OK. Top 10 Sins and Struggles. This is lesson number 4, and tonight we're going
to continue with the countdown of sins and struggles that you listed on
your surveys. In case you're new to the class, maybe you if you're watching this
on video, you haven't seen the previous classes, about a month ago we handed out a
survey in this congregation and we asked members to list which sins and
personal struggles were most prevalent in their lives. This was an anonymous
survey, we didn't ask people to put their names on it,
we received a tremendous response and this series of classes is based on what
the church, the information that the church gave back to us, what you said was
the most troublesome areas in your spiritual life. So tonight we're going to
deal with the problem that was in seventh place. We're
doing it as a top 10 countdown;
so the 10th was laziness, anger 9, cursing and gossiping we did last time 8, and
coming in at number 7 is the sin of pride. So that's what we're going to talk
about tonight. So in the Bible there are several root
words in both the Hebrew language and the Greek language that are translated as
pride or proud in the English language. These Hebrew or Greek words in
various forms also combine to give us other words which are similar to pride.
For example, the word haughty or vain or boastful, arrogant, disdainful, insolent,
high-minded, and so on and so forth. There are a lot of words that are
associated with the idea of pride. Many words used to describe the different
shades, different manifestations of pride, but whatever the words, they always go
back to the source attitude which is pride. Now the Hebrew and Greek
words translated into English as the words pride or haughtiness are quite
descriptive of this particular sin, like it gives you a
visual description of it. For example, in the Old Testament the Hebrew words for pride
meant among other things to mount up or to rise or to swell or to be high up, to
ascend, to aspire to majesty, to presume, to be insolent, arrogant, to
appear above and so on and so forth. In the New Testament, the Greek words used
to describe pride meant also to inflate or to boast or to brag, one that I
thought was interesting was to consume without fire, in other words, all smoke, no
fire. They had this concept of what pride was, to consume something
without fire, and so all of these words were used to describe the sin of pride.
Now the words give us a picture and an idea of what pride is, but not
necessarily how pride is a sin. It tells us what people who are proud act like,
what you're looking for, but why is it a sin? Well, basically the sin
of pride occurs when we in some way leave or refuse to occupy our proper
place in God's design. So pride is usually exhibited in three main ways.
Number one, when we improperly estimate our worth. Paul says in Romans chapter 12
verse 3, "For through the grace given to me I say to every one among you not to
think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to
have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith." So we often
hear, we often read rather, or hear about people who have low self-esteem
and the many problems that this personality condition produces.
People with low self esteem, it creates a lot of problems in their
lives. Well pride is just, it's the opposite problem. A proud person has too
high an esteem of himself or herself. This heightened self-esteem is exhibited
in a variety of ways. For example,
arrogance. Arrogance is thinking one's rights are primary over others,
the complete disregard for other people's feelings or rights and so
on, that's arrogance. 'My way or the highway.' We're gonna do it my
way. You need to get out of my way. That's arrogance. Thinking that my right
to do what I'm doing supersedes everybody else's rights.
Boasting, setting forth one's own talents or possessions or actions as superior
because they're our actions. My way is better. Why? Well, because it's my way.
That's why it's better because it's my way. My things are better. Why? Because,
because they're my things, and so on and so forth.
Self-righteousness. Assuming that our conduct and our ideas and our lifestyle
are better because they stem from ourselves, self-righteousness. Haughtiness,
to assume that we are essentially more valuable because of the position we hold
in society. We're royal, movie stars, rich people, there's nothing wrong
with being rich, but sometimes rich people think they're better essentially
simply because they're rich. So there are other negative expressions of pride,
condescending, self-centeredness, but you get the idea, we don't have to beat
this to death, I think we understand what it means.
So pride expresses itself, first of all, as an improper estimate of our true
worth as human beings by ourselves. Another expression of pride
is when we measure our worth by the things that we possess. John the Apostle,
calls this the boastful pride of life. He says, "For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride
of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." Whether it's a house or a
car or an education, whether it's your name or the group you belong to, we feel
superior because of what we possess.
