Enemies of the Heart Series / Sermon 6: Pride / July 1, 2012 If you ve been around Capital City for a while you ll know that C. S. Lewis is one of my heroes, perhaps the finest Christian thinker and communicator of the 20 th century. Well he called this one the great sin, the essential vice, the utmost evil. All the other enemies of the heart we ve been studying things like anger, and jealousy, and greed, and lust he calls them mere fleabites in comparison. Every other sin, he says, every other sin can be traced back to this one. He calls it, the complete anti-god state of mind. If he s right, this one is huge. If he s right, this is where we need to wrap up this series on the enemies of the heart. He s talking about pride: the great sin; pride, the utmost evil. And here s the scary thing about pride: it is the one enemy of the heart we all struggle with all of us, even though we don t want to admit it. And yet it is so curious: pride is so easy to see in others, and so hard to see in ourselves. We hate prideful people. We despise people who are full of themselves. But every one of us is infected with it. In fact, the more pride we have, the more we hate prideful people. This is a big sin in the Bible. Let me show you what God thinks about pride. Psalm 18, the Bible says: God, You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud. (27) And someday God will, humiliate all pride mine included. It s coming. Psalm 138: He (God) cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud. (6) Listen to what it is saying: a proud man can never be close to God, because God keeps his distance from the proud. Proverbs 3: The Lord mocks the mockers (Don t you love that? God mocks the proud, they are joke to him), but is gracious to the humble. (34) James 4, as simple as it gets: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (6) Well I don t want to be opposed by God. I want grace. You do too. So we need to unpack this one. We don t always see our pride, but it leaks out in so many ways, it sneaks through our filters in so many ways. Page 1 of 9
Sometimes pride is obvious. People boast and brag about the clothes they wear, or the cars they drive, or the size of their bank account, or the people they know, or the successes they have had, or the parties they attend. Don t you hate it when people boast and brag? Sometimes people don t actually say it out loud, they are just arrogant. They are so full of themselves. They act like they are smarter than, or better than, or prettier than everyone else. They act like they are more important than everyone else, including you. Don t you hate it when people act all arrogant? Sometimes you can see it in their greed. They just have to have, they have to have a little more than everyone else, a little better than everyone else. They need to be admired, they need to look good, they need to look successful. Don t you hate that in others. And some folks are just flat out selfish. That s pride, isn t it? They always want to get their way. They will manipulate people to get their way. They want to be in control. Some guys and some ladies play such devious games to get their way. That s pride, isn t it? Selfishness? But it s not always so obvious. Pride sneaks out in so many other ways, in ways that may surprise you, at first. How about prejudice? Racial prejudice, gender prejudice, age prejudice, national prejudice, class prejudice they are all just hideous pride, aren t they? Stupid pride? How about this one: unrepentance. I was talking to my daughter about this one last week. I was being mean. I said, A lot of ladies have a hard time admitting when they are wrong. They don t like to admit they are wrong and they don t like to apologize. They ll rationalize their sin rather than admit it. They ll justify it; it s someone else s fault. Now that was mean, judgmental, prideful; not because I was wrong about the ladies, because you ladies do hate to admit when you are wrong and apologize. It was mean because I know that we guys struggle with that too. We all do. It is so hard for us to admit our sins and ask someone s forgiveness. That unrepentance is fueled by noxious pride, isn t it? How about this one: unforgiveness. Not only are we reluctant to confess our sin when we do wrong, we are terrible at forgiving Page 2 of 9
someone who has wronged us. We don t want to let it go. We enjoy the moral high ground. We stay angry, we nurse grudges, we allow it to fester into this bitterness inside us. Guys, this unforgiveness, even when we know it s wrong, it is not God-honoring, in fact it is a violation of God s orders -- that s all about pride, isn t it? How about judgmentalism. Some people have this gift of criticism. It seems like they feel big about themselves when they can make other people look small. That s pride, isn t it? Others feel sorry for themselves. They wallow in self-pity. Life s not fair; people aren t fair. Those woe is me whiners. That s pride, guys, it s wounded pride. It s all about me. How about this one. You ever deal with someone who thinks they know it all? They are so full of themselves they think they have all the answers? They won t listen, and they are virtually unteachable. I had some of those as students when I was a professor students with an unteachable spirit: they figure they already had the answers, and if they didn t know something, it isn t worth knowing. Irritating little twits: full of stupid pride. I ve seen it in quite a few older guys too: if you don t think like me, if you don t agree with me, there s something wrong with you. That s just stupid pride. Or this one: Some guys hate asking for help. They are all about being self-sufficient. I don t need your help; I refuse to admit I can t handle it myself All guys need help sometimes, but so many of us have too much pride to ask for it. Ever been there, done that? My marriage struggling, but I won t ask for help: that s pride. My finances are a mess, but I won t ask for help. I m tackling a job that is too big for me, but I won t ask for help it s pride. How about jealousy? We talked about jealousy a couple weeks ago. We are bothered when someone is smarter than, or prettier than, or stronger than, or faster than, or more successful than, or more popular than, or more powerful than we are. We actually get ticked off when someone we are jealous of succeeds; and we feel this perverse pleasure when someone we are jealous of fails. Guys, that s evil and it s fueled by pride. How about perfectionism? Any of you perfectionists? It has to be just so. Is it because you want the very best for God; or is it that you need to look good? Be honest. Most perfectionists are driven by pride; it s about my glory, not God s. Page 3 of 9
