HEROES ARE NOT PRIDEFUL

We are starting a new series tonight on Heroes. As most of yall, I love heroes. You walk in my and see superheroes everywhere. I love Superheroes. My favorite of course is Superman. Superheroes are super popular right now. They are on TV, in the movies, and in video games. People love superheroes. Let me ask you this:

Who is your favorite superhero?

Why do you think people love superheroes?

I think that the reason why so many people love superheroes is that they inspire us to be better. We see who they are and what they can do and we want to be like that. There’s something about heroes that inspire us to be better, to not give up, and they instill hope. But I also think that on some level, superheroes connect with us. Julie Lowe, who is a family counselor, shared that superheroes have a dual nature. On the one hand they connect with us as humans, yet they inspire us to be better than who we are. This idea connects with us because we want to believe we could be something more than we seem.

Today l want to talk to you about limits. And while Superman is my all time favorite superhero, tonight is all about The Dark Knight. By the way, there was a time where I was a die hard Batman fan. The cool thing is that I still like Batman…even though Superman is wayyyy better! Today’s clip comes from The Dark Night. Listen to what Batman says when people are offering to help him.

Show The Dark Night clip

Did you catch what he said when people are telling him that they are just trying to help? He says that he doesn’t need help. Because of what he has (hence him saying he doesn’t wear hockey pads). The scene right after this, Alfred goes into wake him up and sees that he’s not there. He immediately goes to where Bruce is. And sees him treating his own wounds. Alfred sees the scrapes and bruises on your back. And do you know what Alfred says? He says:

Know your limits.

Bruce says that Batman has no limits. Bruce Wayne thinks Batman has no limits. A big reason that he thinks that is because of something that we all deal with: Pride. Like him, we may know how to fix problems, solve equations, lead our team to victory, or “own” our friends in the latest game. We tale pride in what we can do, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, there will always be something in life that we just can’t seem to handle, and if we’re not careful in those situations, our pride will get us into serious trouble. Let’s try to learn a lesson from Batman’s troubles so we don’t let our pride ruin us.

Take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 3:1-9. As you turn there let me give you some background on why Paul is writing. A group of Christians in the city of Corinth were having some issues. People would come to him and talk about how in the church there were all these problems in the church. There were a lot of problems, issues of immorality, divisiveness, people taking people to court, abusing the Lord’s Supper, and denying the resurrection of Jesus’ body. Last week, we talked about being united as a body of believers. That begins through acknowledging what it means to allow God to work in our lives. We talked about how it means that if we look to allow God to work in us we can be one.  We discussed together that it may mean a drive to put others first, to forgive and to ask for forgiveness.

And to do that, it means that we have to change our mindset like ourselves, like what Alfred told Bruce to do about his limits. We see the dangers of not putting others first and how that can lead to division in the letter to the Corinthians. It is in dealing with the issue of divisiveness that Paul talks about in today’s passage. Paul had just spent time talking about wisdom revealed by the Holy Spirit and about how wisdom is given by the Holy Spirit. Paul says it is given as a gift of grace from God to those who love Him. Paul then goes on to compare those without God and that it is God Himself who speaks to us when Paul begins chapter three. Let’s read and see what Paul says.

1 Corinthians 3:1–9 CSB

1 For my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, 3 because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans? 4 For whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not acting like mere humans? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Is pride always wrong?

Let me ask you, have you ever been around someone who was very prideful? Like they always had to be right or that it was always their way? How hard is it to talk to them?

You ever been around someone who thinks that they have to do it all otherwise it will be wrong?  How hard is it to be around them?

Have you ever been that way? Show of hands

The people were fighting over whose teaching was better. Because of this, they were experiencing disunity and other problems in their church. You might wonder why this has to do with Batman and his idea that he has no limits. Just the source of Batman’s arrogance is his pride, so too is the same thing here. Here we have the church at Corinth was experiencing division because of their pride. They become so prideful that it was affecting their relationship with God.

That’s the thing with pride. When we think that we can handle it or that our way is the right way, it often leads to hurt. And a lot of times, it leads to fights. I’ve read about churches who have allowed there pride consume them to the point that they had to shut their doors. I’ve seen Youth Groups die off because of pridefulness.

Being prideful can consume and corrupt us. Paul says at the end that we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building. In other words, we are all on equal footing with God. And in a sense, Paul is also saying that we are nothing without God because it is God who has saved us. It is God who redeems and delivers. We are coworkers toward that. If we become prideful in ourselves, we may get into a situation that is over our heads, and like Batman, we may get hurt. So how do we do that?

By focusing on our need for God. By putting Him first in everything. After all, Jesus in Matthew 6:33 says this when he is talking about worry (which a lot of times goes hand in hand with pride because of never being satisfied due to always needing to do it right, always needing to be right):

Matthew 6:33 CSB

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

In order for us to work together, we must be willing to realize who we are and who we are tonight. We cannot honor God if we are unwilling to put Him first and to realize that we are NOTHING without Him. True peace in our lives is not in our abilities or taking on everything and doing it ourselves. It is found in giving it to God and following Him. That’s the heart of seeking Him first - we follow what He wants and that leads to us growing together as a Youth Group and a church.

Here is the Big Takeaway for tonight: if we live a life that honors God and not us, then we not only avoid pride, but we learn to glorify God’s name for the things that only He can do.

When it comes to matters of our walk with Christ, we need to check our pride at the door.  That means we acknowledge our limits.  For some of you, that means you have to admit that you are not as big as you think you are.  Maybe for you, you've been trying to go at it your own. Thinking that maybe you throw God a bone every know and again, and he'll grant you what you need.  You've never given your life to Him because your pride tells you that you don't need Him.  Yet, here lately, you've been struggling.