Pride Is A Killer...if

Pride is a killer if…

Introduction-

Good Morning, Glad that you are able to join us this morning.

It is a wonderful thing that we can record our sermons and those that want to listen have a place to go to hear God’s word.

Question for you- What would you do if you began listening to this service and you heard something you totally disagree with?

You probably would hit that delete button and stop watching.

But life is not that easy- you don’t have a delete button, at best you have an adjust button.

You are forced to work your way through some tough times.

Sometimes you have to hear some hard things and you have to suck it up when you don’t want too. Why? Because life does not revolve around you.

There are too many moving parts that we do not control.

Just like when I was a kid in Milwaukee and on a snow day (A day with too much snow and you get sent home) that we have been let out of school my mother thought it important I go sliding down the hill on a metal flying saucer for fun! Sometimes it isn’t pleasant and you can’t control it because we have too many moving parts.

We have been indoctrinated in the world today by loud worldly voices that have said we don’t have to listen, we don’t have to do what we don’t want too, and we don’t have to obey when we disagree.

What do we call that? Doing your own thing? Not exactly. Are you getting older and wiser and not redoing things that were hard? Not exactly. It is pride- we have made our opinions known and we have let others know how great we are. we don’t care what others think about it.

In the Bible, God’s word, the truth of God, God gives us His Word for our guidance. He tells us that His word is a double-edged sword that cuts out and adds things for the betterment of our lives.

God does not defend His word/ He does not have to prove who He is to anyone- giving us a choice of wither we accept it as truth, He only telling us the cost or penalty of not listening to His word.

God talks about pride quite a bit. It is one of the six things that God hates-

There are a lot of things that we can have options-

We can go to a fast food menu and pick anything we want on the menu.

We can go to any store full of clothes and only buy what we like- both places we get to have it our own way. Why? Because the choice is ours and it has no spiritual value- who cares wither you buy the blue shirt or the red shirt- whither you have the happy meal or order off of the dollar menu.

But there are some decisions that if we make the wrong decision can affect our life forever.

According to C.S. Lewis “According to church teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil is pride- unchasity, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere “flea bites” in comparison.”

The great author of the protestant faith- the writer of the movie the witch and the wardrobe says that pride is the worse of the evils and the rest are as flea bites in comparison.

Prayer-

Pride is a hard thing Lord because most notice it in us before we know pride is a problem. Help us today to see pride as you do and that is dangerous sin in our lives that takes us out of focus of what you want for our lives. May you reveal to us areas of our lives that we need you to be working on and where we can replace prideful with the humility of Christ who is our model of redemption and service for you. Amen.

I think before we can make sure we don’t have pride in our lives, we have a working definition of pride-

What is pride and make sure our definition of pride is the same way that God defines it.

Webster definition of pride- “a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.

Pride is thinking that you are all that and a bag of chips- you are looking down on someone else to elevate yourself.

You have gone past proud because to be proud is an accomplishment that brings self worth but when you have gone past a healthy proud to pride you have stepped into a dangerous place.

God actually says in Proverbs 6:16-19 that it is one of the seven deadly sins that draw us away from the Lord. “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him; haughty eyes (pride) , a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”