My Need to Control

Pride

A life that is wrapped up in itself makes a very small package.1073

Pride is like a beard. It just keeps growing. The solution? Shave it everyday.1074

A minister, a Boy Scout, and a computer expert were the only passengers on a small plane. The pilot came back to the cabin and said that the plane was going down but there were only three parachutes and four people. The pilot added, “I should have one of the parachutes because I have a wife and three small children.” So he took one and jumped.

The computer whiz said, “I should have one of the parachutes because I am the smartest man in the world and everyone needs me.” So he took one and jumped.

The minister turned to the Boy Scout and with a sad smile said, “You are young and I have lived a rich life, so you take the remaining parachute, and I’ll go down with the plane.”

The Boy Scout said, “Relax, Reverend, the smartest man in the world just picked up my knapsack and jumped out!”1075

Many Christians are like the woodpecker who was pecking on the trunk of a dead tree. Suddenly lightning struck the tree and splintered it. The woodpecker flew away unharmed. Looking back to where the dead tree had stood, the proud bird exclaimed, “Look what I did!”1076

Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it.1077

A conceited person is someone who does a crossword puzzle with a ballpoint pen.1078

An article titled “The Art of Being a Big Shot” was written by a very prominent Christian businessman named Howard Butt. Among many other insightful things he said were these words:

It is my pride that makes me independent of God. It’s appealing to me to feel that I am the master of my fate, that I run my own life, call my own shots, go it alone. But that feeling is my basic dishonesty. I can’t go it alone. I have to get help from other people, and I can’t ultimately rely on myself. I’m dependent on God for my next breath. It is dishonest of me to pretend that I’m anything but a man—small, weak, and limited. So, living independent of God is self-delusion. It is not just a matter of pride being an unfortunate little trait and humility being an attractive little virtue; it’s my inner psychological integrity that’s at stake. When I am conceited, I am lying to myself about what I am. I am pretending to be God, and not man. My pride is the idolatrous worship of myself. And that is the national religion of Hell! [from an undocumented source].1079

Albert Einstein once said, regarding pride of accomplishment: “The only way to escape the personal corruption of praise is to go on working. One is tempted to stop and listen to it. The only thing is to turn away and go on working. Work. There is nothing else.”1080

A rich man once invited many honored guests for a feast. His own chair, richly decorated, was placed at one end of the long table. While he was away, each guest seated himself according to his own esteem of his position in sight of the master. When time came and all were seated, the master moved his chair to the other end of the table!1081

Many Christians have wrongly concluded that sexual sins are the worst kind of sin. But that is not true. Sexual sins are not the worst kind of sins. C. S. Lewis has caught this fact very accurately. In a paragraph from his book Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1986), Lewis says:

If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual. The pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me competing with the human self which I must try to become; they are the animal self, and the diabolical self; and the diabolical self is the worst of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig, who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it’s better to be neither.1082

According to Life magazine, Muhammed Ali spoke of himself before his 1971 fight with Joe Frazier thus:

There seems to be some confusion. We’re gonna clear this confusion up on March 8. We’re gonna decide once and for all who is king! There’s not a man alive who can whup me. (He jabs the air half a dozen blinding lefts.)

I’m too smart. (He taps his head.)

I’m too pretty. (He lifts his head high in profile, turning as a bust on a pedestal.)

I AM the greatest. I AM the king! I should be a postage stamp—that’s the only way I could get licked!

P.S. Ali lost to Frazier!1083

When the nineteenth-century American evangelist Asahel Nettleton was asked what he considered the best safeguard against spiritual pride, he replied: “I know of nothing better than to keep my eye on my great sinfulness.”1084

In Charles Colson’s book Born Again, which details his experiences related to Watergate, Colson shares one of President Nixon’s problems—he could never admit he was wrong in anything. In fact, Colson says, even when Nixon obviously had a cold—nose running, face red, sneezing, all the symptoms—he would never admit it.1085

When circus acrobat Philippe Petit was rehearsing in Bayfront Auditorium in St. Petersburg, Florida, he fell about thirty feet to a concrete floor. According to a witness, Petit rolled over on his stomach, began pounding the floor with his fists, and cried, “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it! I don’t ever fall!”1086

The story is told of a laborer who was a mature Christian and gave a solid testimony before all who knew him. His boss came to him one day and said, “You know, whatever you’ve got, I want. You have such peace and joy and contentment. How can I get this?”

The laborer said, “Go to your home, put on your best suit, come down here, and work in the mud with the rest of us—and you can have it.”

“What are you talking about? I could never do that. I’m the boss, you’re the worker. I can’t do that. That’s beneath my dignity.” The boss came back a couple of months later and said, “I ask you again, what is it that you have and how can I get it?”

“I told you, go put on your best suit, come down and work in the mud with us, and you can have it.” Again the boss became furious and walked off.

