7 Deadly Sins Series
July 20, 2008
Pride
Not all sin is created equal. While all sin is equally offensive and wrong in the eyes of God they are not all equal. There are some sins that some people will never deal with in their lives. There are people who are so full of encouragement that they may never envy another person. There are some people who have no love for money or accumulation of stuff and will really never have a problem with greed. How many of you really have a hard time not offering sacrifices to other gods? Some sins are pretty avoidable. Yet there is one sin so vile, so pervasive, and so powerful that every person who has ever walked this earth has struggled with it. Not just struggled with it every person has fallen to it. It is the worst sin, the father of all sin, it is the sin that ruined angels. Every sin, every wrong action all root back to this one particular sin. Pride.
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 3:1. Our story takes place in the garden of Eden. God created a paradise for man to live in with but one rule: do not eat of the tree in the center of the garden. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3 tells us of the fall of man and the sin that caused it. Lets look at what it says:
Ge 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? Ge 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, Ge 3:3 but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. Ge 3:4 You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. Ge 3:5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Ge 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Pride comes before the fall. That wise proverb is simply a statement of fact. The first sin ever committed was pride. It is the original sin. Notice what happens here in the story. The serpent comes to Eve and tempts her to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. He denies that she will die which is a helpful comfort but not what does Eve in. Look at what he says to her in verse 5. This is what Eve is tempted by. Think about it. She is in a garden full of fruit. Eat from this tree or that tree she isnt looking at this forbidden fruit and considering eating it because she is starving and there is no place else to get food. She is looking at this fruit because it does have a unique benefit. She takes the fruit for one reason. The sin of Eve and the sin of Adam is not just disobedience, it is pride. They ate fruit because they wanted to be like God. Adam and Eve were not as great as they thought they were. They were not content with all the things God had given them and the paradise He had made for them. They wanted to be God, or at least His equals. As a result of their pride they sinned. Pride literally came before the fall.
This is our last week in the series on the 7 Deadly sins. We saved the best for last. We all have pride in our lives. If you sin you have a problem with pride. Maybe you are not proud but you do have a problem with pride. Lets look at our sins: 1. Greed. Why are you greedy? You think too highly of yourself and want more for yourself, this is a result of a pride problem. Lust, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Gluttony¦all of the 7 deadly sins are a direct result of pride living in our hearts. If you struggle with anger why do you struggle? You think too highly of yourself. People, things, or problems make you mad not because those things are so bad, but because you think too much of yourself. Prides fuels your anger which gets you into trouble. Pride then keeps you in trouble when the anger that got you there wears off. Can you believe he said that, to me? To me being the key words of your frustration. Who are you to tell me what to do? Dont talk to me like that! These are statements of pride that come from our feeling that we are better than we are. In any given fight between two people there is one inevitable truth. If either one of them would swallow their pride for just a little while the fight could end. Most of the time when you fight, you sin, you suffer, you feel pain in your life you feel these as a result of pride. You are not as great as you think you are.
I remember this one time I was at Ozark I heard this message on pride. Ozark has this thing called the International Focus Week. They have guest speakers come in and preach usually and it ends up being a really exciting week. Well the night before our Thursday chapel there had been what I think was an open mic night or a night of prayer where people came up and sort of confessed some things they were having trouble with. The speaker the next day was a man by the name of Dean Trune. From what I understand he is a great speaker. I didnt get that from this sermon because I was too busy looking at other things. Dean Trune was suppose to preach about something but he changed last minute. He had been on the campus for this prayer night and heard a lot of students confessing to struggling with pride. So he just started preaching about pride. He informed us that OCC had a pride problem and needed to do some things to change. I was actually pretty mad about it. I remember sitting there thinking: Who does this guy think he is? He doesnt know me! He doesnt know this campus! What gives him the right to say these things? I was really upset by it. Firstly, any place you go has a pride problem. That is a given. Everyone no matter how humble they seem has a problem with pride at some point. So it was not really an important issue to address. Secondly, this was not a professor. This was not someone we knew or trusted. This was some stranger coming in to my school telling us all how bad it was. Seriously what nerve he must have. The problem is: I am not as great as I thought I was. He obviously did not know how humble I was!
Isnt that an ironic response? The funny thing about pride is when we think we have a handle on it we tend to get proud of how well we deal with our pride. As we start to remove bits and pieces of pride from our lives we might think to ourselves: Wow, I am really humble. It has been so long since I had a proud thought. I am awesome. Sometimes we take pride in our lack of pride.
While we are not always consciously aware of it pride lives in all of our hearts. It is the force that allows us to be tempted. It is that which drives us to sin. If we were not proud, if we were not trying to elevate ourselves to a place we didnt belong, to get something we dont need, or to over indulge in things we enjoy then we really would not sin would we? Pride is a powerful force. If we are to have any hopes in dealing with this force that means to destroy us then we need to recognize it for what it is. Luke 18:10 tells us of a Pharisee and a tax collector. When most of us picture pride we picture something like this:
Lk 18:10 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Lk 18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other men robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector. Lk 18:12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.Lk 18:13 But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Lk 18:14 I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Pride is to exalt or boast in ones self. But it is more complicated than that. This is a clear example of pride to be sure. But pride is not always clear. Sometimes it masks itself in other ways. Pride is a clever foe. It makes you think more of yourself than reality justifies.
