As we begin this series on the seven things that God doesn’t like, as a matter of fact it says in proverbs that He detest them. According to the dictionary detest means to dislike a lot, to condemn, and to hate.
I know Hate is a strong word and there are some things that I truly detest like coconut and blueberries and boiled shrimp, I don’t want to even smell these things much less eat them.
When we hate something we don’t want to be near it.
Now I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be doing anything that God hates. I want to do things that are pleasing to God, things that He likes.
As we into this series we will try and identify ways not to get caught up in these things that God hates. We will look at what they are and how to avoid falling into the trouble that they bring. Some are easy to stay away from and some are not.
I think you may be surprised at how close we may get to diving into some of these terrible things before we even realize what we are doing.
So this morning let’s look at the one that we are most susceptible to, and not only that it’s the sin that leads to all other things that God despises. We could call it the gateway sin.
In the text this morning it’s called haughty eyes, we call it pride. Not a good kind of pride like I am proud I lost 15 pounds but I know I can do better.
The kind of pride we are talking about here says look at me I lost fifteen pounds and I look good, I look way better than old so and so she needs to get off that couch and work on herself so she can be as good looking as I am.
Haughty eyes make you see yourself as the center of the universe and it’s all about you and no one else is as good and perfect as you. As a matter of fact it’s a pride that makes you realize that no one can hold a candle to you and they aren’t even good enough to set at your table.
Do you know anyone that fits that description? Have you ever been around someone that thought too much of themselves, that were too big for their britches? Have you ever fell to that sin of pride? Come on now think about it.
We must be careful about this sin, we must be careful and not be to prideful, you know the old saying pride goeth before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18 puts it this way Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.
Here’s the thing pridefulness is like the trunk of a tree and everything else, every other sin comes from it. If we have haughty eyes, if we are to prideful nothing is unlawful to us. We will do anything to make sure that we maintain ourselves above everyone else.
Believe it when I tell you that people who are to prideful will steal, lie, and cheat to live up to their expectations of themselves. They don’t care who they hurt or what they do as long as they look good and they come out on top that’s all that matters.
Now you would think that someone who had been a victim due to being looked down upon by prideful people wouldn’t fall prey to such a sin, but if you think that you would be wrong.
Back when I was a kid we were pretty poor my dad had two broke feet and couldn’t work for a couple of years so we had to do anything and everything just to have clothes and food. Well we would pick up pecans and sell them and we had some places we would go that were just out in the middle of the fields and they were pretty much fair game to everybody. One day a man came by and told us to follow him to his house and he had some trees that we could glean and keep all the pecans we picked up.
Needless to say I knew this man and went to school with his daughter and did not want to go there. But we did and needless to say his daughter Susan was on their tennis court playing tennis with some more of my classmates. Now these weren’t people that I hung out with on a regular bases but let me tell you after that day they wouldn’t even speak, they actually seemed to turn their noses up at me and acted like they were so much better than me and I was beneath them.
Let me tell you , I didn’t like being treated that way at all, it hurt, but there was really nothing I could do about it.
You would think that after being a victim of haughty eyes that I wouldn’t fall to that, well you would be wrong.
There was a time in my life when I thought I didn’t need anybody , I was a self-made man and didn’t need help from anyone and I could get anything I needed all by myself.
I would see homeless people and would actually tell them get a job. I didn’t want to talk to them or touch them, I didn’t realize it then but I do now, I thought I was better than them.
I wouldn’t even go and visit my own brother while he was in prison I didn’t have time, I was too busy and important for that.
Look it can happen to anybody Kings and countries have fallen because of pride.
Look at Gen. 4:8 and it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"…
Cain and Abel Pride and selfishness sense the beginning of time.
I know I know yall are all saying I’m not haughty I’ll never let pride take over my life, you better watch out. No one is immune from the sin of pride, not me, not you, not the bishop; no one is immune from the grip of the sin of pride.
And if you think you are immune, you better check yourself.
Even King Uzziah wasn’t immune look what happened to him.
In 2 Chronicles 26:15-21
But as soon as he became powerful, he grew so arrogant that he acted corruptly. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God by entering the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense upon the incense altar. The priest Azariah, accompanied by eighty other of the Lord’s courageous priests, went in after him and confronted King Uzziah.
“You have no right, Uzziah,” he said, “to burn incense to the Lord! That privilege belongs to the priests, Aaron’s descendants, who have been ordained to burn incense. Get out of this holy place because you have been unfaithful! The Lord God won’t honor you for this.”
Then Uzziah became angry. While he was fuming at the priests, skin disease erupted on his forehead in the presence of the priests before the incense altar in the Lord’s temple. When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests turned and saw the skin disease on his forehead, they rushed him out of there. Uzziah also was anxious to leave because the Lord had afflicted him. King Uzziah had skin disease until the day he died. He lived in a separate house, diseased in his skin, because he was barred from the Lord’s temple. His son Jotham supervised the palace administration and go
Hezekiah
2 Chronicles 32:24-26
Around that same time, Hezekiah became deathly ill and prayed to the Lord, who answered him with a miraculous sign. But Hezekiah was too proud to respond appropriately to the kindness he had received, and he, along with Judah and Jerusalem, experienced anger from God. However, Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem humbled themselves in their pride, and so they didn’t experience the Lord’s anger for the rest of Hezekiah’s reign.
Brothers and sisters we must avoid haughty eyes at all cost, we can’t get so caught up in ourselves that we think we got this all on our own. We need friends and family in our lives. We need to realize that we are nothing without Christ.
So how do we keep from falling prey to haughty eyes? We must seek humility and humble ourselves.
1 Peter 5:6-8 tells us:
Therefore, humble yourselves under God’s power so that he may raise you up in the last day. Throw all your anxiety onto him, because he cares about you. Be clearheaded. Keep alert. Your accuser, the devil, is on the prowl like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Isaiah 66:2
My hand made all these things
and brought them into being, says the Lord.
But here is where I will look:
to the humble and contrite in spirit,
who tremble at my word.
We must be vigilant and try to be humble and not so proud. We need to lift others up and love our neighbor. We must remember that we are nothing without God. And we can’t get along in this life without others.
We are in this together and we cannot let ourselves be corrupted by Haughty Eyes.
