Deadly Sins and Transforming Virtues Series - 3
PRIDE
Sometimes fables teach us best.
The story is told of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond. The best of friends, the three would amuse themselves and play together in their water hole. When the hot summer days came, however, the pond began to dry up, and soon it was evident they would have to move. This was no problem for the ducks, who could easily fly to another pond. But the frog was stuck. So it was decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each duck that the frog could hang onto with his mouth as they flew to another pond. The plan worked well--so well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and mused, "Well, isn't that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it?"
The frog said, "I did..."
In our series of messages about vice and virtue, I am turning our attention today to the issue of PRIDE.
As I speak this morning, it is quite likely that some of you will be wondering exactly why what I am talking about this as a ‘vice.’
Pride stands unique among the other ‘sins’ we will talk about, sanitized and even sought after, in all but the most flamboyant displays. We have developed a whole new language to talk about what was once spoken of as pride. We talk of the need for ‘self-esteem’ and many of us are completely convinced that the real problem with humanity is not a ‘fallen, sinful nature,’ but a lack of self-love.
30 years ago a renowned preacher in America tapped into a longing for a “Christianity” that fit more comfortably into the American ideals of self-sufficiency, opportunity, and prosperity. Robert Schuller recast what the Bible said about all of us being born into sin, saved only by a divine intervention by Christ and the Holy Spirit. Instead he said that “health and wholeness to a person mean having positive “self-esteem,” “or self-worth.” Jesus came, Schuller taught, to give us back our Self! He led one of the earliest of the mega-churches in our nation, a place where sin was seldom, if ever, mentioned, where God’s love meant that you were important and you could love yourself! That church imploded when his children fought over who would lead it and it went bankrupt a few years ago.
Pride, no matter the language we use about it, remains one of the ways that we sin and miss out on God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Jesus bluntly said, “No one can serve two masters.” We cannot serve our Self and be a servant of God at the same time!
And yet, we do know that being aware that God made us people of worth, so much so that Jesus came to save us, can be a really good thing! Was it not a growing sense of self-worth that led to the civil rights movement? Who believes that Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, who helped black Americans find their voice and whose leadership forced the government to pass civil rights legislation that protected a people who were ignored, oppressed, and refused equal opportunity for so long did a bad thing?
But, that same impulse that led to good is so quickly turned into something ugly, an expression of power and selfishness. In 2018, America is divided into groups who are defined by some sense of identity, some good, some bad, who are all insisting that they must be heard, that their grievances must be addressed.
And there you have the difficulty with pride!
A broken young man entered a school building with his rifle on Wednesday afternoon, and in a horribly twisted expression of Self and Pride, thought so little of others that he took their lives and seemingly, to all reports, with no remorse or empathy. Sin, for reasons we do not know, morphed into terrible evil, and 17 people died. An extreme example? Of course, but he is not alone in letting selfishness become more than rudeness, turning into destructive and deadly evil!
I hope you won’t hear this message today and hope that some other person - who is selfish, who takes advantage of others, who uses his power to oppress others believing himself better - is listening while failing to understand that pride is the basic root of sin in each and every one of us.
For many of us, pride will more benign, but never the less growing from the same root, which is Self.
Where pride exists there is a desire to escape our sense of being small, insignificant, or overlooked. We do it by achievement, by wearing recognizable name brands, adopting current fashion dictates, being fans of sports teams, etc. Are those sins? That is a hard judgment, but I can confidently say that when fashion, achievement, recognition, popularity, sport - - whatever it may be – starts to own us and drive us - we have allowed pride to morph into the sin of idolatry - having made ourselves a little god.
What does the Bible say about pride?
· "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." (1 Peter 5:5-6, NIV)
· "Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice." (Proverbs 13:10, NIV)
· "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18, NIV)
· "A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor." (Proverbs 29:23, NIV)
Luke tells us how the Devil tried to tempt Jesus to prideful sin
(Luke 4:1-13, NIV)
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time."
Satan came to Jesus while He alone in the desert, “led by the Spirit.” Why was Jesus out there, alone, fasting? We can only speculate, but I believe that His Father was preparing Him for the BIG tests that were about to come His way as He began His public ministry. Jesus was about to burst on the scene and become a name on most everybody’s lips. He would do amazing miracles, be surrounded by people who admired Him and wanted something from Him. And, there is nothing like admiration and success to test a person’s real character especially when it comes to pride.
When others are telling us we are wonderful, when they want to lift us up, it is so alluring to believe that we ‘are something special,’ and from that place, ‘that we deserve better,’ and from there to a sense of entitlement that says ‘you owe me!’ You think Jesus wasn’t subject to those impulses? He was ‘tempted in every way that we are. So, yes, pride was there lurking!
Satan whispers to him “If you are the Son of God ...” And he is asking Jesus to question the identity which His Father had spoken from Heaven just days before at His baptism when the Spirit descended and the voice of God declared, “You are my Son whom I love and with You I am well-pleased.” Now Satan invites Jesus - “Prove it!”
“If you’re really all that - make stones in bread. That’s a neat trick and will benefit many people. Who won’t love a Messiah that feeds them?” And when He did feed the 5,000 many did follow Him hoping He would become the Bread King! But, Jesus refuses the temptation saying that His mission is bigger than filling people’s bellies. He was going to be used to bring them the Bread of LIFE!
