Profitable Pride Series

A young construction worker at a construction site was bragging that he was stronger than everybody else there. He focused his remarks on making fun of one of the older workmen.

After several minutes, the older worker had had enough.

“Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?” he said to the young construction worker. “I'll bet a week's wages that I can haul something in a wheelbarrow over to that building that you won't be able to wheel back.”

“You're on, old man,” the young worker replied.

The old man reached out and grabbed a wheelbarrow by the handles. Then he turned to the young man and said, “All right. Get in.”

Most of the time when you boast, it backfires on you. But there are times when boasting will benefit you. There are times when pride will profit you. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans 5, Romans 5, where the Bible shows us those times.

Romans 5, look at verse 2, about halfway through. Notice it says, “We rejoice in hope.” Now, look at verse 3. There it says, “We rejoice in our sufferings.” Skip down to verse 11. There it says, “We also rejoice in God.”

That word “rejoice,” in the original Greek, literally means “to boast,” i.e., “to joyfully take pride in something,” like when your grandson scores the winning touchdown or your granddaughter nails her gymnastics routine. You rejoice with pride at their accomplishments. In the same way, the Bible says believers boast in their hope. They boast in their sufferings, and they boast in their God. Let’s take a closer look. First, if you’re going to boast, then…

BOAST IN YOUR HOPE.

Rejoice with pride at the assurances God has given you. Glory in the confidence you have in Christ.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (ESV).

When you put your faith in Christ, God declares you righteous. And because He declares you righteous, He calls you His friend. You are no longer an enemy of God. Instead, you stop fighting God and God brings peace to your relationship with Him.

So boast in the assurance of God’s peace. Rejoice with pride in the confidence that God loves you.

Elizabeth DeBeasi, from Stanford Connecticut, was putting her daughter to bed one evening. She asked her little girl, “Carla, what is it like to be four years old?”

The little girl responded, “It’s special.”

“Why is it special,” mom asked.

Little Carla responded, “It’s special because I know my mommy loves me” (Elizabeth DeBeasi, “Heart to Heart,” Today’s Christian Woman).

Life is special, because your Heavenly Father loves you! So, if you’re going to boast, boast about that. Boast in the assurance of God’s peace.

Then boast in the assurance of God’s grace. Rejoice with pride that God has favored you unconditionally.

Romans 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…

Faith in Christ gives us access into God’s undeserved favor. But not only that, we stand in that favor, firmly established in it forever!

In the Smithsonian magazine, naturalist Jane Goodall talks about a Callery pear tree that had been planted near Building 5 of the World Trade Center. Since the early 1970s each year the tree's delicate white blossoms had brought a touch of spring into a world of concrete. In 2001, after the 9/11 attack, this tree, like all the other trees that had been planted there, disappeared beneath the fallen towers. But amazingly, in October, a cleanup worker found her, smashed and pinned between blocks of concrete. She was decapitated and the eight remaining feet of trunk were charred black; the roots were broken; and there was only one living branch.

Initially, many observers thought the tree was unsalvageable. But the cleanup workers at Ground Zero persuaded an employee with the Parks Department to give the tree a chance, so it was sent off to a nursery in the Bronx. When a nursery worker first saw the decapitated tree, he did not think anything could save her. But once he cut away the dead, burned tissues and planted her trimmed roots deeply in good rich soil, the tree survived. He gave the tree a new name—Survivor.

In the spring of 2010 disaster struck Survivor again. A terrible storm with 100 mile per hour winds ripped the tree out of the ground. Once again rescue workers worked together to salvage and redeem Survivor. At first, they only partially lifted the tree, packing in compost and mulch so as not to break the roots. For a long while they gently sprayed the tree with water to minimize the shock, hoping she'd make it. A few weeks later they set to work to get Survivor completely upright. Again, Survivor was resurrected from the dead. The next year Survivor was incorporated into the 9/11 memorial. She was planted near the footprint of the South Tower with its traumatized side facing the public (Jane Goodall, “Jane Goodall Reveals Her Lifelong Fascination With… Plants?” Smithsonian magazine, March 2013; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).