Another word for this type of pride is status or class. Much of the
advertising on television or magazines or whatever, online, they appeal to
this desire within people, they go right for this thing. The approach is
very simple. The approach says in a variety of ways, 'If you own this
fill-in-the-blank; car, TV, jeans, makeup, whatever, if you own this, you will be
special, you will be unique, you will be better, smarter, superior, because
you have this thing than those who don't have this thing.' This is why some people
will pay an extra 30-40% for a product that has a particular emblem on it. We
know, we know that, right? T-shirts without the logo, without the little
alligator or whatever the logo is, t-shirts without the logo are half as
expensive as the very same t-shirt that has that little logo on it. This is pride
by identification. Vicarious pride. Pride by exclusivity. We have a circle,
we're in this circle, you can't come in this circle because this circle is
special and we identify ourselves in this circle because of our name,
because of what we own, whatever. So we assume a special status by associating
with whatever name drop, product, or owning something that makes us better
somehow than those who do not possess these things. A third expression of pride
is self-sufficiency. This type of pride exists in the one who feels or believes
that they are sufficient unto themselves; I don't need anybody, I don't need you
and I don't need them, I don't need anybody. This is the person who believes
that they, and they alone, control their own lives and that whatever they have or
whatever they've achieved is a result of their own efforts. I mean that's true to
a certain extent, right? Again, I'm not criticizing successful people who have
worked very hard to arrive at where they have arrived, I'm not saying that
at all, but to think that your success and what you have is only because of
what you have done, no, that's pride. These people take great pride in
their accomplishments and they agonize over their defeats. You see if you're 100
percent responsible for everything you have and your success, if that's how you
think, well then you're also a hundred percent responsible for your failings.
That's a hard way to live, because when you're up on the top it's great, but when
you go down in the valley it's pretty tough. These are the ones that Paul
refers to in Romans chapter one verse 22 when he says, "Professing to be wise."
This type of pride begins with self as the center of the universe and measures
all else in the context of how it will positively or negatively affect self and
one's sufficiency. Now there may be other types of proud behavior, but they can easily be
fitted into one of these categories. Exaggerated self-worth, elevated status
derived from things, or the desire to be totally self-sufficient. So now that
we've described prideful behavior, and again I don't think I've revealed
anything that we don't already know, but we've kind of categorized it a
little bit, put some words to it, let's see why these attitudes are considered
sinful. We know that the word sin means missing the mark, so let's discuss how
these types of behavior miss the mark established by God. Here's the thing, God
is the one who established what the target is, not man. That's why the word,
the original word, in the original language, that is translated
into English, "sin", the original word means there's a target and
whatever you've done, whatever you've said or done, your attitude, your actions
whatever have missed the mark. Why is it sin? Well, because God is the one that
establishes the mark. OK? So let's look at exaggerated self-worth. When we
exaggerate our true value we basically are guilty of lying about ourselves.
That's the sin. Pride in this sense is a delusion about self and who we really
are. This false sense of self begins in our
hearts. Jesus says in Mark 7:21, "From within, out of the heart of men, proceed
the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries," what else? "pride," I
think I've got it on the next slide here, no, but if you go on He mentions the word
pride, comes from the heart. Isaiah the prophet explains that the
root of pride is the desire to leave our place
beneath the sovereignty of God and rise to a new and a higher place, even putting
ourselves above God in some instances. In Isaiah 14 he writes, "How you have
fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, sun of the dawn! You've been cut down to
the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 'But you said in your heart, "I
will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will
sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
'Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit. 'Those
who see you will gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, "Is this the man
who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms,"" interesting passage. Isaiah here
is talking about a king, OK, but in a prophetic sense, in a spiritual sense,
he's also talking about Satan and he's saying the sin... You know, you wonder what
was the sin that the angel made? The sin was he tried to elevate himself. The
beautiful, the morning star, that particular angel thought that he could
rise above the place where God had placed them and as a result God cast him
down, but the idea that this this passage is getting across is that
pride is a lifting up of ourselves, a lifting up of ourselves out of the
position that God has put us in as human beings. So Paul, he says that this
sin is so pervasive that it infiltrates everyone's heart to some
degree or another. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 he says, "Because of
the surpassing greatness of the revelations," he's talking about
revelations that God has given him as an apostle, so he says, "Because of the
surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me
from exalting myself," boy, talk about a guy who's self-aware, he says, 'I've seen,
I've seen God has shown me things that no human being has ever seen and in
order to protect me against lifting myself up because of this he says, "there
was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me --- to keep
me from exalting myself!" Imagine. So it is this essential evil thought that somehow
we are better than what God sees us as or for those who don't believe in God
better because of the value that we place on ourselves. It is this thought
within our hearts that drives the arrogance and the boasting and the
self-righteousness and the haughtiness and all the rest. So that's why
it's a sin, this desire to lift ourselves up above where God has placed us and
left to go all the way, we would lift ourselves up
even beyond God. Alright, let's look at another, why pride is a sin. When
it comes to pride based on the value of our possession the sin is idolatry. So
when we draw our value and personal worth from the things that we own or
associate with we are giving to these things the credit for who we are. This is
a form of worship. If a person does this he is investing his hope for self-worth
and value in something else other than God, so that when we do this,
you're wondering what's the sin here, well the sin is idolatry. I mean it's not
idolatry like the Canaanites had idolatry or that the Egyptians had,
they actually were on their knees in front of stone
statues or the stars in the sky, there's that kind of idolatry,
worshiping something other than God as God, but in this case we worship the
thing that gives us value, that's the thing that we worship. So the worship of
an idol is not only confined to bowing down to a statue or image, it includes
making God's out of the things we acquire or pursue by thinking that they
can make us better or happy. We begin with the primary idea, only God can
make us happy. He's the one that holds the key to our happiness. So when we
transfer the power to make us happy to a thing, well then that's a...
