “I matter too…”

Pride creeps into my life often, and if you’re honest, pride creeps into your life quite a bit as well.

Two aspects to pride: 1. An overwhelming desire to see yourself as better or more important than others. 2. An overwhelming desire to take God’s place in your own life.

If pride is an overwhelming desire to take God’s place in your own life, no wonder Solomon states that arrogant or haughty eyes are hated by God (Proverbs 6:17). Haughty eyes = an inflated view of self.

You are not going to live in the wisdom of God if your heart is overwhelmed with pride. This morning, I want you to see three dangers of pride from the Book of Proverbs.

Pride causes you to think that you know better.

(I plan on reading a section from Proverbs 10:1-10, Proverbs 11:2, and Proverbs 16:18-19)

Proverbs 10-29 are shorty, pithy sayings that cover various topics. Difficult to study these chapters verse by verse, so we’re going to study Proverbs 10-29 thematically. In the weeks ahead, we’ll look at what Proverbs says about pride, speech, family, etc.

Remember, the proverbs are not promises as much as they are principles or observations about how life works.

10-29 seem like a random collection of wisdom sayings. However, this is how life works. Think about how you teach your children. Over the course of a day, you teach them about being wise in a variety of situations.

In the course of a given day, you need wisdom in lots of different areas because life seems random. The seemingly random nature of Proverbs matches the seemingly random nature of life.

However, you will not choose to walk in the wisdom of God if you don’t first deal with pride.

You know you are prideful when you constantly think to yourself, “I know better…” Prideful people trust themselves more than others and more than God. You’ve heard people say, “I don’t trust anyone but myself.”

Wise people trust God far more than they trust themselves (Proverbs 3:5-6). It’s dangerous to trust yourself rather than to trust the God of all creation who is full of wisdom, who loves you, and who desires the best for you.

Prideful people build their understanding of life on themselves. Some ways to identify pride in your life:

You talk too much about yourself (Proverbs 14:3; Proverbs 11:12). Prideful people love to talk about their own accomplishments, what they know, what they think, etc.

You think too much about yourself (Proverbs 21:4). Notice pride is the lamp of the wicked - for the prideful, pride becomes the light by which you see all of life instead of seeing all of life through the perspective of God’s Word.

You act too much for yourself (Proverbs 26:12; 28:26). Prideful trust that they know what’s best and act based on what they think is right for themselves in the moment.

Be honest. Do you constantly think that you know better than everyone else? That you know better than God?

Car rental - All I could think about how inconvenienced I was. Randy and Jenny even more inconvenienced. At least I had clean underwear.

Pride causes you to think that you are better.

Prideful people not only think that they know better, prideful people think they are better. (E.g., Luke 18:9-14 - How many of us are like the Pharisee?)

Not only do prideful people think they are better than others, prideful people want others to know how important they are. Prideful people are glory thieves. Prideful people seek their own glory rather than giving glory to God.

We’re constantly sizing people up. You think you are better than that person who doesn’t have as much education as you do, who doesn’t understand the Bible as well as you do, who doesn’t make as much money as you do, who doesn’t raise their children like you do, etc.

Thinking you are better than others and living to bring glory to yourself is a recipe for destruction. (Proverbs 16:18; 13:10). Pride leads to destruction or a host of problems in your life; both personally and relationally. In your personal walk with the Lord, pride destroys because it leads to other sins like:

Envy - Because you think you are better, you get envious when someone has what you think you should have.

Bitterness - You get angry with others when they don’t acknowledge how important you are.

Deceit - You deceive and lie about yourself to make yourself look better in the eyes of others. (Lie about your accomplishments.)

Slander - You talk poorly about others in an attempt to build yourself up.

Greed - You get greedy for more stuff because the more you have the more people will think you are accomplished.

Think about how these sins that find their root in a prideful heart are affecting your daily fellowship with the Lord. Simply put, the deeper you are in pride, the more you want to be the god of your own life, and the less you actually desire a relationship with the God who loves you.