Finally, in desperation he came back to the laborer and said, “I don’t care what it takes! I’ll do anything.” The laborer said, “Will you put on your best suit and come down and work in the mud?” The boss agreed that he would do even that. Then the laborer said, “You don’t have to.”

Do you see the point? The laborer knew what was standing between the boss and Christ—pride and self.1087[1]

Spiritual Pride

There was a godly Christian woman who startled her friends by saying, “There isn’t a sin of which I am not capable. I could be a prostitute; I could murder; I could embezzle.”

Most of her friends were not impressed with her frankness. Instead they thought that she was displaying a false humility. Then she added, “You don’t really believe what I just said. I mean it—because I realize that any particular sin that crops up in someone else’s life expresses itself in me, but in different ways. Until I accept that, I am self-righteous, proud, and arrogant.”1317[2]

Pride—in Dictating to God

The petty sovereign of an insignificant tribe in North America every morning stalks out of his hovel, bids the sun good-morrow, and points out to him with his finger the course he is to take for the day. Is this arrogance more contemptible than ours when we would dictate to God the course of his providence, and summon him to our bar for his dealings with us? How ridiculous does man appear when he attempts to argue with his God![3]

Humility and Pride

Do Not Let Your Head Grow Faster Than Your Heart

; ;

Preaching Themes: Holy Spirit, Pride, Speech

If your child should have a rapid growth in its arms but not in its legs, or if its legs should lengthen but not its arms, what a strange being it would be! What a monster! It is the growth of each limb in proportion that brings the man to perfection.

So when our heads grow faster than our hearts, it is an ill sign. Yet how many know a great deal more than they feel, and criticize much more than they believe! It is also an evil thing when a man’s tongue grows bigger than his head; when he has more to say than he knows or does; when, like Mr. Talkative [of Pilgrim’s Progress], he can talk about the road to heaven but makes no progress in it.

God give you an abundance of his Holy Spirit, that you may never deserve our Lord’s rebuke to the Pharisee, “It was necessary to do these things while not neglecting those,” but “Whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are pleasing, whatever things are commendable, if there is any excellence of character and if anything praiseworthy, think about these things” (). May you have them all.[4]

Prone to Spiritual Pride without Love

Themes: Hypocrisy; Love; Pride; Sin

“A man may be self centred in his self denial, and self righteous in his sacrifice. His generosity may feed his eye and his piety his pride. Without love, benevolence and martyrdom become spiritual pride.”

Source: Martin Luther King, Strength to Love (Hodder and Stoughton, 1964), 133.[5]

self-indulgence

Throwing off restraint and discipline and yielding to the desire to gratify selfish appetites and cravings. Scripture warns against such a characteristic and urges, instead, self-control, generosity and consideration for others.[6]

Pride

Is sin. .

Hateful to God. , . .

Hateful to Christ. , .

Often originates in

Self-righteousness. , .

Religious privileges. .

Unsanctified knowledge. .

Inexperience. .

Possession of power. . .

Possession of wealth. .

Forbidden. . , .

Defiles a man. , .

Hardens the mind. .

Saints

Give not way to. .

Respect not, in others. .

Mourn over, in others. .

Hate, in others. .

A hindrance to seeking God. . .

A hindrance to improvement. .

A characteristic of

The devil. .

The world. 1 .

False teachers. , .

The wicked. , . .

Comes from the heart. .

The wicked encompassed with. .

Leads men to

Contempt and rejection of God’s word and ministers. .

A persecuting spirit. .

Wrath. .

Contention. . .

Self-deception. . Oba. 3.

Exhortation against. .

Is followed by

Shame. .

Debasement. . .

Destruction. . .

Shall abound in the last days. .

Woe to. , .

They who are guilty of, shall be

Resisted. .

Brought into contempt. .

Recompensed. .

Marred. .

Subdued. . .

Brought low. . .

Abased. , with .

Scattered. .

Punished. , . .

Exemplified. Ahithophel, . Hezekiah, . Pharaoh, . Haman, . Moab, . Tyre, . Israel, . , . Judah, . Babylon, , . Assyria, , . Nebuchadnezzar, . . Belshazzar. , . Edom, Oba. 3. Scribes, , . Herod, . Laodiceans, .[7]

[1] Michael P. Green. (2000). 1500 illustrations for biblical preaching (pp. 287–290). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[2] Michael P. Green. (2000). 1500 illustrations for biblical preaching (p. 356). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[3] Spurgeon, C. H. (1870). Feathers for arrows (p. 181). London: Passmore & Alabaster.

[4] Spurgeon, C. (2017). 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon. (E. Ritzema & L. Smoyer, Eds.). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[5] Stott, J. (2018). The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott. (M. Meynell, Ed.). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[6] Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser.

[7] Torrey, R. A. (1897). The New Topical Text Book: A Scripture Text Book for the Use of Ministers, Teachers, and All Christian Workers (New, revised and enlarged edition, pp. 202–203). Chicago; New York; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell.