How many of you know a prideful person? They are kinda annoying right? So quick to judge and brag about their own accomplishments. None likes a prideful person. But have you ever noticed how easy it is to point out the pride in someone else and you totally miss it in yourself?
Today we are continuing our series in the book of James and we are going to take a look at the sin of pride.
As we start I want to be clear, there are obviously some things we should be proud of. We should take pride in a job well done. We should be proud when we get good grades or our team wins the big game. But there is a difference between that kind of pride and arrogance. The kind of pride that is self absorbed and thinks you're better than everyone else.
That is the kind of pride that we are talking about today. The kind of pride that all of us struggle with from time to time. The Bible says that God hates that kind of pride because it makes us believe that we don’t need God and that we can handle our life on our own.
In James 4, James shoots us straight between the eyes. Let’s take a look at this passage of scripture. James asks,
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?”
That word desire is based on the word “hedonism”. It’s the idea that life is all about me. It is all about my comfort, my kingdom; it’s all about my desires. It’s saying “I am the main character it’s all about me”
James says this is a huge problem because your,
Pride destroys Friendships
Ask any counselor today what tears relationships apart faster than anything else; ask them what causes more relational tension between family and friends and you will hear that counselor say without missing a beat that the problem is just plain old stubborn pride.
One of the most difficult things you and I will ever do is admitting that we have blown it; that we’ve made a mistake.
Do you want to know if you are a prideful person? Let’s take the pride test.
James says, “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.”
For prideful people everything is a competition. It is all about me. My house, my car, my stuff, my looks, me, me, me, me. If someone has a little more than you, you become envious and jealous of them saying all kinds of evil about them behind their back. We may have never killed anyone because of our pride but I wonder how many people we have wounded with our prideful words.
Do you think God exists for you or do you exist for God? James says,
“You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:3
Prideful people don’t pray for God’s wants. They pray for their own. God give me the girl, give me the guy, give me that spot on the team, give me the instagram followers, give me, give me, give me. They attempt to manipulate God for their own benefit. Prideful people want the stuff of this world more than they want to be close to God.
James says,
“You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?” James 4:4-5 (NIV)
One translation says God jealously longs for us. Our God is a jealous God and he doesn’t want anything else to be more important to you or to me than him. Not your stuff, not your job, not your ego, not your looks. Nothing. God says, “You have committed adultery on me. You have not been faithful to me because you care more about those things than you care about me.
Now we can understand how God will feel that way. We see how much it hurts when someone finds out their boyfriend or girlfriend has been cheating on them. We see the pain and drama it causes. Because in a loving relationship you want all of that person's love. Not part of it. The same is true in our relationship with God.
We are to love God with all of our heart and all of our strength and with all of our life. Pride not only destroys our relationship with others,
Pride destroys our relationship with God
Look at what James says next.
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6
I don’t know about you but I don’t want God to oppose me. God says if you want to be full of yourself just understand that I will oppose your plans and your agenda. I will oppose you because of arrogance. Friends, that’s not good. That’s not good at all.
What should we do? James gives us the answer.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:7-10
The first thing he says is we must submit ourselves to God.
None of us would be anything without God. All of our gifts and talents and abilities; all of the stuff we have all came from God, and all of that is to be used to give God glory and not us.
To submit to God means you lay it all down before him and you allow him complete and full access to do whatever he wants with your life and with the stuff he has entrusted to your care.
How long has it been since you told God “You are in charge. Do whatever you want with my life” We need to pray that kind of prayer daily or pride will take over
That’s why the second thing we do is
We must resist the devil.
It was pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven. He wanted to be God. He wanted to be in charge. It was pride that was the downfall of Adam and Eve in the garden. Satan said don’t you want to be like God. So Eve took the fruit and gave some to Adam and all hell broke loose.
Satan has been playing the same tune for a long time getting people to dance and that song only ends in heartache and pain. When Satan whispers in your ear how you are all that shout back in his face, to God be the glory of the great things he has done. Every breath I breathe and everything I do I will give him the credit because life isn’t about me. Life is all about him.
We must draw near to God.
The closer you come to God, the closer he draws to you. And the closer you get to God the more you will understand how amazing God is.
Wayne Cordero tells a story about his daughter Abigail. When she was a toddler, she had slept in he and his wife’s bed when Wayne was traveling. But when he came home, she would be required to sleep in her own bed.
Wayne had just returned from a trip to Japan and he crawled into bed for some long-awaited rest. Within a few minutes, his daughter was standing next to the bed asking if she could sleep with them. Wayne said, “No, now go to back to your own bed.” The little girl left for a moment but then she came back still wanting to sleep with them. He again told her “no” so she asked “Can I sleep on the floor by the bed.” Again Wayne said, “No, go sleep in your bed.” With that he exited his daughter out of his room and locked the door behind him. Early the next morning, Wayne got up and unlocked the door and opened it. He looked down and there was his daughter half-covered by her baby blanket, lying on the cold tile floor, sound asleep. She had found her way to the closest possible point where she could be near to Mom and Dad. The hardness of the floor didn't matter, only that she was near them. How close do you want to get to God? You and I are as close to God today as we have chosen to be. Could it be the reason we aren’t as close to him as we would like to be is because we are still trying to do life on our own.
How close do you want to get to God? Close enough to get up a few minutes early and spend some time with him in the Bible and prayer? Close enough to invite him to lead you throughout your day? Close enough to consult him in every decision you make?
Finally,
We must get honest about our sin.
James says, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
If we want to break the back of pride then we have to get honest about our sin. Here is the truth about me. I am a sinner.
I have found this to be true in my life. The times I get full of myself are the times when I am not confessing my sin to God. How long has it been since you fell on your knees and confessed your sin to God? Confessing our sins daily will break the back of pride.
So if we’ve been letting pride win, what should we do now? Hearing this message doesn’t change much for our lives or our potentially destroyed relationships. Today we need to evaluate have we been honest about our sin? Have we been humble before God and running from the devil in this way, or do we think we can do this all together ourselves. I want you to write down the top 3 things you’re proudest of in your life. Write down the great things you’ve done or been a part of, maybe it was getting all As last year, or a sports record or musical accomplishment you just completed. Now, at the bottom write how well you would've gotten any of those things done if God didn’t wake you up each morning, if God didn’t give you the air you breathe, the tools it took to complete the project, or the mind to keep functioning the way it did. If you’re like me, you’re left with a blank page of possibilities without God. So instead today, let’s take time to pray and ask God to give us guidance and strength as we need it while living in humility.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
