Jeff Durbin: Pride & Destruction | Proverbs 11:2

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If you want to open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs chapter 11, Proverbs chapter 11.

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We are, if you're new, in our series of working through verse by verse through the book of Proverbs.

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This is God's book of wisdom. It is not just a book of knowledge, filling our minds with abstractions and truths out there, but it's a book of how to apply that truth, skillful living.

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That is wisdom. So we're in Proverbs chapter 11, Proverbs chapter 11 in verse 2.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. When pride comes, then comes disgrace.

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But with the humble is wisdom. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's praise God's people. Lord, as we open your word today, God, we recognize that this is you speaking.

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These are the words of the living God. And Lord, with what we have before us today, the only way that transformation and renewal can happen in any of our hearts is through your spirit.

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I do pray, God, that you would work on our hearts and minds even now to expose this, what is so central a sin, connected to so many others.

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This part of our heart and our lives that we guard and so protect.

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I pray that by your spirit, you would teach today that you would get the teacher out of the way.

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You'd move by your spirit through the proclamation of your word. Lord, for your glory, for your kingdom, for your purposes, and for your light in the world, deal with your people now.

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Help us, Lord, to put this sin to death and to pursue you and be conformed to your image, whether as fathers, husbands, men, mothers, wives, and women, or as children.

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By your spirit today, convict, bring repentance, and bring healing and life and strength.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So this is a big one, human pride. When pride comes, then comes disgrace.

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But with the humble is wisdom. Human pride is at the root, is at the root of so many of our sins.

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When we sin, we don't tend to sin just in isolation with just like one sin. Sin comes generally with a network of sins, holding hands, clasping, grabbing together.

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And pride is often that sin that is at the heart of so many other sins.

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We generally sin with a network of sins that are grasping hands. Pride, arrogance, haughtiness, insolence is present within most.

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Pride, human pride, arrogance, self -exaltation guarantees destruction according to Scripture.

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Pride, according to God, will bring disgrace always. Pride will keep you,

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God promises, from God's grace. Pride will prohibit obedience.

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We won't be able to walk with God, to glorify God, to enjoy God forever with the sin of pride within us.

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Pride will ruin our relationships, our friendships, our church life, our marriages.

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Pride will ruin all relationships. It's a disease that infects and then ends up killing.

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Pride will destroy your marriages. Pride will rob you of joy. The text says, when pride comes, then comes disgrace.

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There's a causal relationship between pride and disgrace. And it says, but with the humble is wisdom.

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The Hebrew word here behind this, and we of course are reading the English translations, the

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Hebrew word for pride is variously translated throughout the Bible in English as insolent, arrogant, proud.

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And this word and this sin is generally associated in Scripture with haughtiness, haughty eyes, being puffed up.

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Now, in terms of like getting to the core of like, okay, how do I identify with the pride?

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How do I get a sense of it? How do I understand what God is aiming at here? I think a lot of it is instinctive for us.

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Like when we hear it, we know, right? When we hear it, we know, we understand. Or when we see it in somebody, we tend to know.

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We have sort of a symbolism attached to pride. Maybe it's a famous politician or it's a famous actor or it's somebody in your life.

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Personally, you have sort of a symbol attached to arrogance and pride in your own minds. And oftentimes, we avoid putting ourselves into the symbol.

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But we generally recognize it when we hear it. Arrogance, haughtiness, pride, some quotes, all right?

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Just to sort of break the ice here and put it on somebody else. We tend to hear it in something like from Muhammad Ali.

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Muhammad Ali, amazing boxer, of course, we understand that. Muhammad Ali is famous on record for saying, it's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am, right?

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There we go. That's, goodness gracious, that's haughty. That's arrogant, that's prideful. Or for the young ones,

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Drake. Drake says, I'm allergic to coming in second, but I never sneeze.

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You'll get it, okay? All right, there you go. Okay. Or another famous quote from Drake is, his last name is greatest, his first name is ever.

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We recognize, so that's pretty prideful, that's pretty haughty. I'll give you another one from a famous false prophet,

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Joseph Smith Jr. This is one of my very favorites in terms of identifying what unbelievable haughtiness and arrogance.