we've given the power that God has to this thing. In the end a drug
addiction, alcohol, at the beginning when that begins, they say
where's the sin? Well, yes, you're harming your body, but the essential
spiritual sin is idolatry, you're giving to that substance the power to make you
happy. So the psalmist says in Psalm 52:7, "Behold, the man who would not make God
his refuge, But trusted in the abundance of his riches And was strong in his evil
desire." Trusted in the abundance of his riches, whatever that is; physical
strength, monetary strength, intellectual power, political
power, doesn't matter what it is. How many people are
happy when they're on top and sad were on the bottom, because the thing that
gives them joy is winning at whatever, winning the argument, getting their way,
that's what makes them happy. See what I'm saying? So we can derive
satisfaction from our accomplishments, of course, and our possessions, this is normal,
but when things become the reason why we think we are better than others, then our
pride has given these things an evil life of their own. Alright,
pride in self sufficiency, why is this a sin? So self sufficiency is the type of
pride that is most condemned in the Bible, because the sin inherent in this
type of pride is that of denying God and His power over you. Previously I said
God's power in making you happy, in satisfying you and giving you what you
really need in life, here the sin is denying the power that God has over you.
Exaggerating our worth or elevating our own worth through things are sins which
are committed with the knowledge of God. So self-sufficiency however says that I
don't need God or there is no God or there's only me and as far
as my world is concerned I am God. When somebody says, 'Nobody's going to
tell me what to do,' well they've just basically said oh yeah
I mean if I were God I'd just be looking around for somebody to say
that, 'Make my day. Go ahead. Please, please say it. I've
got some thunderbolts I want to send your way.' So this dangerous sin
is condemned vigorously throughout the scriptures. For example, in Job 37:24 he
says, "Therefore men fear Him; He does not regard any who are
wise of heart." It's not that here, he's not saying God doesn't like people who
are wise, of course not, here "wise of heart" means he doesn't regard those who
think they're too smart or smarter than He is or so smart that they
don't need Him or so smart that they don't think He exists.
Psalm 10 verse 4, "The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not
seek Him. All his thoughts are, 'There is no God.'"
That's self-sufficiency. Next passage, Proverbs 6:16, "There are six things which
the Lord hates, Yes seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a
lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood." Haughty eyes. Proverbs
30:12, "There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his
filthiness." First Corinthians 10:12, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands
take heed that he does not fall." Again the unwritten thing, the unsaid idea,
is therefore let him who thinks he stands, in brackets, [alone, by himself, by
his own power], let that person be very careful lest he fall. And then one other,
First John 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the
truth is not in us." To deny that there is God, there is a God, or that we need God
or that we are under God's power is to sin. To say we don't have sin, the truth
is not in us. To think that our position or talent or wealth or health our very
existence is somehow achieved apart from God,
this is sinful disrespect and ingratitude. To think that our goodness
is self sufficient to stand before God is both spiritual ignorance and boldness.
You hear people sometimes that don't know a lot about the Bible,
they're not a lot of training in spiritual things make these bold
declarations, 'Boy, when I see God I'm going to tell Him,' and boy you're
saying, 'Don't say that.' To think that we don't need God every moment for
everything is the height of spiritual blindness from which few ever
recover. That's why this particular sin is so dangerous. You're not hurting God's
feelings. It's like you're on self-destruct mode and you don't even know
it. OK, so so far we've described the sin of pride and its
various expressions, we've also examined how exactly are these forms of pride how
are they sinful, why are they contrary to God's will and
therefore wrong. So let's finish our lesson tonight on pride with some
teaching about how to deal with this very common sin in our lives and I mean
it's almost you know we make this little caveat, 'Well, everybody has this...'
Well, sometimes that's true and sometimes that's not true, but pride, boy
it's very hard to live your life without ever falling into one of these
categories for a time, OK? So let's talk about pride as an exaggerated
sense of worth. A lot of times when we do things or say things to raise
ourselves up it comes from an incorrect view of our true worth.
Solomon says that it is foolish to brag to others, because they often see the
discrepancy between what you are and what you say you are. Proverbs 25:27 he
says, "It is not good to eat much honey, Nor is it glory to search out one's own
glory." It is better he says to let another
praise you, for this will be a more legitimate assessment of your worth.
Proverbs 27:2, "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and
not your own lips." And you know what? When somebody praises you, just say, 'Thank you.'
Some people go. 'Oh, no, no, really oh, that's not really true.'
My mother taught me if someone says I don't know whatever,
'I like your tie,' just say, 'Thank you.' Just say 'thank you.' It's OK, take a
compliment. In another proverb the Solomon says that
pride brings dishonor and not honor to a person. He says, "When pride comes, then
comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom." In Romans 12:3, Paul tells
Christians not to think of themselves more highly than they ought to, we read
that before. In other words, we should have an estimate of ourselves, but it
should be in line with reality. We should think no more or no less than what we
really are. The problem a lot of times is that people either
underestimate themselves, 'No, I'm not really that good,'
they set the bar extra low for themselves or they think it's being
humble if they improperly evaluate themselves and always lowball themselves.
Why? The Bible says try to have a realistic evaluation of yourself
If you have a beautiful voice and you sing beautifully, it's OK to say
that one of my talents is that I love to sing and I've been told that I have a
good voice, that's OK.
In other words, we should have an estimate that equals reality. We should
think no more, but no less than what we really are. In 2nd Corinthians 10:18, Paul
truly gets this issue of self-worth into perspective when he says the following,
"For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord
commends." And in the church, let others praise you. I had a young guy
write to me recently, just today as a matter of fact, on the Bibletalk website
and he asked me the question was, 'How do I know what my gifts are? How can I tell
what I'm good at or what my ministry should be in the church?' I haven't
written him yet, because I just saw that before we left to come to church, but I
was thinking about my answer and one of my answers, one of the points I was going
to make to this young guy is, what are other people in the church saying to you
about you? Are they saying that they enjoy when you lead a prayer and they
think that you're very thoughtful so on and so forth? Do you happen to teach a
class and you get a lot of great feedback? What are other people
in the church telling you? What are your elders (because I'm sure he's not an
elder, he's a very 20 years old), what are your elders (if you have any
in your church), what are they saying about you? Let the church tell you what
your strengths are. That's one way that God speaks to you through His
people. In other words, if the Lord approves of you, you are as
worthy and valuable as anyone can ever become. As a matter of fact for the
Christian, the only legitimate boasting is to boast about what Christ has
accomplished in you as Paul says, "And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient
for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will
boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." The best
things about my life, me, Michael, are the things that God has done in my life and
that's not just, 'Whoa, I need to add that because it fits with my lesson,'
that's the truth, that's my witness. If I had to make a list of
the good things in my life, I mean the good things in my life were either
given to me, right? My wife was given to me as a gift. My
education was enabled by others. My opportunity to serve was given to me by
the church. Whatever skill I may have as a teacher was given to me by the Lord
and so whatever things that I could look at and say, 'These are good,' they're all
things that have been given to me. How can I boast about that? The only boast
that I could technically make is isn't it amazing what God can do with a person
like me? Because I remember me before I became a Christian and I remember me as
a young Christian. Isn't it amazing what God can do with very little, very, very
little. So if boasting and bragging is the form
of pride that you may struggle with, remember that others are never impressed
by it and that the only legitimate boast is how much Christ has done to and
through you. Alright, let's talk about the pride of life or the pride of
possessions. In our nation this is the form of pride that affects the most of
us. We live in a very wealthy nation. We live in a very materialistic society
where the pressure to judge and value other people by what they
wear, what they drive, where they live, this is a very, very powerful thing. We
can't leave this society and go live in a cave or in a monastery; Jesus
said that we lived in the world but we must not be of the world, so how do we do
this? How do we not assume our value based on the things that we own? Well,
first of all we do it by keeping our priorities in order.
That's why Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, "Seek first His kingdom and His
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
There's two things there. Aside from seeking first God's will for my life, not...
people are always saying, 'I just want to know what Your will is for my
life,' and they're my life from here to 29 years from now, but that's
incorrect. It's Lord, what is Your will from my life
today? Because I don't have tomorrow, just today. What do you want me
to do today? How shall I act today? That's the priority, the other thing that's
interesting is that He says this is your priority, this is your work, this is where
you invest your emotional and spiritual energy into figuring out, 'Lord, what will
you have me do today?' And when you do that, He provides the things you
need. Sure, we work, we get a job, we save our money, of course, yeah, we
understand that, but He provides in the sense He provides through the
opportunities, He provides in His own way. But there's an interesting thing here, it
says, He's going to provide the things that you need, well and He also
provides how much of it you have.
He provides how much of it that you have. So we need to keep our priority in order.
First, the spiritual; God's will, God's Word, God's purpose, this is your first
priority, and then He's going to provide in His own way the things that you need.
Don't work for things. Don't pray for things. Don't be anxious for things. Work
for Him. Pray for the knowledge of His will. Be anxious to do what is right. He's
going to provide the things. And I know that's not easy sometimes when
the bills are coming in and the payroll is less than the bills,
but on the day that the payroll is less than the bills that's the problem for
that day and the prayer is, 'Lord, today this is the problem that I have. What
will you have me do? How can I resolve this? Help me in this.'
OK, we've got to move a little bit. Let's talk about pride as far as
self-sufficiency. How do we overcome this most dangerous form
of pride? Well, if you've recognized that you fall in this area, the fact that you
actually see it, boy, that's a sign of hope. Like all sins,
acknowledging is the first and greatest step. So I believe that there are two
ways that God deals with those who are self-sufficient, that's their pride,
'Nobody's gonna tell me what to do, I'm the boss, my way,' you know, that type of
thing. First, he warns them, he warns them. Psalm
49 verse 10, he says, "For he sees that even the wise," meaning the
self-sufficient, "for he sees that even the wise man die; The stupid and the
senseless alike perish And leave their wealth to others." And then in Matthew
23:12, he says, "And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles
himself shall be exalted." So the first thing that God does is He warns us
about this stuff. Through His word, through His people, God warns us of the
danger of this as well as every other sin. So some people hear the warning, they
repent, others ignore it to their own destruction and then secondly He
disciplines people who have this problem. Sometimes God breaks a person down
through trials and sorrows so that person will learn to lean on God. I
can tell you in my own life, trying to do it my way, I can remember one point; no job,
no money, no car, no home, I was living with the family, I was working for a
roofing company, a private roofer, this is after years and years of abuse,
years and years of living drugs and alcohol and craziness and all that kind
of stuff that got me to the point where I lost everything, nothing left, nothing;
no family, no money, no car, no job, nothing and I was living with this family and
the dad gave me a job working on his crew and my job was to run the truck
from all the junk around the house, you know all those shingles and all the
trash and I'd pick all that stuff up in the truck and I drive it out to the dump
and then I would dump the stuff and I would come back and that was my job
and I remember the day, I remember the day when finally in my head it clicked
'OK, you're God and I'm nothing,' because I was at the dump standing in the truck
having just dumped stuff and I was looking out at other people who were
dumping stuff and I saw a couple throwing stuff away and I saw them throw
a jacket away and I looked at the jacket, and don't forget now I mean at one point
in the 1970s I was making $100,000 a year
for the company that I worked for, this is in the 70s, and now I'm standing in this
truck and I'm looking at a jacket that this person has thrown in the dump with
all the birds foraging for the trash and I'm thinking, 'I think I'm going to
go for that jacket,' and I looked over and there was another guy looking at the
jacket and we were about to race in the dump to see who would be first to get
the jacket and it was at that point in my life when I finally said, 'OK,
there's no lower than this. I can't get lower than this. You're the boss. You're
the boss. I'm not the boss. You've made me into nothing, less than nothing,' and it
was after that, after that experience, that I came back to Montreal,
started reading the Bible, eventually was converted. In the end what God wants is
for us to completely rely on His word, His provision, His timing, His mercy, His
Son, His church, in order to become whole and pleasing in His sight. And so we lose
our self-sufficient streak of pride when we are often in His word, often in prayer,
patient for His will to be done, kind and generous towards others before self,
following His Son, serving His church. A lot of things there, a lot of ideas.
When this is our lifestyle, we have learned to die to self and to live for
Christ and pride, believe me, pride will never ever again be the issue in our
lives. Just think back to your own lives, the lowest point, just think back to your
lowest point and ask yourself did my pride help me or hurt me
at that point? OK, so much for number seven. We'll move on in our countdown
next week. Thank you for your kind attention.