Satan backs up and tries another approach, “If you’re really serious about changing the world, I can make that happen. Just use the short cuts to influence by the tricks I can teach you. You can learn to lie, cheat, steal, and exercise power that controls others - it’s what I do, so worship me and I’ll teach you how.” Jesus refuses again with the statement that He only worships God, that He follows the Father’s will.
And, we all know where that takes Him three years later. It’s not a throne of privilege. It’s not at the head of an army to advance his power. It is a Cross where He offers Himself to die for us! And in that sacrifice He changed the destiny of billions of people who have trusted Him for 2,000 years.
Lastly, Satan gets more intimate. I imagine him whispering into Jesus’ ear. “IF you’re really that beloved Son, ask your Father to prove it. Throw yourself off the heights of the Temple and let Him catch you. Then you will know that you’re His son.” The devil even threw in a little quote from Psalm 91. Since Jesus was quoting the holy Words, the devil decided to give it a try.
Jesus does not try to make God do what He wants, He submits Himself totally to the Father’s will.
Even those of us who are ‘in Christ’ are going to tempted similarly. The World around us, the sinful nature in us, and the demons of darkness will collude to try to get us to turn inward to use and abuse our faith in Christ. The persistent line will be ‘prove it.’ Look to your own goodness. Take short cuts to ‘spirituality.’ Question the goodness of God if He does not do what you want Him to do! It’s all about Self and Pride. Make yourself in charge, seize your own destiny. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
American culture is full of self-sufficiency and the impulse to gain wealth and influence! And, short term, a lot of good can result, but in the end - pride reveals its true source - and it brings sin, suffering, division, and isolation!
So, what is the answer?
It is not beating up ourselves. It is not self-hatred. It is not giving up or giving in.
The wisdom of the Spirit was given to us by a man who knew Jesus, who had surrendered himself completely to the Lord, and gave away comfort, ease, and the need to ‘prove anything.’ Paul points the way to defeat pride in Philippians 2.
(Philippians 2:5-11, NIV)
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
“Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus” KJV
Jesus turned life upside down and inside out. He said that the way to greatness was through service.
He said that the first would be last, the last would be first. He told His disciples that He was
among them not to rule them but to give His life for them.
Pride can’t be coddled, excused, put on a leash. We ‘die to Self’ and the Spirit changes our way of thinking!
How?
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Jesus was not playing at being God. He was God! He was there at the birth of Creation, speaking the universe into being, calling stars into existence, breathing life into humanity. He thought up the design of life itself. He lived in resplendent beauty, needing nothing, self-sufficient, without pain, all-knowing, never wondering ... And He set aside those prerogatives to become NOTHING! A nobody, from nowhere, a speck of humanity born in a backwater town into poverty.
Let the mind, the attitude be in YOU that caused Jesus to make that amazing, selfless choice, Paul says to you and me.
No, he’s not telling us, we have to seek poverty, go live in some little town in the poorest nation on earth - unless God asks us to! He is saying, “forget yourself, your own interest, just like Jesus did.”
But, he is not done, yet. What else did Jesus choose to do?
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Death is the very anthesis of God. Death was the mark of the curse of sin. “If you sin, you will die” was the word to Adam and Eve in Genesis. Paul says that "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23, NLT) Go ahead, work hard for yourself and the payoff will be death - spiritual and literal!
Imagine the perfect Son of God, surrrendering Himself to sin (yes, he became sin for you and for me) and then tasting the bitter end - Death! No wonder in his anguish on the Cross, an anguish greater than the suffering of His body, the pain of being dead to all He had known, cut off from the fellowship of His father - HE moans - “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” AND IT WAS ALL BY CHOICE, fed by selfless love!
This is the mind, the attitude, that we are to seek and that will defeat the sin of PRIDE in us!
“But, Jerry, I became a Christian to find a better life. I want God to protect me from pain, to make sure I’m fed, warm, safe.” Yes, me, too, but I don’t get to choose all that, and neither do you, on this side of Heaven, IF we really want to serve God.
Yes, I believe that generally those who love and serve God are better husbands, wives, people, friends, neighbors. But, we are not called to reign in privilege, nor are we promised live exempt from hardship. We are called to be disciples, followers of Jesus, to love those who hate us, to forgive those who mistreat us, to give our treasure to those in need. To SERVE, NOT TO BE SERVED.
Why? Here’s how Paul ends the passage.
Therefore .... God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
God is not unjust. God is not forgetful. God has prepared an eternal home for those who are His beloved who are saved from sin by His free gift of grace. He will lift us up, He will bring us home, He will love eternally!
So will we worship Him or Self?
We become who and what we worship. Pride is really just misplaced worship, Thomas Aquinas said. Pride is worship, wrongly ordered, the refusal to let God be God and attempting to make myself my own god.
The exalted Jesus invites us to come follow Him, worship Him, find our hope, security, love, and purpose in Him.
Will you?
___________
We will come, in a moment, to the Communion table. We will not bring a thing God needs to that table, but we will find all that we need there - love, grace, healing, and hope.
