Introduction:
A. There’s a story told about Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers who was named "Coach of the Century" by ESPN.
1. Late at night, after coaching one of his greatest playoff victories, he tried to climb into bed with his wife without waking her, but his cold foot brushed up against her leg.
2. His wife said, “God, your feet are cold!”
3. Lombardi replied, “Honey, when we are in bed, just call me Vince.”
4. Some people certainly do have an inflated image of themselves.
B. Maybe you’ve heard the story of a certain pond, where there were two ducks and a frog were neighbors and the best of friends.
1. They played together all day long during the summer time.
2. But as the cold drew near and the water dried up, the ducks realized they would have to move.
3. This would be easy for them, but what about their friend the frog?
4. Finally it was decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each duck, and then the frog would hang onto the stick with his mouth and they would fly him to another pond.
5. And so they did.
6. As they were flying along, carrying the frog, a farmer looked up and said to his wife, "What a great idea! I wonder who thought of that?"
7. The frog opened his mouth and said, "I did…!"
C. What’s the moral of the story? The Bible says in Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
1. I like the way The Message renders this verse, “First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.”
D. Throughout the Bible we see this fundamental principle repeated: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1. Proverbs 3:34, “He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.”
2. Isaiah 13:11, “I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.”
3. Isaiah 23:9, “The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.”
4. 1 Peter 5:5b-6, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
E. Before we go too far it would be good for us to define what “pride” really is.
1. Pride can take many forms.
2. It is such a subtle sin, that many times we don’t even recognize it in ourselves.
3. And lest I be misunderstood, there is a good pride and a bad pride.
4. The good pride is a desire to do our best, to work hard and to take pride in our work.
5. The good pride is the feeling we get when we see our children doing well, we are proud and thankful for them.
6. The good pride says, “God made me, God has gifted me, I’m valuable and useful. I can and should feel good about myself, in light of all this.”
F. Pride becomes bad and destructive when it leads us to turn away from God.
1. The wrong kind of pride is simply our refusal to acknowledge God as we should.
2. It is a failure to fully realize that all our abilities, achievements, possessions, and relationships are not due to ourselves, but to the gifts and grace of God.
3. The wrong kind of pride causes us to act arrogantly, to have an inflated view of ourselves, to be conceited, and judgmental.
4. Someone has said, “Pride is the idolatrous worship of self. It is the national religion of hell.” (Mary Lewis)
G. Let’s take a brief survey of some of the stories of the Bible and find some good, bad examples.
1. As we’ve been saying in this sermon series, “Let’s try to learn from the mistakes of others.”
2. So, let’s see some examples of what happens when a person makes the mistake of pride.
I. Example #1 – The Pride of Eve
A. We don’t have to go very far from opening page of the Bible to find our first example.
1. In Genesis 3 we learn the story of the sin of the first woman and man whom God created.
2. As you know, God put them in a beautiful garden, with lots of freedom, and only one restriction. “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Gen. 2:16-17)
B. When the serpent tempted Eve, he played upon her pride.
1. He said to her that even though God said she would die if she ate the fruit, that’s not true.
2. What would happen is that she would have her eyes opened and would be like God knowing good and evil.
3. Pride then caused her to want to be like God, and so she took the fruit and ate it and gave it to Adam and he ate it.
C. As you know, God was not happy about that and confronted them.
1. Adam blamed Eve, and even blamed God for making Eve.
2. The woman blamed the serpent.
3. But God held them all accountable.
4. He cursed the serpent and he punished Adam and Eve.
5. They were forced to leave the garden, and the rest of their lives were to be filled with pain, toil and eventual death.
6. The mistake of pride is very costly, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
II. Example #2: The Pride of Building the Tower of Babel
A. In Gen. 11 we are told that all the people in the whole world at that time shared a common language.
1. These people are all descendents of Noah and his sons.
2. They moved eastward to the plain of Shinar and settled there.
3. They said to themselves, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (11:4)
4. Notice how egotistical and proud this plan was. Notice how often “we, us, and ourselves” are used.
5. They were going to do what they wanted to do, not what God wanted them to do.
6. They were going to make a name for themselves, not for God.
7. They were going to make a tower to reach the heavens – probably a tower for idol worship.
B. So what did God do when he saw this?
1. God stepped in and threw a wrench into their plan.
2. God confused their language so that they could not understand each other.
3. And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city and tower.
4. The place was called “Babel” because that’s where the Lord confused their language.
5. “Babel” sounds like the Hebrew word for “confused.”
6. The mistake of pride can be very costly, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
III. Example #3: The Pride of Herod
A. This is a very short story found in Acts 12.
1. One day while Herod was wearing his royal robes, sitting on his throne, being all important, he delivered a speech to the crowd.
2. The people shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” (Incidently, if you are wondering, when I preach, no one says that about me. Good thing!)
3. You talk about heaping praise on a person! What do you think was going on in Herod’s mind?
4. The Bible says, “Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” (12:23)
5. The mistake of pride can be very costly, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
IV. Example #4: The Pride of Nebuchadnezzar.
A. This story is found in Daniel 4 and is my favorite of all the Biblical examples of the danger of pride.
1. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and had been used by God to take Israel into captivity.
2. In chapter 3, we are told about Nebuchadnezzar’s construction of an image of gold, 90 feet high and 9 feet wide.
3. Everyone was commanded by the king to bow down to the statue. And as you recall the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to do so, and were thrown into the fiery furnace.
