Pride And Greed Series

Proverbs 16:18-19 says it best –

“18First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall. 19It’s better to live humbly among the poor than to live it up among the rich and famous.”

The great Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar found out what is like to have God on the opposite side of you. The king suffered from the sin of pride and lost his kingdom for it. Hear the pride in his boast. "Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?" Pride raised him up, God knocked him down.

Jesus was no less blunt about pride. He told a story about pride in Luke 18:10

10Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get. 13But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me a sinner. 14I say unto you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

He reprimanded his disciples for pride. You will remember their argument over who would get the best seat when he came into his kingdom? His response was clear and carried in it the cure,

Matthew 20:26-28 – “26Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; 27and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: 28even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Jesus went one step further and illustrated the cure for pride when He wrapped a towel around His waist, the Son of God, the divine in the flesh, the prince of the entire universe, the royal one, the creator serving the creation, and washed stinky, nasty, ugly feet. It would do some of us good to get our eyes off of the mirror and onto those in need around us. It would do some of us good to reflect upon the grace of God that has been given so freely to us. We don’t deserve it. It shouldn’t make us proud. It should make us thankful.

Humility is the answer to pride. Humility is not weak, duck your head, I’m a nobody, lack of self esteem demeanor. Rather is confidence in who we are and more importantly whose we are. We are who we are by grace not by our own worth, works.

God responds to humility. After his great fall, Nebuchadnezzar changed his tune. He became humble. Hear the removal of dirt from his life and his heart when he says, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down."

A.W. Tozer, wrote about humility: “A humble man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time he is in the sight of God of more importance than the angels. In himself, nothing, in God, everything.”