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He says in History of the Church, volume six, page 408, he says, quote, come on ye prosecutors, ye false swearers, all hell boil over, ye burning mountains, roll down your lava, for I am come out on top at last.

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I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I'm the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam.

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A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it.

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I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from him, but the

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Latter -day Saints never ran away from me yet. Whoo, girl.

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That is, that's a big one, right? That's a big one. I'll give you some more quotes, and we tend to feel these again.

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We just sort of instinctively feel it, get a sense of it, we understand that's haughty. That's definitely arrogant. I won't even tell you who the quote's from.

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I'll just read the quotes, okay? I think nobody knows more about campaign finance than I do.

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I know more about people who get ratings than anyone. I know more about ISIS than the generals do.

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I understand social media. I understand the power of Twitter. I understand the power of Facebook. Maybe better than almost anybody based on my results, right?

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I know about courts more than any human being on earth. Who knows more about lawsuits than I do?

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I'm the king. I understand politicians better than anybody. Nobody knows the system better than me.

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Nobody knows more about trade than me. Nobody knows the system better than I do. I know more about renewables than any human being on earth.

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I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do. Maybe in the history of the world. I think you know who we're talking about.

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But generally, we recognize it instinctively when we hear it, when we're watching it take place right in front of us, but oftentimes we won't be willing to actually do that self -assessment and to look into ourselves, the part of our hearts that we guard the most.

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Pride is a central part of so many sins. Now here's the deal. When we talk about this particular text, it's a consequence that says when pride comes, then comes disgrace.

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There is guarantee from God. These are the words of God. It's how he built the world. It's how it works.

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Babies are built a certain way to nurse from their mother's breast. That's how the machine operates. Human sexuality works the way it does because that's the way

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God built the world. Gravity works the way that it does and you can get a sense of it all the time because that's how

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God made the world. Here's how God also made the world. When pride comes, then comes disgrace.

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It's a guarantee from God. He spoke it. I guarantee you, disgrace. You are haughty.

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You self -exalt. You see yourself as the most important. Then God promises disgrace and all sin separates image bearers of God from God.

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However, this is really important to grab hold of as a Christian because we tend as Christians to say, well, all sin's the same.

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Well, all sin will separate you from God, but no, not all sin is the same. There is a massive difference consequentially and in terms of God's hatred when you talk about the person that steals the number two pencil and the person who violates a woman.

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Massive difference. And in terms of this sin of pride, yes, all sin sends you to hell.

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All sin separates you from God. All sin disrupts the peace of God with the image bearer.

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But the sin of pride holds clearly a special place in Scripture as God identifies it as something that he especially hates, loathes, and detests.

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So as an example, in Proverbs 6, you're in Proverbs now, just move back a few pages.

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We've already been here as a church unpacking the text in Proverbs 6, but just to highlight what

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God says about pride, arrogance, haughtiness. He identifies this particular sin in a list of sin that he especially abominates and loathes.

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In Proverbs 6, verse 16, it says this, there are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him.

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Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breeds out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

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We should pay close attention to God as his people, as his children, when he says, here's a list of things that I particularly loathe.

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These are the things that I really hate. We should hate what God hates. We should love what

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God loves, amen? And so when God says, here's a list of things that in particular are loathsome to me.

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I detest these things. I hate these things. I resist these things. We should take special note of the fact that God says he hates and abominates haughty eyes.

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He also says he abominates the one who is arrogant and guarantees that they will not escape punishment.

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Same book, Proverbs 16 now. Go to Proverbs 16, verse 5. God expresses this in another way.

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In 16, 5, he says, everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the

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Lord. Be assured he will not go unpunished. So he promises that you will not escape my punishment.

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The haughty, the arrogant in heart is an abomination to God, loathsome, detestable.

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And again, I like to emphasize this, and I know that I've done it a lot as we've been going through Proverbs, but it's important for us as Christians to really embrace the reality and not to be hypocrites.

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When God in his word speaks about a particular sexual perversion and he says this is an abomination, this is toi va, this is something that's loathsome to me, we can't as Christians highlight those sexually perverse things and say, well, that's an abomination.

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We like to throw that word around because it's appropriate when we talk about what's happening in our culture around about us right now.

