WE (intro)
Professor poll: How may were… valedictorian, salutatorian, class president, yearbook editor, multiple-letter athletes, youth group leaders…bigger sea.
2 percent below average in leadership ability /
YOU
Ever realized something about yourself that you seemed to be the last to know?
How did that feel? Wouldn’t you have liked to see it sooner?
GOD
Two examples of whole groups/nations with blind spots:
NINEVEH
Forgotten 125 years earlier
High point of their power and arrogance
Conducting life without any reference to God
Blitzkreig warfare – themselves impregnable
Judah and Israel forced to ack its superpower status, pay tribute
Superior water supply from huge reservoir system (symbolizes stockpiled) cant shut off
And that would be their point of vulnerability – take an act of God. Yep. Tap ON.
No flood insurance.
27 years after Nineveh fell, Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians, while Edom sat..
EDOM
Nested in the heights. Narrow canyon access to capitol Petra 1 mile 15’.
Wealth from mining and trade partnerships, route.
SE of Judah, they watched without helping (never had been good rel since Jacob/Esau)
Even encouraged Babylonians to raze it.
Self-confident “#1” arrogance – presumption.
Their neighbors turned on them and their fortress became their tomb.
But they are not being told, Israel is!...why?
You (Edom) and y’all (Jewish resettlers) … everyone’s problem! Imagine self better..
Assume you have blindspots
Physically we all do. Spiritually too, we will struggle with this.
Reward feedback
Pride keeps me insecure regarding my place with God. It tries to rise up and create something that he will appreciate.. (extra story, scene cut)
360deg feedback (PEL story)
Use what you see
Pride is like pollution: There is widespread recognition of its effect but great reluctance to do away with the cause. (Dan Schmidt)
Pride is the natural enemy of faith.
I no longer have to jockey for position. See 1 Peter 4.11
Antidote: serve. Joseph
Come to a place where you say, “I will serve.” Put pride on notice.
(illust of fellow pastors who served his way beyond suspicion)58
YOU
Irony – the almighty God of the universe comes only to those who have room for him.
The Lord SEEKS people who will abandon pride.
What might pride be blinding you to?
• Sentimentality
• People around you – boy, co-worker, neighbor, spouse
• Paul Heibert missing middle
• Importance of the BODY of Christ
• Church in Guatemala – national palace parcel
• Pluralist bs interpretive framework
• Environmental stewardship Francis Schaeffer
WE
Closing punch… takeaway
But God chose the foolish things… (1Cor1.27)
…my strength is made perfect in weakness (2Cor12.9-10)
An old Moravian prayer says, “From the desire of being great, good Lord deliver us!”
How about being significant?
Complimented once by a friend on the impact of the mission, Hudson answered, “It seemed to me that God looked over the whole world to find a man who was weak enough to do His work, and when He at last found me, He said, ‘He is weak enough—he’ll do.’ All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.”