I could make the list longer, easily. People who are unwilling to listen. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who just wants to talk, but not listen. They don t hear a word you say, they re just working on what they are going to say next. That s self-absorbed pride. Or people who are unwilling to serve. They talk about serving, and they admire people who serve, but they are unwilling to get into the trenches and get their own hands dirty. Some jobs are just too menial for them. Pride. Take a look at that list: boastful, arrogant, greedy, selfish, prejudiced, unrepentant, unforgiving, judgmental, filled with self-pity, unteachable, selfsufficient, jealous, perfectionists, unwilling to listen, unwilling to serve you can see this crud in others, can t you? And you know that people like this are sick, and corrupt, and ornery, and hard to be around sometimes. We can see the pride in others so clearly. But, but every one of us is like the guy Jesus scolded in Matthew 7. Jesus says, Why worry about a speck in your friend s eye when you have a log in your own? How many of these will we admit in ourselves. Do you ever brag and boast? Do people perceive you as arrogant? They do me sometimes. They are probably right? Are you greedy, materialistic? We did a sermon on this a few weeks ago. Most all of us really are, if you scratch at it. Do you tend to be self-centered, wanting your own way? How about prejudice? Is there racism in you, or any other kind of prejudice? How about unrepentance. Do you find it hard to admit you re wrong and apologize, without making excuse? Or unforgiveness. Do you find it hard to forgive someone who has hurt you? Do you hang on to grudges? Are you judgmental, and critical? Do you love to point out someone s mistakes? Some of you love pointing out mine. Do you battle self-pity sometimes? Do you have a teachable spirit, or do you tend to think you know it all? Do you battle a foolish self-sufficiency? Are you too prideful to ask for help when you need it? That s a big one for us guys. Do you get jealous of people, annoyed when they do well, and secretly pleased when they don t? A lot of us battle that one. Are you a perfectionist sometimes, because you need to look good? I struggle with that one. Do you like talking more than you like listening? Does it bother you to do the menial stuff the servant stuff sometimes? Be honest. All of us all of us -- Page 4 of 9
battle pride. It is the great sin. It is that dark place in our heart out of which so many of our other sins emerge. But we ve only looked at the tip of the iceberg. God doesn t just hate pride because it turns people into jerks who are hard to live with. In the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, the Bible says, Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. (4-5) Love is not proud; jealousy and boasting and rudeness are all the children of pride. But God doesn t hate pride because it prevents us from loving each other. C. S. Lewis says, pride is the complete anti-god state of mind. It is the most basic sin against God. Here s the deal, guys, pride kind of boils down to this who s the boss? I ve heard kids put it like this: You re not the boss of me! We adults don t usually use those words, but we have the same attitude, we re just more sophisticated with our verbiage. Every one of us has to make a choice: who s the boss? And God says, That s my job, that s my place. Pride says, Uh uh, I ll choose my own path. You can be in my life, God, but I ll dictate when and where and how. Pride says, God, you are not the boss of me. I may give you pieces now and then, but you don t get first place in my life. Pride says, God, I appreciate your advice, but I ll decide how I m going to live. I can figure out for myself what s right and what s wrong for me. Pride says, God, I ll do it your way when I understand you, and when I agree with you, but until then I ll follow my own heart, and my own understanding. Pride is the most basic, the most devastating, the most sinister of all sins. In fact well, you all know about the 10 commandments. They were kind of the core of God s law in the Old Testament. Well the first one, the most important one some guys think that all the other commandments are just commentary on the first do you remember the first commandment? God says, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no others gods before me. (Exodus 20.2-3) God says, I get first place. God says, I m the boss, of everything in your life. God says, you can have only one God, and you re not it. Anything else is idolatry. You see, the essence of pride is idolatry, the essence of pride is putting myself in God s place, it is putting what I want ahead of what God wants, it is putting what I think ahead of what God thinks, it shoving God off the throne of my life, and taking his seat. Page 5 of 9
I like to diagram it like this. We really only have two options in life. It s either God up here and me underneath, or it s me up here on top and God is beneath me. Pretty simple: Either I am the boss, or he is. Pride is me on top, and humility is God on top. Now what a lot of us try to do is come up with a third option: we want to view God as a partner, as a co-pilot, we stand side by side with God. I go to God for advice when I need it, and sometimes I take it, and sometimes I don t. God helps me out when I need him, and in return I give him a little time, and a little money, and a little praise. Jesus is my forever friend, Jesus is my homeboy, Jesus is by bud. Guys, this option is a crock. It s a self-deluded way of redrawing option two. If I can pick and choose when and where and how I ll let God in I m still the boss. If he is just an advisor, a helper, a co-pilot, I m still the boss. And God won t play that game. It s still idolatry putting something, putting someone else in his place it s me taking his seat. Last week, when I was talking about jealousy, I reminded you of two things about God that are absolutely huge. I said, #1: God is smarter