Overcoming Pride

Overcoming Pride

Luke 14: 7-11

By Chris Nerreau

Prayer / Read The Text:

Father God we come to you not good but yours, not whole but broken and not faithful but seeking you. Father in you there is no deceit, no false hope and grace that extends to us even in our times of unbelief. It is my prayer now that you’re Holy Spirit will continue to be present in this place opening our hearts and minds to the truth found only in Your Word. Father forgive us our sins that we may see, hear and apply your word this afternoon. Speak O’ Lord for your servants are listening, In the name of Jesus Christ we pray amen.

ILLUSTRATION:

I can remember taking a girl on a date a long time ago. She was a nice girl and I really wanted to impress her. I took her to meet my parents not because I really wanted her to meet them but because at the time my parents were in the middle of remodeling the house with a new swimming pool, landscaping, pool house, fence, interior design the works and it looked nice. In short I was going to impress her. After leaving my house she seemed impressed and I felt extremely pride filled, It was not until I dropped her off that I realized her parents were extremely wealthy and that our house looked as a maid servant’s home compared to hers! I think that date really helps me to understand the passage we are going to be looking at this afternoon.

INTRODUCTION:

• Background: This story begins with Jesus visiting the house of a prominent Pharisee:

o It was customary to invite the visiting preacher after Synagogue

o Chairs would be in a “U” shape around a low table and the people would recline as they ate.

o Each of the seats had an imaginary level of honor attributed to it

o No assigned seats

o People picked their seats based on their opinion of themselves

PROPOSITION:

What we are going to find Jesus teaching is that the only way to overcome pride is to seek to be exalted by God rather than man.

PREVIEW:

In today’s sermon I would like to take a look at:

I. The Problem of Pride – vs. 9

II. The Place of the Humble – vs. 10

III. The Praise Of God – vs. 11

TRANSITION:

So let’s begin today by looking at…

I. The Problems of Pride

EXPLAINATION:

• Over and over again we see scripture addressing pride:

o Proverbs 3:34 “God mocks the proud”

o Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

o James 4:10 “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord”

The question is why does God have a problem with Pride?

The Problems Of Pride:

• Vs. 7 “Picked places of honor”

o Pride leads us to forget who we are as fallen people instead we think we deserve places of honor.

o Pride leads us to forget our absolute dependence upon God and so we decide where we stand.

• Vs. 8 “Give this man your seat”

o Pride leads us to walk over others

• Vs. 9 “Humiliated, you will have to take the least important seat”

o Pride leads us to be humiliated and in a place we never expected to be

ILLUSTRATION:

Maybe you say well I have never been humiliated because of my pride, let me ask you a question how many times have you talked about someone you perceived to be prideful when they were not around? You say things like “That person is so in love with themselves” or “Did you hear what so and so did they think they are so great”. Now think about this how many times have you been the topic for someone else when you were not around?

In the movie Zoo Lander (Ben Stiller) plays the role of a model seeking his 4th annual “Most beautiful model in the world award” When the winner is announced he confidently walks up to receive his reward, the only problem was he was so proud that he did not even hear when his rivals name was called and ended up making a fool of himself in front of everyone. This is the outcome of a life of pride. The fact is when you base your entire life on what others perceive you to be eventually you will fall and fall hard.

APPLICATION:

• In the end the problem with pride is that it leads us to seek the exaltation of man rather than God.

• We trust in ourselves and in turn reject God.

• Jesus noticed the pride in this particular room and was so concerned with it that He taught this parable. This parable was not just for those then but for us this afternoon.