Pride destroys relationally. Some have many unhealthy relationships because of pride. When you are overly concerned about yourself, think about the sinful disposition you take on that is destructive to your relationships:

You won’t submit - Ephesians 5:20 - people filled with the Spirit put the needs of others above their own.

You won’t confess - You won’t admit to people you love that you’re wrong or that you sin. Instead, you blame shift. You’re stubborn and hard-headed.

You won’t forgive - When someone hurts you, you hold a grudge instead of seeking to restore.

You won’t seek to understand - You won’t listen to others or be sympathetic to what others might be going through. You won’t listen to the opinions or thoughts of others because you are convinced that you’re always right.

You won’t ask for help - e.g., your marriage may be falling apart but you won’t reach out for help. You won’t seek the help of a counselor or trusted friend to help you walk through the difficulties.

You won’t be patient - You’re always agitated with others when they don’t do what you want them to do. You are impatient and frustrated with people who don’t move fast enough for you.

You won’t serve - Your agenda is far more important than God’s agenda, so you won’t serve Him or His church.

Solomon is right. Pride is destructive. It goes before a fall. If you don’t deal with a prideful heart, you will experience a lot of broken relationships in this life. No wonder Solomon says in the next verse, “Better to be lowly of spirit with the humble than to divide the plunder with the proud” (Proverbs 16:19). “Divide plunder with proud” - the proud selfishly argue over getting what they want. Be honest with yourself. Are you seeing the destructive nature of pride in your own life?

Pride causes you to forget that Jesus is better.

Prideful people are after their own glory, and prideful people fail to see that Jesus is all glorious. We spend a lot of time pointing people to ourselves and how great we are - what we’ve accomplished, how our kids are excelling, etc., and we spend far too little time pointing people to the One who is far better than us. No wonder Paul wrote, “But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

Some of us need to hear this: Jesus is better than you and He knows better than you. Life does not center around you. It centers around the One who created all, and then stepped into His creation to live the life that we could not live and to die the death that we deserve only to rise again from the dead to forgive us of our sins and give us eternal life.

The greatest person to ever live didn’t come to this world and say, “Look at me. I’m the greatest because I was born in the right place, got the right job, made a lot of money, etc. ” Instead, the greatest person to ever live was also the most humble person to ever live. Look at Jesus. He gave up everything for you. He gave up the riches of heaven to come after you. He was born in a nothing town and put in a manger, not in a home of privilege and prestige. He didn’t have the right education or career path. He wasn’t a Pharisee, nor did He sit on the Sanhedrin. He wasn’t earthly royalty. His earthly father was a carpenter, not a king. And, Jesus was more focused on ministering to people who were really hurting then spending time with the right kind of people who could help Him make something of Himself. The greatest person to ever live who had the most important job ever, (redeem humanity), made His name great and accomplished His mission by giving Himself away so we might know how much we are loved by the heavenly Father.

Humility is the path to honor. Jesus shows us that. That’s the path to honor while self-obsession and self-glory seeking is the path to humiliation (Proverbs 15:33; Proverbs 29:23). God will exalt the humble. Those who humbly see their need for Jesus and embrace Him as Lord will receive life with Him forever.

Self-obsession is the path to humiliation. Remember, pride comes before the fall (James 4:7).

How can you grow in humility?

Don’t be stubborn this morning. Don’t tune out what God is saying this morning. If He is revealing a prideful heart, repent. Come clean. Confess. For some of us, it means believing the Gospel for the first time, and turning to Jesus by faith. It’s trusting Jesus as Lord of your life.

Confess your idolatry. A prideful heart puts self in the place of God. Call it what it is: if you’re prideful, you’re idolatrous.

Immerse yourself in the glory of Jesus. The Gospel is the cure for pride. The more you make of Jesus, the less you’ll make of yourself. The more you make of Jesus, the more you’ll desire to bless others. The reason you’re prideful is because you don’t see Jesus for who He is. Take advantage of any opportunity for spiritual growth instead of ignoring opportunities.