The Devil's Schemes: Pride
Don't be unaware of the Devil's schemes to trap you.
The Devil’s Schemes—Pride
In our last teaching concerning the Devil’s
schemes, we exposed a bunch of traps used to stop you dead in your spiritual
journey. We were made aware of the deception, distraction, diversion, doubt,
discouragement, defeat, devouring, and destruction. We especially focused on
the trap of disunity. Briefly, I want you to understand that when you feel any
of these traps, you’re right they are a trap, the purpose is to catch you in
them. So when you start to feel distraction, doubt, discouragement, and the
rest know those situations to be what they really are, to derail your pursuit
of God.
Today we are going to look at another scheme of
the Devil and this one is Pride. I believe that there is both healthy pride and
unhealthy pride. It’s the latter we will consider. Pride is a child of egoism,
egoism is the Devil’s inner ally, that hijacks your best intentions. Egoism is
simply that tendency we have to do what we want when we want, to whom we want,
regardless of the consequences. We have talked about how to overcome egoism in
the teaching in October concerning sin. If you want a review visit our website www.hbcc.life where you will find video,
podcast, and manuscript for the messages.
So I looked closely in the mirror, so thankful
that the mirror didn’t laugh at me. You know those Snow White images, mirror,
mirror on the wall—and the image in the mirror breaks out in hysterical
laughter. So I am looking closely in the mirror and asked myself, “Self are you
proud?”
Pride is thinking that you’re all that and a bag
of chips. Even though I try to think of myself as a couple of tacos shy of a
combination plate, pride is a sneaky kind of devil. Pride is that deep feeling of satisfaction
when you are enamored with your own achievements. Yes, you are practically perfect in almost
every way. The proud are always right.
Scripture warns us of pride.
Proverbs 13:10 (NIV)
Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in
those who take advice.
When you are part of a quarrel within the body of
Christ, within your fellowship, it's most likely because of pride. Pride causes
arguments, birth strife creates sides, this is very different from a discussion
where together we hear one another out and seek the Lord to give guidance and
often ask for advice from some sage.
Proverbs 11:2 (NIV)
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with
humility comes wisdom.
Give in to the demands of pride and disgrace will
be your reward. You can think of disgrace as having chosen not to walk in
grace. Disgrace is a loss of reputation. I have seen pride destroy God's work.
I have seen pride crush someone’s heart. I have seen a number of folks I truly
respected, that because of their pride I pulled away from them.
Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit
before a fall.
Haughty is riding that high horse, it’s just
looking down on those you consider inferior, it’s arrogance that convinces you
that you know what’s right and anyone who disagrees with you is wrong. This
leads to the destruction of God’s work in you, in others and what God is trying
to accomplish in and through you.
The warnings are quite clear. Pride is not going
to help you in your desire to live your life to the full. Pride creates
division, disgrace, and destruction.
Proverbs 26:12 (NIV)
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is
more hope for a fool than for him.
The fool is one who disregards the counsels of
God. The fool has egoism as a master. The fool is blind to his or her own
folly. But there is more hope that a fool will turn from their folly than the
proud dying to self.
So I looked in the mirror and said “Thank you God
that I’m not proud. In fact, I am so humble that I am proud of my
humility.” Let’s see what Jesus has to
say about this.
Luke 18:9-14 (MSG)
[Jesus] told his next story to some who were
complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked
down their noses at the common people: "Two men went up to the Temple to
pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like
this: 'Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks,
adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe
on all my income.'
13 "Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the
shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, 'God, give mercy.
Forgive me, a sinner.' " Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the
other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the
air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be
simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."
How subtle to self is the trap of pride? “Thank
you, God, that I am so much better than other people. Look at all that I do for
you, I fast, I tithe. When you made me, you broke the mold. I am your gift to
humanity. You speak to me so that I see all, know all and can do all things
because that’s the kind of person you made me be.” Now we may not be so bold as to actually say
or even think this so blatantly but such statements accompany pride.
As I looked in the mirror I had to ask some
questions of myself.
Mike me lad—Sometimes the voice of the Spirit
sounds like an Irish priest. Mike me lad have you ever caught yourself saying:
“You aren’t going to talk like that to me!: (Kyle Idleman, The End of Me
p.68). Ah, well, maybe, ah, ok, yes.
“Well lad, just who do you think you are then? That’s your pride talking.”
Disciple of Jesus, when you are taken aback by
anyone you would offer you a word of correction, responding as if you were
insulted, that’s pride. You’re just hiding your real self from yourself. (ibid.
p.68).
