The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride audio video notes. Pride causes us to look down upon others who have not experienced the success, clothes, car, house, education, family, or ability we have. God will meet with you and acquire your attention if we do not deal with pride.
PRIDE
By Pastor Delbert Young
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
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The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
Scriptures: Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 6:16, Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 16:5, Proverbs 13:10, Psalm 10:2, Obadiah 1:3-4, Matthew 22:37-40
We are beginning a new series today called “PRIDE.” Someone might ask, “What’s wrong with pride? Shouldn’t I have pride?” We’re not talking about virtuous pride as when we’re proud of our children or proud of others. We are talking about the depraved pride capable of damaging or destroying our lives.
Proverbs 16:18 PRIDE goes before DESTRUCTION, a HAUGHTY SPIRIT before a fall.
Wrong pride will destroy us. A person with haughty pride is a person who has a wrong spirit. We don’t usually think of someone who is prideful and haughty as having an evil or bad “spirit,” but they do. These are people who are arrogant, conceited, snooty, puffed-up, and vain. It’s not difficult to understand. We’ve all been around these types of people, and they’re repulsive. They attempt to make you feel inferior. They always know more than you, have more than you and do everything better than you. You can’t wait to get away from them.
What is it you detest? It’s the prideful, haughty spirit. I realize no one here has ever been like this, but I’m certain we all know someone like this. You might be looking at someone who has been and sometimes is this way. Haughty pride is dangerous. It puts us on the wrong side of the Lord.
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
(KJV) Proverbs 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A PROUD LOOK, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
The NIV says “haughty,” whereas the KJV says “proud.” Leading the list of the things the Lord hates is pride. Not only does the Lord hate pride, but it’s also an abomination (detestable) to him. Why is this? Don’t there seem to be more wicked issues to hate than pride? He says it again in Proverbs 8:13.
Proverbs 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I HATE PRIDE and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
No sin is more offensive to the Lord God than pride. Okay, but why?
Proverbs 16:5 The LORD DETESTS ALL THE PROUD OF HEART. Be sure of this: They will not go UNPUNISHED.
The Lord seriously has a problem with pride. Okay, Delbert. I’ve got this part, but why does the Lord hate and detest pride so much?
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
There is no spirit more opposed to the Spirit of God than the haughty spirit of pride. Let me show you what I mean. Pride shrinks, reduces, or stops our lives from being all we can be. We think pride helps us appear better, sound bigger, and achieve more. No.
Pride stops us from learning new things and admitting there’s a better way.
Pride stops us from admitting we need help.
And Pride stops us from admitting we don’t know what we’re doing even when everyone else knows we don’t know what we’re doing.
Pride stops us from admitting we are wrong. We’ll quarrel before we admit we’re wrong, i.e. argue with our spouse, parents, boss, etc.
Proverbs 13:10 PRIDE ONLY BREEDS QUARRELS, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Pride stops us from apologizing when we know we’re wrong or offended someone.
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
Pride stops us from celebrating the success of others.
Also, Pride stops us from being honest with ourselves, such as admitting we have an addiction. We say, “I can handle it.” No, it will destroy you.
And pride shrinks, reduces, or stops you from trusting and surrendering to God. Pride tells you, you know what’s best for you and you push God away. Why does God hate pride? Pride pushes God away and shrinks, reduces, and stop our lives from being all they could be.
Pride causes us to do things.
And Pride causes us to “secretly” rejoice when others fail.
We continue.
Pride causes us to be arrogant when we know we should be humble.
Pride causes us to cheat before we will lose.
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
And Pride causes us to lie about our past (failed marriage, education, terminations, etc.).
Pride causes us to have the final word.
Pride causes us to purchase things we don’t need to impress people who don’t care.
And, pride causes us not to serve God and rebel against God.
Pride shrinks, reduces, and stops our capability to hear what we need to hear. Someone will attempt to give us direction and genuinely help us, but the words bounce off our brain like a rubber ball bouncing off a brick wall. We’re too proud to hear.
Pride shrinks, reduces, and stops our capability to love people, and pride shrinks our capability to receive love from people.
Pride causes us to crowd people out, and pride fills us with ourselves. When we are full of self, there’s no room for anyone else. Furthermore, pride makes me important alone and selfish and lessens the importance of everyone else.
