I loved Superman because he is so strong. When he dresses like Clark Kent with those glasses, he fools everybody right. He acts all weak and wimpy but you know under those glasses is the man of steel.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be Superman. I wanted his X-ray vision, wanted to bend steel with my bare hands, and most of all I wanted to be jacked like that guy. But if you didn’t know this, what’s interesting about Superman is he always had that one weakness, Kryptonite. When he was around Kryptonite he was just a normal human being, and everyone tried to take advantage of his loss of power, with all the villains using his weakness to destroy him. And that’s what will happen to us, we can be living a life that honors God, but there can be that one little thing that holds us back, our kryptonite.
See there is only one superman and he doesn’t even exist but sometimes we act like we are Superman or Superwoman. Sometimes we strut our stuff and act like we know it all or that we are better than everyone else. We try to look smarter and act stronger or more spiritual than we really are. Now the Bible says when we let that one thing in, we are being prideful and God hates it when we act that way.
You might be a little bit confused. You thought it was ok to have pride in yourself and that is true. We should feel good about ourselves when we do a kind deed or we make a good grade. We should feel good about ourselves when we make a difference in someone's life, someone's life or when we do something pretty cool on the sports field. There is nothing wrong with being proud of something you said or did and something you accomplished.
The sin of pride in the Bible is when a person acts like they are better than everyone else and they treat people like they aren’t as good as us. It is when a person walks around with a chip on their shoulder and they are easily annoyed with other people. Prideful people think they are a little bit smarter and a little bit stronger and a little bit superior to everyone else.
Just as Kryptonite rendered Superman powerless pride will eventually make us look like a fool and bring us to our knees.
In Isaiah 14:13 we see Satan full of pride thinking he was better than God. You know you have a problem with pride when you think you are better or smarter than God. Satan didn’t want to please God anymore. He wanted to call his own shots and do his own thing and his arrogant pride got him kicked out of heaven. Look at the number of times Satan says the phrase “I will” in these verses.
You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." Isaiah 14:13-14 (NIV)
Satan said “I will” 5 times in 2 verses of scripture. The problem for Satan is that he wanted everything to be about him. So when we act like that we are acting just like the Devil.
Now here is what is interesting about pride. Pride is easy to see in someone else’s life and hard to see in our own life. I don’t know why that is but you might be thinking, I am going to send this to so and so today because he acts or she acts like they are all that.
I don’t want you to think about someone else. I want you to look at your own life and see if the sin of pride is getting the best of you so let’s take a test. I know how much you love to take tests. The good news we aren’t; passing out grades. I want you to look at your life and test yourself to see if pride has the best of you.
QUESTION 1: DO YOU EVER THINK YOU ARE BETTER THAN SOMEONE ELSE?
Have you ever looked down on someone because they don’t have all the stuff that you have or they don’t know as much as you know or they aren’t as talented as you are?
Pride says, “I’m right, you’re wrong, I’m hot you’re not. You may be good but I am so much better than you.”
How many times have you looked at someone and thought what a weirdo all because they dressed differently than you or liked stuff that was different from you? I bet right now there are some kids in your school or some kids that you know that are seen as less than. And because we are so full of ourselves, we never take the time to get to know someone who is different from us because we are afraid of what everything thinks about us because prideful people have a reputation to protect. I can’t be seen with them. Right?
Pride tells us we are better than someone else but the bottom line is we are all sinners saved by the grace of God. None of us is better than anyone else.
QUESTION 2: DO YOU HAVE A CRITICAL SPIRIT?
Are you a complainer? On a typical day how many times do you complain about something? How often do you whine a day?
Are you a complainer? Is anything ever good enough or do you find fault in just about everything because no one is good enough and nothing is good enough for you because it is all about you.
When things don’t go your way, when you don’t like something or someone you let everyone around you know that you are upset because again it is all about you. How are you doing on the test so far?
A prideful person believes that what they like is all that matters.
QUESTION #3: ARE YOU A STUBBORN PERSON?
Are you always right and never wrong? When someone comes to you to share an issue with you, you turn it right back on them. You are a master of deflecting blame onto someone else and when you start to lose an argument you change the subject and attack on another front. Do the words “I’m sorry. I was wrong” get stuck in your throat.”
Do you listen to other people or interrupt other people’s sentences because what you have to share is more important than what they want to share? Are you the kind of person that once you have made your mind up nothing will ever get you to change your mind because you are so sure you are so right?
QUESTION #4: ARE YOU FULL OF YOURSELF?
Do you get mad when you don’t get enough likes or follows or shares? Are you consumed with the comments on your social media accounts? Does the opinion of others matter more than the opinion of God? Do you find that your prayers are all about you and what you want?
God hates pride because pride tears apart our relationship with Him and with others. Look at these scriptures and let’s see if we can figure out what the antidote to pride is.
Psalm 18:27: “You rescue those who are humble, but you humiliate the proud.”
Proverbs 3:34: “God mocks the proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.”
Isaiah 66:2: God says, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit.”
James 4:6: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 29:23: “Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.”
Luke 14:11 Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Did you catch the antidote? It’s humility. Humility is having an accurate view of who you are in God’s eyes. Humility is about living our life for God and for God alone. It’s saying I want what God wants for my life more than anything else.
When I think about a person who was humble in the Bible, I think about John the Baptist.
When Jesus arrived on the scene John the Baptist was the hottest thing around. He was the headliner and not the opening act. People were flocking to see him in the desert and everyone wanted to hear what he had to say and then one day Jesus showed up and everything began to change.
People who once went out to see John were now going out to see Jesus and John’s disciples were getting upset but all John wanted to do with his life was point others to Jesus. It was never about him. It was never about what other people thought of him or about being popular or even being in control, it was about lifting Jesus up. To paraphrase John the Baptist, he essentially said throughout his life:
“After me will come one who is more powerful than I am, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He must become greater; I must become less.”
John the Baptist understood that it’s not about me, it’s all about Jesus.
When we finally come to grips that we aren’t smarter or better than everyone else and we begin to realize that life isn’t about me then we are in a position for God to do some extraordinary stuff in our life. And that is what happened with John the Baptist and what did Jesus say about him. Jesus said John the Baptist “was the greatest man to ever live” because he knew who he was less than.
If you want to get rid of pride in your life then there are two things you need to know. You need to know
WHO YOU ARE
Romans 12:3 says, "ecause of the privilege and authority[a] God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us."
A humble person recognizes their strengths and acknowledges their weaknesses. Humble people admit when they made a mistake and they know how to take a compliment by simply saying “thank you” rather than saying, “Tell me more and let’s celebrate this good news together.”
A humble person realizes that “every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above.” James 1:17
When things go their way, a humble person gives credit to God because a humble person realizes that all his talents and abilities are given to us by God to be used to point other people to Jesus because it is not about us because it is all about him. And if you want to break the back of pride you have to know.
WHO GOD IS
When we begin to understand how incredible God is we will then begin to recognize how ridiculous it is to strut our own stuff about anything or to look down on anyone else.
God is wise, I’m not. He is holy, I’m not. He is pure, I’m not. He is God and I’m not. And I am here on this earth to point people not to me but to him. I am not on this earth to make my name great but to make his name great.
Are you a prideful person? Did something you read make you feel guilt that you haven’t really been humble? Then I want to leave you with a challenge, every day this week when you’re tempted to blow a story up about yourself, or make sure someone recognizes your greatness. Instead, think how would Jesus have me respond or how would John the Baptist have responded? Ask Him to help you all avoid your pride and choose humility daily.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