So here is this wonderfully righteous man. He keeps the law. He does what he is supposed to do. Yet his heart is not as pure as his actions seem to be. There is so much pride in this mans heart that his prayers to God are an insulting to the very people that God loves. This man thinks he is so good because he kept all the rules. He thinks he is so righteous that he misses out on what prayer is and he misses a chance to connect with God because he thinks too highly of himself. Look at how the tax collector prays. His prayer is simple. It is genuine and real. This tax collector for everything he is not is a much better man than this religious leader whose pride has made his right actions meaningless.
Pride comes when we exalt ourselves, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled. There is no easy way to learn the lesson of humility. There is no gentle teaching to show us how to do it. It seems the only way that we are capable of learning to be humble is by suffering the terrible consequences of our pride. We get upset, frustrated, and hurt by things that happen to us while blaming everyone else for our problems. Sometimes I wonder why we dont stop and look at ourselves first. I know that it is easier to blame others when something goes wrong in your life. The sad thing is all that happens when you blame someone else is that you miss out on the lesson that may have been the very reason you had the problem to begin with. In order to overcome pride you have to break it down. Breaking down pride means you have to undergo a series of frustrating or humiliating events so that you may learn to humility. If you blame others for your problems then you are not fixing the underlying issue that causes those problems. Pride is the love of oneself. It comes when we believe in our own ability to the degree that we fail to recognize the grace of God. All sins root themselves in Pride.
C.S Lewis says that compared to pride all others sins: unchasity, greed, drunkenness and the like are mere flea-bites. He says that every vice comes from pride and that pride is that anti-God state of mind.
The deadly sins are named very appropriately for the results they bring on our lives. None of the 7 deadly sins should be taken lightly. At the same time none should be so carefully considered as pride. For of all the sins pride is certainly the most dangerous and deceitful. Do you know how the devil became the devil? Turn to Isaiah 14:12. This passage describes what the morning star. The morning star was also called the light bringer. You know the Latin word for light bringer? Lucifer. It was widely accepted in Jewish theology and rightly so that this passage from Isaiah 14 is a description of the devil. Here is what it says:
Isa 14:12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
Isa 14:13 You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. Isa 14:15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.
The theological word for this is stupidtos. Its Greek. Now you have to ask yourself what kind of idiot would do that? The devil had all the comforts of heaven and got to experience the glory that comes from the presence of God. Yet he turned away from all of that. He turned his back on God to do things his way. I mean what an idiot. But every time I sin, I repeat the devils stupidity.
The devil wanted to be like God. When we sin, that is exactly what we are doing, trying to replace God with ourselves. It was his pride that resulted in the devil being cast from heaven. It was his pride that turned him into the wretched evil creature that he is today. Pride was not only the first sin of man, it was the sin that made the devil the devil and it has dire consequences. Pride can destroy our relationship with God. As a result pride can lead us to destruction and often without our even realizing it. The first step to overcoming any problem is realizing that you have one. We need to realize we have a pride problem. I dont say this to be harsh or cruel but because if we do not deal with this it will certainly destroy us.
Some of us are aware that we have a problem with pride. We do not know how to overcome it but we know. Others of us really believe that we dont. We think that because we think lowly of ourselves we have no problem with pride. We think our low self esteem is proof that pride does not live in our hearts. We think pride must be a seeking to glorify oneself by praising oneself. I think pride is more cunning than that. You may think: I am not proud. I have a low self esteem. I think I am worthless. I don’t like myself. So how can I be proud? The answer: just as anyone else can be proud. You are not humble because you walk around mopping or thinking your are so low and worthless. When you are boasting about yourself what is the focus? You are. When you have a low self esteem and speak of how worthless you think you are what is the focus? You are. Pride is the anti-God. It is what happens when we focus on ourselves rather than on God. You dont have to be a braggart to have a problem with pride. You just have to focus on yourself. So when someone asks you to do something what goes through your head? Do you think: Sure you need my help I will help. Or do you think something more like: Man I really dont want to do that. When a decision is made, when something happens what do you think about? Ok, lets get it done¦or I dont like that. I dont want to do that. I, I, I, I when our thoughts are focused on ourselves there is no room for God. Whether positive or negative when we focus on ourselves we are being proud.
Biblical humility is not low self esteem. It is no self esteem. Biblical humility is not thinking lesser or greater of yourself than you are, it is not thinking of yourself at all. Doing what is needed without complaining, without seeking praise, without expecting anything in return.
Biblical humility looks like the cross. You know Jesus wasnt excited to come die. He probably didnt want to undergo the pain, the separation from God, He probably did not want to become sin and have to face the wrath of God. But can you think of a since verse where He complains about it? Jesus did what needed to be done not because He wanted to (and believe me if anyone had the right to do something just because they wanted to it would be God) He did it because it needed to be done. He didnt do it for the praises of men. He didnt do it for attention. He didnt do it for fun. He went to the cross without thinking of Himself at all. Jesus defeated pride. Not because He had a problem with, but because we do. The one being that has the right to think and say whatever He wants to about Himself and have it be true is the one being who lays all that down and gives up His life for His children. Through the cross we have the power to overcome the pride that exists in our life.
Jesus has given us a model. He has set an example that we can follow. We do not have to live in our self made prisons of pride. He has showed us the way. He showed us how to live. The example He set is to die to ourselves. To stop thinking about ourselves all together and to set our mind on God and loving Him with all that we are. When we think of God and of others instead of ourselves, then we can put pride in its place.
So this week I want to give you a challenge. I want you to test this. Watch yourself. Watch how you handle a situation. Do you make things about yourself more than you should? Do you get offended easily? Do you get upset when people bring problems to you? Do you make things into a bigger deal than they are? Then you may have a problem with pride.