Ever hear yourself saying: “I’m not going to be
the one to apologize.” That’s pride talking. Words such as “I was wrong, Please
forgive me” seldom if ever are uttered from the mouth of the proud. If a “I’m
so sorry” is produced it is often followed by a BUT. Everything before but is
to be taken, suspect.
Here’s one of my favorite indicators of pride:
“It’s not fair!” When what you want to
happen doesn’t happen it's not fair because certainly, you are deserving of
what you want. If you think you are deserving it will be very difficult to be
thankful. It will also be hard to celebrate another person’s victory,
promotion, or success. (ibid. p70) Pride convinces you that you are owed
because you are so wonderful.
Here’s one of pride’s traps that we talked about
last week that causes disunity in your fellowship with other believers. Have you
ever leaned over and whispered in someone’s ear: “Did you hear about…” Yes,
that’s gossip.
Proverbs 16:28 (NLT)
A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip
separates the best of friends.
Pride is a trouble maker. The purpose of gossip is
to put other people down so that you will look better. Besides, it diverts me
from my own mess and I get the satisfaction of seeing how miserable you are. If
you want to be an agent of the devil gossip, it will destroy a church real
quick.
Another problem with pride that I am well familiar
with is, ever catch yourself saying: “I don’t need any body’s help.” (ibid. p.
71). Pride blinds us to our desperate need for others, and especially God. “I
am a rock!” I am an Island!” I am self-sufficient. This kind of pride cuts you
off from others, you isolate yourself, you do not engage, because you don’t
need anybody. There is also a soul wound that is that root of this behavior,
people hurt you and you never want to be vulnerable again.
Lastly, pride convinces you that the problem can’t
be with you, it must be with them. Pride makes you a good flaw detector in
others. You can root out anybody’s imperfection and of course, let them know
that they have a problem. No blame on me, it’s all blame on you.
It’s pride when you catch yourself celebrating
someone else’s sin and failure. It’s pride when you are utterly convinced that
your won opinion is the only right one. It’s pride that makes you put on a show
and wear that mask so that others can’t see the real you. (ibid. p 73) Yes with pride dictating you do your
best to be impressive.
Did you catch a glimpse of yourself in that
mirror?
If the Holy Spirit has revealed to you that you
have a little pride getting in the way of being an effective disciple of Jesus,
then do what the tax collector did.
Luke 18:13 (MSG)
…the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in
his hands, not daring to look up, said, 'God, give mercy. Forgive me, a
sinner.'
The tax collector humbled himself before God.
James 4:10 (NLT)
Humble yourselves before
the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
You overcome pride by
humbling yourself before the Lord. Hear this clearly, “humbling yourself is not
beating yourself up or believing that you should be treated poorly.” (ibid p.
86) Instead, recognize where pride thrives in you. Confess the behavior as sin.
Repent of the behavior. Ask God to fill your soul wound with His truth. Start
doing the exact opposite of what pride urges you to do.
You need to own your
pride. Know your disease, you will know your cure.
Refusing correction; Never
being wrong; When you don’t ‘get what you want its unfair; you gossip; you
routinely refuse help; you’re never to blame; there is a glee inside you when
others fail; you obsess over what others think and say about you; you think you
are the only one who's got it right; these are all related to unhealthy pride.
Find them and confess them
to God.
1 John 1:9 (MSG)
“… if we admit our
sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to
himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing…”
Confession is agreeing with
God that your behavior is inconsistent with discipleship. Repenting is a
willful decision to not indulge a sinful desire again. Repenting is aligning
yourself with God’s desires for you. There is a reason, deep down inside you,
most likely you’re not even aware, but there is a soul wound that you have
chosen to use pride to hide. You have to spend time finding out the nature of
that soul wound and where it came from so that you can replace its toxicity
with God’s truth. Exchange the lie for the scripture that reveals the truth.
Then ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you with His power to start doing the
exact opposite of what pride urges you to do.
Accept correction, not as a
judgment against you, but as a tool to help you. Realize that you have made
mistakes and ask for forgiveness of those you offended. When you don’t get what
you want, receive it as God’s opportunity to do something that will mature you
in your faith instead. Speak only that which will build another person up. Open
up your life by asking people to help you. If you mess something up, take
responsibility for it, don’t play the blame game. Disregard what people say
about you and obsess over what God says about you. Be teachable and not a
tyrant listen to the ideas and opinions of others.
In doing these things you
humble yourself.
Jesus said:
Luke 14:11 (NIV)
For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
I want you to live an
exalted life. I urge you to choose to do so.
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