THE POWER OF PRIDE
James 4:6-7
1 Peter 5:5-8
1. Illus. of Loraine at GPBC
• Came to see me. Had a list of weird things going on in her life, things that were destroying her but that she had no explanation for.
• As I listened, I began to try to fit what she was telling me into a model. Physical? Didn’t seem to be. Emotional? Perhaps, but if so unlike anything I had ever seen before.
• That only left one option: the source of her problem was spiritual in nature.
• I did not know what to do, or how to help her. If I had know then what I know now, I would have recognized that she was spiritually oppressed.
2. Over the last 25 years I have met hundreds of Christians with no apparent physical or emotional issues going on (they had been evaluated by their physicians or a Christian counselor), yet they had symptoms like these: hopelessness, feelings of worthlessness, irrational fear, obsessive thoughts (often wicked or blasphemous), tormenting thoughts and voices (often in first person), unhealthy anger, bondage to sinful habits, difficulties (distracting thoughts, headaches etc) praying or reading the Bible. I have come to a conclusion: they are being oppressed by the evil one!
3. When we become Christians, we are taken out of Satan’s kingdom and translated into the wonderful Kingdom of the Son of God. We are set free from the power of the evil one by the shed blood and empty tomb of Jesus. Think of it this way: it is like we were living in the house with a villain who systematically hurt us, and would have eventually have killed us. Then Jesus rescued us, and took us to live in a house that belonged to Him, a place where the villain had no access to us.
4. However, Satan can regain a measure of control if he can deceive us into bringing certain practices into our life. See Ephesians 4:27. The word "topos" = place, ground, opportunity, or foothold. There are certain practices that, if we bring them into our lives, give Satan an opening into our lives. Think of it this way: it’s the spiritual equivalent to giving the old villain we talked about the key to the locked front door of your new house, and telling him, “come in anytime and do whatever you want to me!”
5. We’ve looked at three of these front door keys: occult practices, bitterness, and a rebellious heart.
6. Today I want to look at one more: a prideful spirit. When you develop a prideful spirit you open yourself up to spiritual oppression and bondage.
7. There are three principles about pride that we need to understand. What are these principles?
I. WHAT IS PRIDE?
1. We all know pride when we see it. But, if you had to give someone a definition of pride, what would you tell them?
2. See 1 Corinthians 4:6-7. The Corinthians were puffed up, that is to say, prideful. What were they doing that made Paul say that? They were comparing themselves to one another. “I am prettier than you, I have more education than you, I have more stuff than you etc. so I am better than you!” Later in the letter we find out some of them were even swelled with pride over spiritual things. “I’ve got more spiritual gifts than you do. Paul baptized me; you were only baptized by Apollos. I am better than you!”
3. Definition: Pride is arrogance based on having qualities or possessions that are better than someone else’s.
4. Illus. of picture in man’s office
• A turtle perched on top of a fence post on a county road.
• Caption read, “If you ever see a turtle on a fencepost, you know he had help!”
• Pride is saying, “Look how superior I am to those poor turtles there on the ground. Too bad they couldn’t be like me! I’m better than they are, because I’m on the fencepost!”
5. Look again at 4:7. What do you have that you didn’t receive? Who gave you the mind to acquire that education? Who designed your body so that you are pretty or athletically built? Who gave you those opportunities to acquire things?
6. Pride is exalting ourselves above others based on qualities or accomplishments.
II. HOW CAN I TELL IF I HAVE A PRIDEFUL HEART?
1. You need to understand something about your heart- it is filled with wickedness and self-deception! Jeremiah 17:9. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” “Tim, if that is the case, how can we ever find out what is in our hearts, be it pride or whatever?” Well, let’s think about that for a minute.
2. Illus. of my mom
• Went into emergency room recently with the following complaints: shortness of breath, tightness across the chest, a feeling of pain and pressure. Based on past experience she was afraid she was having a heart attack!
• Sure enough, turned out she had some coronary blockages.
• How did she know something was wrong with her heart? Her symptoms told her!
3. Back to our original question: how can I tell if I have a prideful heart? Pride is always accompanied by certain spiritual symptoms. Let me give you a series of diagnostic questions to ask yourself. According to the scripture, these are indicative of a prideful heart:
• Do you tackle significant issues without stopping to seek God’s guidance and empowering?
• Do you find it hard to admit when you are wrong? (Someone once said, if I were ever wrong I would admit it. I’m just never wrong!)
• Are you concerned with getting the recognition you “deserve?” To state it another way, are you offended when you do something and aren’t recognized for it?
• Do you hunger for the recognition that comes from degrees, titles, or positions instead of finding your affirmation in Christ?
• Do you secretly consider yourself better than others because of your looks, intelligence, financial standing, or position in the community?
• Do you trust God to take care of your needs, or do you feel that you have to do it all?
• Do you have a hard time following those that God has placed in authority over you?
• Do you secretly feel my wants and needs are much more important than the wants and needs of others?
• Do you feel convicted in a service or bible study, yet you do not act because you are afraid of what others might think?
4. A prideful heart is always revealed by these symptoms!
III. HOW IS PRIDE CONNECTED TO SPIRITUAL WARFARE?
1. “Tim, I agree that pride is a bad thing, but what does that have to do with spiritual bondage and oppression?” Have you ever noticed how many times pride and spiritual warfare are connected in the scripture? Let me show you just a few examples:
James 4:6-7
1 Peter 5:5-8
2. Illus. of burglar
• I read recently of man who had been arrested for entering people’s houses and stealing their stuff.
• There was some controversy about what to charge him with. You see, he never broke into someone’s home. He would look until he found a house with an unlocked door.
• He actually said, “People will lock the front door, but not the side door. If you check 10 houses, you’ll find 2 or 3 you can just walk right into!”
• Pride is the spiritual equivalent of an unlocked door. The adversary can just walk right into our life and begin to kill, steal, and destroy!
3. There are at least two reasons why pride is so often linked to spiritual warfare:
One of Satan’s primary characteristics is pride. See Isaiah 14:12-15. When we act in pride, we are acting like the evil one! Whenever we act like the evil one, he gains authority and power in our lives!
Pride causes us to act independently of God. See 1 Corinthians 15:10. Paul says, “Whatever I’ve done, I’ve done through the grace of God. I am so morally and spiritually bankrupt that God will have to do it if anything of eternal significance gets done.” Pride says just the opposite. “Incapable of doing anything of eternal significance? Not me! Just look at everything I’ve got going for me!”
Conclusion
1. Summarize main points
2. Don’t let Satan destroy your life because of pride!
