7 Deadly Sins - Pride
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7 Deadly Sins - Pride (Rough Draft)
7 Deadly Sins - Pride (Rough Draft)
2 Chronicles 26
In Muhammad Ali’s heyday as the heavy weight champion in boxing, he had taken his seat on a 747 which was starting to taxi down the runway for take off. The flight attendant walked by and noticed Ali did not have on his seatbelt, and said, “Please fasten your seatbelt, sir.”
The creep of pride (black glove to well fitting glove)
He looked up proudly and snapped, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.”
Opener about Pride
Without hesitation she stared at him and said, “Superman don’t need no plane.”
Today we look at the subject of Pride.
Challenge - This is a lesson that it is easy to listen to for someone else. It is difficult to hear for ourself because pride is a daily struggle for all of us.
-Everyone one in this room, especially myself, has to daily deal with our pride.
Pride is having a high view of self and a diminished view of God.
Pride is having an overconfidence in self and an under-confidence in God.
Pride is having an overconfidence in self and an under-confidence in God.
Pride is having an overconfidence in self and an under-confidence in God.
Pride is having a high view of self and a diminished view of God.
Trusting in self versus trusting in God.
Trusting in self versus trusting in God. Faith in self versus faith in God.
But - (Slow)
Faith filled humility has a deep trust in God and a realistic view of self.
I could be confident in my training & experience and stand and preach a sermon. It would be ok. There would be no lives changed. Why? The words of men do not change hearts. The power of God changes hearts.
The word pride in the english language is tricky. It is used several different ways.
Sometimes we use the word pride to define our emotions toward an accomplishment or toward someone. “I am so proud of you. “
The way that Thomas Jefferson played football Friday night was great. I was proud of those guys.
Usually what we mean when we say, “I’m proud of you” - I am impressed and joyful of what you’ve accomplished.
We may talk about something we did that was difficult or challenging and are satisfied and take joy in a developed ability or a special accomplishment. We are proud of ourself.
We gain confidence in an ability that God gave.
This is not a sinful pride.
We will focus today on 2 kinds of pride:
First kind of pride
Pride that thinks too much of self.
If we allow our accomplishment to lift our view of our self and diminish our view of others or God - then it becomes pride.
-We see this is someone who brags or who doesn’t let someone help them.
Then there is a sneaky kind of pride. However, it is the most dangerous kind of pride, because it is socially acceptable.
Second kind of pride
It is the pride that thinks we don’t needs God’s help.
It’s a heart attitude that says, God I’ve got this one. This situation is easy. You can go help the others who are in a jam. I’ve done this a thousand times.
We say, I’m proud of what I’ve done because we accomplished a difficult task.
This kind of pride is the toughest to recognize - the lack of need for God.
This is not what we are talking about today.
Why is it tough to recognize this pride?
You have to recognize what is missing.
It is also the most dangerous because this is how our culture lives. This is the normal way people around us live there lives.
Even the unbeliever doesn’t like the first kind of pride - an arrogant bragging person.
No one bats an eye at the second kind of pride when the thought of needing God never enters their life.
We are talking about when we consider ourselves superior to others.
and especially when we have an attitude that we do not need God.
Today we will look at a King in the Old Testament that had both kinds of pride. UZZIAH
1st UZZIAH decided he was superior to others
and 2nd Uzziah decided that he didn’t need God.
UZZIAH
Story Tell about his successes
Was 16 when made King of Judah and was king for 57 years.
Conquered the Philistines
Ammonites would pay tribute to Uzziah so he would not attack them.
He was famous as far as Egypt.
He loved the soil and had farmers farm much of the land.
He built up a great army and had many weapons.
Even created machines to launch arrows and hurl stones from the walls of Jerusalem.
His greatest success is found in verse 5. , UZZIAH
5 He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
Uzziah’s greatest success as King was that He sought God.
Illustration - Men when you need a tool you go to your garage or workshop and you seek it out. You seek out that tool because (SLOW) you have a need for it.
Uzziah knew that He needed God.
Uzziah walked in humility.
2 times in verse 5 the scripture tells us that Uzziah sought the Lord.
Uzziah even listened to the prophet Zechariah and invited Zechariah to teach him.
Zechariah was a prophet & priest. Zechariah had something that Uzziah didn’t.
Zachariah knew God’s Word, Zechariah lived God’s Word, When God had a special instruction to give - Zechariah the prophet heard God’s Word.
Uzziah knew he need instruction from Zechariah.
Uzziah knew he needed God.
Question - Do you have a desperate sense of your need for God? If you are already a Christ follower you don’t need salvation, you have that.
Do you have a desperate sense of your need for God to strengthen & help you through every single moment of every day?
Uzziah was teachable.
Uzziah was walking in humility - This means that he had a realistic view of Himself (that he needed God) and an elevated view of God (that God will meet his needs).
There
In Uzziah’s humility he understood something critical.
King Uzziah understood there was a King who was greater than him.
Uzziah knew the King of Kings.
While Uzziah played checkers and strategically placed troops around his land. While Uzziah wisely made treaties with surrounding nations and took advantage of his natural resources … Uzziah knew there was a greater King that was directing the movements of the planets and directing the thoughts and plans of other Kings the nations.
Today we know that the King of Kings directs the minds of Kings of nations; nations across the world that Uzziah didn’t know existed.