than you are. Remember that? God is smarter than we are. The one who made everything knows more about everything than we do. He knows what works, and what doesn t work. You will never outthink, you will never outsmart God. God says, My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55.8-9) Like it or not, that is reality, anything else is a fantasy, a myth. And then I said, #2: God is good, perfectly good. The Bible says, God is good to one and all; everything he does is suffused with grace. (Psalm 145.9) That s reality, anything else is a fantasy, a myth. God only wants the best for his kids. He is never mean, never fickle, never petty, never repressive, never stingy. He is good; perfectly good, everything he does is suffused with grace. Remember that stuff? And then we added these two together. God is smarter than we are, and God is perfectly good, which means that when you figure out what God wants you to do, just do it. It means that his way is always going to be smarter than your way whether you understand him or not. It means his way will always be better than your way, whether you Page 6 of 9
agree with him or not. God s way will always be more satisfying, it will always bring you more happiness and more peace. When you figure out what God wants, just do it. Let me take that a step further this week. Here it is, guys: Every time we choose sin we re telling God one of two things. I m either telling God, You re not smarter than me, or I m telling God, You re not good. And that, guys, is pride. Any time we think we are smarter than God, any time we think our way is better than God s way that s pride, stupid, foolish, self-destructive pride. Any time I know what God wants me to do and I choose to do otherwise, I m telling God, You don t understand, God, You don t know what s best for me, That may be right for you, it may be right for other people, but it s not right for me, You don t know how bad I want this, You don t understand that I have to follow my heart, I have to follow my feelings. Or else I m telling God, You don t want the best for me, You don t want me to be happy, You want to steal my joy. Think about it. It boils down to one of those two options, doesn t it? Either God doesn t understand what is best for me right now at this moment, or God doesn t care about what will make me happy. So I choose sin, in my stupid, foolish pride. Every sin is fueled by pride. When God nudges me to be generous and I tell him not yet I m saying, God you re not the boss of me, you re not smart enough, or you re not good enough to rule my life. When I say to someone, God may forgive you, but I won t, even though I know it s God s will I m saying, God you re not the boss of me, you are not smart enough or good enough to rule my life. When God says, Save it for the marriage bed, and we answer, I hear you God, but I m going to do this now and make it right with you later, because I think my way is better than your way right now. I m saying, God, you re not the boss of me; I m on top, I ll let you in how, and when, and where I choose. When Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life, no man comes to the Father without coming through me, and we answer, That s mighty intolerant of you God God you re not the boss of me. When we hear God s word but walk away unchanged, when we try to negotiate compromises with God (as if that s possible), when in our Page 7 of 9
ignorance we question his wisdom and his justice guys, it boils down to pride. A prideful man cannot be close to God, which is why the Bible says, He cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud. A prideful man isn t ready for grace, which is why the Bible says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Pride is my arrogant refusal to let God be God. Pride is forgetting that there is one God, and I am not it. Pride is the grand illusion, the fantasy of fantasies. Let me show you what pride looks like to God. A real old dead guy named Augustine said that we were created with a God-shaped hole in our heart. Every one of us has this God-shaped hole in us. We won t be complete, we won t be satisfied as long as we put anything else in that hole. And here s what pride does: pride fills that gigantic hole with me. There is this huge God-shaped hole in my heart, and I try to fill it with me. Do you know what happens when we do that we are still empty inside. You can t fill that God-sized hole. You are too little. That s God s spot, that s his place. And life only works when God is in his place. For most of these enemies of the heart we tried finding the antidote. For guilt it was confession confessing our sins to eradicate the guilt. For anger it was forgiveness forgiving others the way God forgives us. For greed it was generosity transferring stuff from my kingdom to his. For jealousy it was celebration celebrating the gifts God gives to others. For lust that one was hard, because lust is an appetite, not a virus. So we gave several strategies to control, to manage our lust. For pride well the antidote is humility. But here s the paradox: you don t get humility by trying to be humble. You get humble when you recognize that it s all grace. Everything you have, everything you are is all grace. Every good thing you can do, every good thing you can hope for it s all grace. Humility is accepting reality that God is smarter than we are, and better than we are, so we trust him. Humility is letting God be God. Not negotiating with him, or giving him bits Page 8 of 9
and pieces. It is letting God be God. Humility is calling Jesus Lord, and meaning it. Do you know what the essence of Christianity is? A Christian is someone who calls Jesus Lord, and means it. God, you are the boss of me; Jesus, you are the boss of me. Jesus is my Lord and my God. It is bowing our heads in surrender, raising our hands in surrender, falling to our knees in surrender to Jesus as Lord. It is telling Jesus, I hereby declare my supreme allegiance to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I say this: However, whenever, wherever, and whatever you ask me to do, my answer is yes! I m ready. Anytime. Anyway. Whatever it takes Lord; whatever it takes! I want to be used by you in such a way that on that final day I ll hear you say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Will you read that with me? Let s pray Page 9 of 9