4. God saved them, and Nebuchadnezzar issued a new law that everyone had to worship the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
5. So, it sounds like Nebuchadnezzar had learned a valuable lesson about the power of the one true God, but evidently, he had not learned it well enough.
B. In chapter 4, we are told that Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that troubled and frightened him greatly.
1. He tried to get his magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners to interpret the dream, but they could not.
2. Finally, he called upon Daniel to interpret the dream.
3. The dream was a strange one: It was about a tree that would be cut down, with only the stump remaining. The stump would be drenched with the dew of heaven, he would live with the animals among the plants of the earth, and his mind would be changed from that of a man to that of an animal, till seven times pass by for him.
4. Daniel said to the king, I wish I had good news for you but I don’t. I wish this was a message about your enemies, but it is not.
5. Daniel told him that the tree he saw that was so tall and strong and beautiful was the king himself. Nebuchadnezzar had become great and strong, and his dominion extended to distant parts of the earth.
6. But just like the tree had been cut down, so would Nebuchadnezzar be brought down.
7. Nebuchadnezzar would be driven from his people and would live with the wild animals, eating grass like cattle and being drenched with the dew from heaven.
8. He would be in that state for seven years, until he acknowledged that Heaven rules and then his kingdom would be restored to him.
9. Daniel advised the king that he should renounce his sins, do what is right and be kind to the oppressed, and maybe God would relent.
C. We don’t know what Nebuchadnezzar did, but 12 months later, he was walking on the roof of his royal place in Babylon, when he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (4:30)
1. Here we have a classic example of pride.
2. Nebuchadnezzar refuses to acknowledge his indebtedness to God.
3. He exalts himself and struts on top of his palace like a male peacock in full array.
4. And then the bomb drops…
D. While Nebuchadnezzar’s words were still on his lips, a voice from heaven declared, “This is exactly what I tried to warn you about in that dream.”
1. Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled.
2. He was driven away from his people, he ate grass like cattle, his body was drenched with dew and his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle, and his nails like the claws of a bird.
3. He was in that state for seven years, but at the end of that time, Nebuchadnezzar raised his eyes toward heaven, and his sanity was restored and he praised, honored and glorified God.
4. His position and splendor were returned to him, and he became even greater than before.
5. But look at the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar had learned about God, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.” (4:37)
6. The mistake of pride can be very costly, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
IV. Example #5: The Pride of the Pharisee
A. Our final example is found in Luke 18.
1. It’s a story that Jesus told, and I saved it for last because it not only gives us a good, bad example, the story also contains a good, good example.
2. Luke introduces the story with this statement: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:” (18:9)
3. Jesus tells the story of two men who went up to the temple to pray.
4. One man is a Pharisee. Which means that he is a very religious man with an upstanding reputation in the community.
5. The other man is a tax collector. Which means that he is hated by the people, because of the shady and underhanded tactics of tax collectors. (You know how much we like IRS agents.)
6. The story continues: The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God I thank you that I’m not like other people – robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I’m a good guy, I fast and I tithe.”
7. Meanwhile, the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, “God have mercy on me. Forgive me for I am a sinner.”
8. So, from God’s vantage point, who is the good guy and who is the bad guy?
9. Jesus concludes saying, “The tax man rather than the Pharisee went home right with God, because one man was full of pride, while the other was humble.”
10. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (18:14)
Conclusion:
A. Let me try to pull this sermon together, and give us something to work with.
1. I trust that we all want to avoid the mistake of pride, and it seems that the key to doing so is to develop humility.
2. But pride can be so subtle that if we aren’t careful we’ll be proud of our humility.
B. As we reflect on the examples we have looked at today, two lessons become very clear.
1. First, God will go to great lengths to show us that He is Lord.
2. Second, God’s purpose in dealing with our pride is always for our good and His glory.
3. God loves us too much to allow our pride to go unchecked.
4. He will sometimes go to great lengths to get our attention and cause us to acknowledge our dependence on Him.
5. As much as that might hurt at times or as confusing as it might be, God wants us to surrender our pride and let go of the reins and trust God to lead our lives.
C.. I have to admit that some of my greatest spiritual challenges have been in the areas of pride, ego and self-centeredness.
1. I’m thankful for the help that God and others have given me, to help keep me from being destroyed by the effects of pride.
2. Nevertheless, the temptations to trust in myself, to take credit for my accomplishments, to compare myself with others, and in general to think of myself more highly than I ought, are ever with me.
D. The cure for pride and its effects is humility.
1. We must learn to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand (1 Peter. 5:6).
2. Humility recognizes that what I am and what I can ultimately be is by the grace of God.
3. Humility is not about humiliation or low self-esteem, it is about a right, God-given esteem.
4. Humility is not denying the power or ability you have, but admitting that that power or ability comes from God.
E. To keep pride in check and have the right kind of humility, I try to do the following:
1. Be honest about my need for God.
2. Trust in God’s mercy, not my achievements.
3. Instead of comparing myself with others, I want to see myself and others through God’s eyes.
F. Scripture makes it very clear that God hates pride, and that he opposes the proud.
1. I don’t want to let pride cause God to have to take action to humble me. How about you?
2. I don’t want pride to destroy my relationship with God and with others.
3. My prayer is that God will help all of us to clothe ourselves with humility toward others and God.
4. I pray that we will humble ourselves that God might lift us up and bless us with his grace.
5. We don’t have to learn the hard way, we can live God’s way.
