Haughty Eyes Series

As we begin this series on the seven things that God doesn’t like, as a matter of fact it says in proverbs that He detest them. According to the dictionary detest means to dislike a lot, to condemn, and to hate.

I know Hate is a strong word and there are some things that I truly detest like coconut and blueberries and boiled shrimp, I don’t want to even smell these things much less eat them.

When we hate something we don’t want to be near it.

Now I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be doing anything that God hates. I want to do things that are pleasing to God, things that He likes.

As we into this series we will try and identify ways not to get caught up in these things that God hates. We will look at what they are and how to avoid falling into the trouble that they bring. Some are easy to stay away from and some are not.

I think you may be surprised at how close we may get to diving into some of these terrible things before we even realize what we are doing.

So this morning let’s look at the one that we are most susceptible to, and not only that it’s the sin that leads to all other things that God despises. We could call it the gateway sin.

In the text this morning it’s called haughty eyes, we call it pride. Not a good kind of pride like I am proud I lost 15 pounds but I know I can do better.

The kind of pride we are talking about here says look at me I lost fifteen pounds and I look good, I look way better than old so and so she needs to get off that couch and work on herself so she can be as good looking as I am.

Haughty eyes make you see yourself as the center of the universe and it’s all about you and no one else is as good and perfect as you. As a matter of fact it’s a pride that makes you realize that no one can hold a candle to you and they aren’t even good enough to set at your table.

Do you know anyone that fits that description? Have you ever been around someone that thought too much of themselves, that were too big for their britches? Have you ever fell to that sin of pride? Come on now think about it.

We must be careful about this sin, we must be careful and not be to prideful, you know the old saying pride goeth before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18 puts it this way Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.

Here’s the thing pridefulness is like the trunk of a tree and everything else, every other sin comes from it. If we have haughty eyes, if we are to prideful nothing is unlawful to us. We will do anything to make sure that we maintain ourselves above everyone else.

Believe it when I tell you that people who are to prideful will steal, lie, and cheat to live up to their expectations of themselves. They don’t care who they hurt or what they do as long as they look good and they come out on top that’s all that matters.

Now you would think that someone who had been a victim due to being looked down upon by prideful people wouldn’t fall prey to such a sin, but if you think that you would be wrong.

Back when I was a kid we were pretty poor my dad had two broke feet and couldn’t work for a couple of years so we had to do anything and everything just to have clothes and food. Well we would pick up pecans and sell them and we had some places we would go that were just out in the middle of the fields and they were pretty much fair game to everybody. One day a man came by and told us to follow him to his house and he had some trees that we could glean and keep all the pecans we picked up.

Needless to say I knew this man and went to school with his daughter and did not want to go there. But we did and needless to say his daughter Susan was on their tennis court playing tennis with some more of my classmates. Now these weren’t people that I hung out with on a regular bases but let me tell you after that day they wouldn’t even speak, they actually seemed to turn their noses up at me and acted like they were so much better than me and I was beneath them.

Let me tell you , I didn’t like being treated that way at all, it hurt, but there was really nothing I could do about it.