Preparing For Pride

Tell your neighbor, “My God knows!” Look to you other neighbor and tell them, “My God knows all about my sins.” Tell the person behind you, “My God knows all about my sins, and He has forgiven me and loves me.” If you don’t hear anything else today, hear that!

A newly promoted colonel had moved into a makeshift office during the Gulf War. He was just getting unpacked when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a private coming his way with a box. Wanting to seem important, he grabbed the phone. “Yes, General Schwarzkopf, I think that’s an excellent plan.” He continued, “You’ve got my support on it. Thanks for checking in with me. Let’s touch base again soon, Norm. Goodbye.” “And what can I do for you?” he asked the private. “Ahhh, I’m just here to fix the phone,” came the rather sheepish reply.

(Rowell, Edward K., Steffan, Bonne L. Humor for preaching. 17)

Pride causes us to want to look important. But it does much more. Let’s discover how that pride appears in our lives so that we can recognize them and defeat them with Christ’s Truths.

And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” 33But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” 34Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.”

What did pride do?

1. Pride blinded Peter.

a. Peter could not see the enemy. (Satan) We are

no different than Peter. We can’t see Satan physically either. We may see manifestations of him, but to our eyes the spiritual world is hidden.

b. Peter could not see his ego, his sin. Pride causes

us to focus on self and pulls us away from God. Pride gave him false beliefs, confidence about himself, “I will go with you to death…”. Eventually he became tired and needed physical rest. Again focusing on what he thought was best for self, and rested instead of prayed. How many times have we fallen into these traps? But Jesus stands at the door knocking, ready to forgive, ready to come in and dine with us.

c. Peter could not see God’s endowment, provision.

The answer was prayer. Peter needed to pray.

Prayer causes us to humble ourselves and align our lives up with God’s will. It is no different today. If we would pray more, we would carry the spirit of humility, which allows God to lift us up and out of our predicament. This aligns our lives with His will. His will delivers us from the evil one. Therefore we won’t fall.

2. Pride deafened Peter.

a. Peter did not hear his Savior’s cries. Jesus cried

out to Peter. He was forewarning Peter of what was about to happen. Jesus will do the same for us today! Jesus cried out for him. He was praying to God on behalf of Peter. Again, He will do no different for us today. The question becomes, are we hearing Jesus speak? I believe that God has never had a communication problem. God spoke in the beginning, and all throughout the Old and New Testament. He is still speaking today! However, due to our sinful nature, we have a hearing problem. Pride is the element that causes our spiritual hearing aid batteries to run dry.

b. Peter did not hear his Savior’s caution. (warning) Understand.

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

And seeing you will see and not perceive; Matthew 13:14.

Pride causes a lack of wisdom and understanding. James tells us that if we lack wisdom all we need to do is ask, and God will pour it out abundantly. Pride blinds us to our needs, so we believe we don’t need anything. Therefore, we don’t ask and we don’t understand!

What does Christ do?

Pride does all of this and more. However, we have a Savior that can overcome anything! Let’s look at what He can do.

1. He makes formal requests (intercede) on

Peter’s behalf.

This is the man who healed the blind, lame, lepers, calmed the storm etc. by speaking words of prayer to God. Prayer/Intercession is a vital weapon. It is not to be taken lightly! Is. 53:12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death,

And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.