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
But, the bottom line of pride is not only how it stops me from hearing what I need to hear from people.
It’s not only how pride stops me from loving people and people loving me. It’s not only how it lessens the importance of people and fills me with the importance of me. Pride stops me from hearing the Spirit of God. Pride stops me from loving God and receiving God’s love for me, and pride lessens the importance of God in my life. I have no room for God.
Psalm 10:2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and REVILES THE LORD. IN HIS PRIDE the wicked DOES NOT SEEK HIM; IN ALL HIS THOUGHTS THERE IS NO ROOM FOR GOD.
Prideful people are arrogant and don’t care about people. They only use people. They have no need for the Lord. It’s all about #1, themselves. The more pride I have, the less room I have for God. I’ve got too many other important things happening to think about God or seek him.
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
Pride is a prison. It shuts us in and shuts God and people out. No one plans to go to prison. We don’t train or educate ourselves to go to prison, but pride does. Pride takes us to prison. No one plans to go to the prison of pride no more than they intend to go to a penitentiary. No one says, I want to have such pride in my life, I shut my spouse, my children, and my grandchildren out of my life. Also, no one says, “I desire to be so full of pride. Everyone important to me I should love, I will push away.”
No one says, “I’m going to be so full of the spirit of haughtiness and be so arrogant, conceited, snooty, puffed up, and vain no one will want to be around me. I will be so full of pride that there will be no room for God in my life.” And no one plans this, but this is exactly what pride does. Pride stops us from being who we should be and causes us to be who we shouldn’t be.
I like what Thomas Merton an American author said, “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.”
Benjamin Franklin said, “In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself. You see it perhaps often in this History. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility.”
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
Joyce Meyer said, “Pride is an independent, me-oriented spirit. It makes people arrogant, rude and hard to get along with. When our heart is prideful, we don’t give God the credit and we mistreat people, looking down on them and thinking we deserve what we have.”
Pride is in all of us. We can see it in others in an instant, but it’s nearly impossible to identify in ourselves. We recognize pride as arrogance in others. So we say, “I’m not arrogant, therefor I don’t have pride.” Oh, it’s there hiding behind something: your clothes, your house, your unique ability, your family, your education, your success, your car. It’s what causes you to look down upon others who don’t have the success, clothes, car, house, education, family, or ability you have. It’s there, and it’s where God will meet you and bring you down if you don’t deal with pride.
Pride is deceptive.
We think it deceives others, and perhaps it does some, but it deceives us. We have an interesting prophecy in the book of Obadiah.
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
Obadiah 1:3-4 THE PRIDE OF YOUR HEART HAS DECEIVED YOU, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, FROM THERE I WILL BRING YOU DOWN,” declares the LORD.
Obediah spoke about the nation of Edom, who dwelled in the high mountain fortress of Petra. In their haughtiness, they mocked God and thought they were invincible. Isn’t this sometimes how we feel? We have achieved a place in life, a stronghold from where we look down on people. We need to remember we are not out of the reach of God. Edom was not out of the reach of God, and they came down exactly as the Lord said. Their pride deceived them. Our pride will deceive us. No proud heart will go unpunished.
Why does God hate pride? One day Jesus was asked by an expert of the Law of Moses what commandment was the greatest.
Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these TWO commandments.”
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
Why does God hate pride? Pride shrinks, reduces, and stops us from loving God and shrinks, reduces, and stops us from loving people. Pride stops us from hearing the Spirit of God and hearing people. Also, pride causes us to lessen God in our lives and lessen people in our lives. Here is why pride leads the list of what God hates. Here is why there is no spirit more opposed to the Spirit of God than the spirit of pride. Pride puts you in a prison shutting you in and shutting God and people out. Pride stops you from loving God and loving people.
As we’ve seen, pride is a haughty spirit. Where is it hiding in your life? Let’s uncover it and learn to deal with it before it destroys us. You can be who you want to be and do what you need to do.
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
The Humility Challenge – How to Overcome the Grip of Pride
Other Related Sermons:
Pride sermon series audio video notes
When Filled With Pride Or Arrogant Heart
Pride and the Secret of Humility – sermon video audio notes
Sermon Series By Delbert Young
Also see:
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin