I am sure you will agree that there are some wild programs on television these days. Reality and game shows have gone absolutely nuts on prime time. Personally, I love watching Iron Chef America, although it is difficult to endure when I am hungry or when the special ingredient is my favorite food, scallops. Yum! But seriously, we can see a house being constructed for a needy family on one channel while a marriage is being destroyed for money on another channel. In fact, a few months or so back my family and I were sitting back and watching this family game show called, “My Dad is Better Then Your Dad.” This is a family television show where the kids have their dads play various physically active games to see who can get the highest score, and then of course the highest score becomes the best dad. As I was watching this show, I could not help but come up with two very quick and decisive thoughts. First, was that my daughter should never sign me up for this show if she knows what’s good for her; and second, was what an arrogant, prideful title the game show name was. Think about it… as children how many times did we walk around saying I am better at this, or I am better at that; or he likes me better, or I have more or mine is better? Where we not always told to rise above that type of attitude, and yet here we have a family game show, which is now rewarding families for maintaining and proving, that exact behavior!
You see all of these ideas and thoughts have one common factor. These are all based upon the sin of pride. And pride can be manifested in so many ways, through coveteosneous, through arrogance, through lies and deception, through emotional distress even through violent acts. What’s worse pride can reach each of us subtly over a period of time without our ever realizing that it has sunk its claws into our hearts. We may be living our lives, believing we are working strong for the Lord, not realizing that pride has been influencing our decisions.
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Prov 8:13 (KJV)
I know it’s pretty audacious to call pride one of the worst forms of evil, but I truly believe it is. I know you may be thinking to yourself, how can I possibly be comparing pride with violent evils such as murder or adultery, rape, stealing and so on… but in truth I do. To be honest I often see pride as the root sin to many of those violent sins.
I have always remembered a sermon my mentor, Pastor Tom Miller of First General Baptist Church of Waterford, Michigan did on covetousness. If I remember it correctly, he talked about how coveting can lead to various subcategories of sins within the Ten Commandments such as stealing, adultery, and murder. I agree with his thoughts exactly, yet I also believe pride truly expands to such a higher level, beyond the Ten Commandments, perhaps beyond the 613 Laws given in the Mosaic Covenant of Torah. Perhaps these subcategories of sins can reach into the first and foremost commandment,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. Matt 22:37-38 (KJV)
You see pride can replace the first commandment by placing yourself before God. By becoming concerned first and foremost with yourself or with your own flesh you have now altered Matthew 22:37 to read “thou shall love thyself with all thy heart and all thy soul and with all thy mind.” And when you do that you need to be clear with yourself what it is that you have done… for when you have changed that commandment, you have stepped outside the boundaries of Judeo-Christian beliefs into the arms of apostasy. Satan himself will become overjoyed at this thought. The idea that you are in control, the narcissistic idea that you are the center of the universe; that is opposing everything to what Christ taught. If you allow this idea of becoming a central figure of focus to continue you are literally becoming an idol, an idol god replacing the true Living God and you are now worshiping yourself. Thus you are becoming an apostate to God. And this is when any one of us needs to be careful, for in the Epistle to the Hebrews there are five very stern warnings against apostasy. One of the greatest reads…
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Heb 6:4-6 (KJV)
Those types of warnings cannot be ignored.
So what does this mean?
Simply that…
Jesus wanted us to be humble…
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Matt 23:12 (KJV)
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. James 4:6 (KJV)
By humbling ourselves we can then open ourselves to continued growth and sanctification in the Lord. If we become full of pride, arrogant, believing that we are the center of creation, we will literally close ourselves to the possibilities that the Creator will offer to us and withhold any hope of planting that seed of salvation that we hope to bring to the Lost.
Just think how pride could have changed the course of biblical history. In the Book of Genesis, the Patriarch Joseph went from the bottom of a pit to become a slave to become the second most powerful man in Egypt. Yet, he did not allow pride to consume him as his brothers, who were the cause of his original downfall, came before him to plead for food. Now if pride had taken over Joseph and he locked his brothers away in prison and thrown away the key, or had them executed or even exiled; then Jacob never would have come to Egypt, the Jews would not have been put into bondage 400 years later, there would have been no Passover, thus no Exodus, no Mosaic Law, everything as we know it would have changed.
In the Book of Esther, Esther entered King Xerses presence unannounced, a capital offence. She took a great chance that the king would hold out his golden scepter, which he did, allowing her to enter his presence and speak. But what if pride had taken over the King and Xerses had not held out his scepter. The Jewish people would then have seen an act of genocide as great as in the future attempted Jewish genocides during the Crusades, the Russian Pogroms and the Holocaust.
In the Book of Revelation, we are shown the future blessing and the work that will come forth with the 144,000 Jewish evangelists during the Great Tribulation. Scripture tells us that there shall be 12,000 Jews from each of the 12 Tribes of Israel (with the exception of Dan and Ephraim) within the 144,000. Yet, what do you think will happen if pride captures their hearts and these individuals only choose to evangelize to specific demographic of persons? How many Lost will remain unsaved during the Great Tribulation?