We know this King of King not only directs the planets, but vast galaxies - some of which we don’t know about yet.
If an earthly King must bow his knee to God, how much more do you need to bow to THE KING.
If an earthly King must bow his knee to God, how much more do we need to bow our need.
Question, How are you doing - bowing your knee to God as Master?
How are you doing listening to the Greatest King and allowing the greatest King to rule your life?
Uzziah invited someone else
Transition -
There was a turn in Uzziah’s life.
Transition - 6is humility. 2 Chronicles 26:16-21
16 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, 18 and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.” 19 Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. 20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him. 21 And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s household, governing the people of the land.
II Chron 26:16-
And so we see our 2 kinds of pride corrupt Uzziah’s life.
First, I am better than others.:
I. I am better than others
Uzziah thought he was above others.
When it came to worshiping the Lord, Uzziah was under the same rules as everyone else.
Uzziah had to worship the same way as everyone other person in Israel.
There were no special worship rules for the King.
The only ones who had different worship rules were the priests.
Uzziah decided he was better than the commoner. He should be allowed to do what a priest did. So he took it upon himself to break the rules.
Read
We rarely think, “I am better than him or her.”
Our pride is usually an attitude of the heart.
But we may look down on someone because they dress different.
They speak different. They have a different skin tone. Their house is different than ours.
Question - Who is it in your life that you have a tendancy to look down on?
It shows itself in the attitude - both the poor and the minority group, they keep to themselves and we keep to ourselves.
We say at first, these are cultural differences. Like attracts like.
For many, beneath the surface, the heart has an attitude of superiority.
The 2nd attitude that we see in Uzziah’s life is that he didn’t need the Lord.
When we become invisible to the poverty around us.
Apply to blacks or poor people.
Maybe you’ve been taught to be prideful. Maybe you’ve been taught that you are supposed to only associate with your kind of people.
2nd, I don’t need the Lord.
There are 2 things missing in the passage we read.
A) There is no seeking of the Lord.
-The scriptures don’t say, and Uzziah was humbled and sought the Lord and begged for healing.
-The scriptures don’t say that Uzziah confessed His sin and asked for forgiveness.
-We hear nothing of Uzziah’s heart response, leaving us to think Uzziah died in his pride.
B) Zechariah, UZZIAH’s spiritual mentor is no where to be found.
The one person who would hold Uzziah accountable is gone. There is not any spiritual person that is speaking into His life.
Uzziah developed the pride of living life on His own, not needing God.
For me personally this is the most dangerous. This one creeps up on me.
It’s not a rebellious heart that sticks its fist in the air at God.
Illustration -
We can be like a child that is playing in the sandbox way out by the swing set in your backyard.
You call his her name and they ignore.
You get closer and call louder - they ignore.
You walk up to them and tap them on top of the head and speak to them firmly - they ignore.
Pride creeps up on us.
We think we are exceptions to the rule.
Prideful people refuse to admit when they are wrong, refuse to apologize, think their idea is always better, take the better seat, want to be first in line, they won’t listen to correction, assuming you already know something when someone else is teaching, not willing to ask for help, using the pronoun “I” a lot in conversation,
Object Lesson
Appli
My hand represents your life. This glove represents pride.
Once it is on us it feels right.
It fits us. It’s not uncomfortable at all.
It makes us feel good.
Like nicotine in the system pride makes us feel secure.
Pride has blinded us to itself, but it destroys our relationships and it destroys us spiritually.
Maybe preach the rest of the sermon with one glove on…?
God speaks to our pride.
Humility - Humility feels confident and secure that God is wearing the crown. Humility is so full of faith that it finds confident security not in self rule, but in God rule.
The creep of pride (black glove to well fitting glove)Humility - Humility feels confident and secure that God is wearing the crown. Humility is so full of faith that it finds confident security not in self rule, but in God rule.
Insert Glove
5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Pay attention to the phrase “clothe yourselves”.
The scriptures don’t say keep humility in your pocket.
It says clothe yourself. Wrap humility around you like a blanket.
Let humility cover you. Love humility.
Think great thoughts of God and realistic thoughts of yourself.
Ask God to develop a sense of need of Him in your life.
Prefer others above yourself.
Transition - Finally we see...
Jesus is my greatest example of humility.
Salvation through Christ is meant to humble us and destroy our pride.
Faith by nature looks away from ourself and up to God.
Faith itself is the opposite of boasting.
When you trust God you are placing confidence in God and not self.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Faith is a gift, not our own doing.
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
Philippians 2:4-8
I cor 1:26-
Believer - God has the right to be proud. He is the greatest. But Christ humbled Himself and died naked on a cross to serve you.
Question - Will you clothe yourself in humility and serve others?
To the unbeliever - Christ humbled Himself to make a payment for your sins and bring you into His family.
Will you today stop clinging to your ability to control life and give your life over to Christ as your savior and King?
16 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
19 Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. 20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him. 21 And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s household, governing the people of the land.
Humility is a
God
I recently heard a believer say this, “The best thing that ever happened to me spiritually was that I lost my ability to walk.”
5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
While pride is self exulting, humility exults others.
Showing vulnerability and humility invites people toward us.
I could be confident in my training & experience and stand and preach a sermon. It would be ok. There would be no lives changed. Why? The words of men do not change hearts. The power of God changes hearts.