For was it not Satan’s sin of pride that said he was greater then God Himself? Did not Satan convince 1/3 of the angel’s that he was greater then God and did not he convince those angels that they could rise above the stations that God placed for them? Remember it was not a violent crime that was the downfall of Satan; anymore then it was the downfall of Adam from the Garden of Eden. How did Adam think he could get away with betraying the Lord? Did he think the Lord would not know? Adam’s flaw was, pride. The story of Cain and Abel… pride. The Tower of Babel… pride. Job… Satan attempted to convince God that Job was worshipping and remaining faithful to the Lord for the wrong reasons. Satan was attempting to convince God that Job was full of… pride.
Our we not setting ourselves us up for failure when we raise our own expectations of whom we are…
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Prov 16:18 (KJV)
By letting Satan fill our minds with arrogance are we not preparing our souls for future destruction? Think of all the countries and all of the useless wars that have taken place over the past two thousand years… in fact, let us just consider the Crusades, all that death, destruction and bloodshed all committed for the sake of pride. Truly that bible verse speaks volumes as it encompasses the human capacity to commit violent acts against another human being.
Now on the opposing side of that, let us look at look what can happen with the aid of Jesus when we overcome that pride. Remember what happened to the once proud Pharisee tough man who was soon destined to become a member of the Sanhedrin council…
And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. Acts 9:18-20 (KJV)
When Saul’s, Paul's, eyes were opened to the truth, when the pride was released, he saw what was real and what was false. For those of you who have read Paul’s epistles, which I hope are all of you, you know that Paul regretted and felt guilt for his actions against the Christian community for the remainder of his life. Yet, I believe it aided Paul in becoming a strong Apostle, a stronger evangalist, a better man, and a better Christian.
So why is pride so much worse of a sin then those violent crimes, truly because it is so easy to fall into the trappings of pride without our ever realizing it is happening! Let me give you a personal illustration from my life… it was either in the fall of 2007 or the early winter of this year that I received a very upsetting e-mail from a Messianic Jewish mentor of mine who informed me that we had to cut-off all future communications. He gave me no reason for the break in communications and as I respected this man so much and considered him a friend I was shattered. Now a few weeks latter a large Messianic Jewish organization out of New York sought me out to do some evangelistic and other work for them. Although I had disagreed with some of their doctrine in the past, which had now changed, I was eager to overlook everything because this organization was now boosting my injured pride that was hurt from the break in my mentors’ communication. Satan had found the perfect weapon to utilize against me and he knew how to get to me. Yet, this time I was prepared… not necessarily with myself, if I was alone, I would have been in trouble. But I wasn’t alone, Christ was with me and he provided me aid through my loved ones and my church. I was given the opportunity to speak with others and get outside views; I was given time of reelection and time of prayer. Let me repeat that one… time of reflection and prayer.
Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. Prov 13:10 (KJV)
Talk with your loved ones, your Pastor, your friends; for myself I have found that impulse decisions are not usually the best ones made, for myself they are usually wrong.
I know that I do not want to fall into the snare traps of pride that Satan has set for me and I know that no one has to. By placing safeguards and knowing your triggers you will always be protected. I have come to believe that most sins, including pride all have temptation triggers the same as many physical ailments do. Just as too much motion may give me a migraine headache or spicy foods may make my rosacea flare up and turn my nose beet red; I also believe that too much Messianic praise after a Messianic bashing may put me in a prideful frame of mind. So by learning our triggers we can better avoid these dangerous sinful situations. But always remember, Christ is there to aid us; he will never let us fall…
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Cor 10:13 (KJV)
Christ will forever prepare a solution for us. If one cannot be provided through ourselves then the Redeemer will provide one through others, but as 10.13 says, He will provide us a way to escape the temptations Satan throws in our paths to fall into pride.
You cannot live a successful life on a false ideal of pride. You may have an outcome of short-term rewards, but in the long run you will not win. There is only one Lord and he is the provider of life and all it’s riches!
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. 1 Cor 8:6 (KJV)
True happiness can only be found in the shelter and peace of Jesus the Messiah.
So I would like to provide you with five easy steps to combating pride:
5. No impulse decisions: be cautious think things through, do not let pride become your decision maker. Solomon called that folly and foolish and the way to destruction were as he called those who thought there was through decisions wise.
4. Think low vs. high: do not give yourself airs, regardless of the situation… always remember from where your gifts and disciples have come from, Christ. And don’t be upset if someone gives a slap on the bottom to wake you up from a prideful or proud moment, I know sometimes I need one.
3. Talk with you spouse, talk with your Pastor, talk with your friends, have Christian fellowship… and be OPEN-MINDED, you cannot allow yourself to throw fits when you here something you do not like. Anger must be held in check. If you feel a statement is inappropriate, just say, I feel that statement was inappropriate.
2. Be a servant
And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Matt 20:27 (KJV)
1. Read your Bible and pray!!!!!
Combating pride is as simple as that… and shouldn’t the best answers always come back to prayer and reading the Word of God?
God Bless you all
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