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But as Christians, if we're going to have integrity, we need to also recognize that God also abominates, detests, loathes, toi va, haughty eyes.

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And he promises, guarantees, he says, rest assured you can take it to the bank.

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It will absolutely be the outcome. He says you will not go unpunished.

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The one who is arrogant in heart, you are an abomination to God. He guarantees hopelessness for the proud.

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Go to Proverbs 26 now. Proverbs 26 in verse 12, God promises hopelessness for the proud.

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He says this in verse 12, do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

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Wise in his own eyes. That's how he thinks about himself. He's wise in his own eyes.

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It's not somebody else attesting to the wisdom. It's not somebody else pointing it out.

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It's not somebody else experiencing the gift of this person's wisdom. It's a person who is wise in their own eyes.

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It's their own assessment of themselves. He says, do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

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There is more hope for a fool than for him, which is to say there's no hope.

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There's no hope for the person who is wise in their own eyes. The arrogance, the haughty, and God also says that while the proud thinks that their self -exaltation is the path to being honored.

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Now note this, very, very important. While the proud thinks that their own self -exaltation is the path to being honored,

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God promises that they will ultimately be laid low. Proverbs 29, 23.

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29, 23, it says this, one's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

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Now, this is particularly important today because, just as an example, let's take aim at one issue.

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Because of the wave of feminism, because of people denigrating manhood, destroying manhood, and because people have emasculated men in this culture, because we have so many malachoy men, effeminate men in our culture, there is this new wave of strange, sort of like crazed masculinity happening today with popular talking heads like Andrew Tate and things like that.

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And some of the things that a popular talking head like Andrew Tate has said are true. They're good things.

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And that's why young men are so attracted to them because they get a sense of just what is so wrong and what they are robbed of in today's culture in the media in terms of people denigrating manhood.

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And so young men hear someone like Andrew Tate and they go, he's saying good things. It's good to be a man.

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It's not wrong to be a man. But what they fail to see is that this is this inflated, arrogant, haughty manhood.

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It's this overboard, abusive, overconfident, haughty manhood that thinks that if I think that I'm the best, if I exalt myself, if I am self -exalted, if I promote myself, then, then

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I will be respected as a man. Then I'll be seen as a wise man because I need to sort of like build it up in myself and sort of portray that and be wise ultimately in my own eyes.

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And Scripture goes the other direction. If you want to be exalted, if you want to be seen as wise, if you want to be in the top spot, then you must, like Jesus, the perfect man, be made low.

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You must be made low to be exalted. And that's what the text says. That's the point. Proverbs 29, 23, one's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

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One more text on this point, Proverbs 18. Go back 1812. And I love the book of Proverbs because it's like Bonson said.

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It's like this, this bottle of pills of wisdom. You can take each one, put it into your system and let it do its work.

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Let it work its way through your system. And we have all these different ways to say essentially the same principle.

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Proverbs 18, verse 12. The text says, before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

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That's another way of saying exactly the same thing. There's a causal relationship. You want to follow the train?

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You want to see where it's headed? There's a causal relationship. It's pride, always pride, always haughtiness that is before destruction.

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But humility in God's world, the way he built the world is the way to honor. That's what scripture teaches.

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And God promises us that there is a causal relationship between pride and destruction.

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Here's the famous one. You were waiting for it. Proverbs 16, 18.

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Proverbs 16, 18. It's the one that everyone knows. It's the one passed around the most.

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This is the one that everyone has memorized. You know it before I say it. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

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There is a causal relationship in God's world in terms of destruction and fall happens as a consequence of and before the haughtiness and the pride.

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That's the causal relationship. We all understand it. This is the way that God made the world. If I take this right now,

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I hold this up and I tell you I'm about to let go of my finger. What do you know is going to happen? Tell me. What's going to happen?

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Would you be unbelievably shocked if I let go of my fingers right now and this thing floated in the air?

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Right? Right? We'd be like, whoo! Break out like the new revival or something. You'd be like something crazy going on, an apology at church.

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You know what's going to happen. This is the way God ordered the world. That's what happens. You know what happened to me this morning?

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This morning, my lovely wife who is like the most amazing cook in the world and is always finding some ways to perfect some new things she's going to make and be an expert in.

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She decides she's going to make bagels, homemade bagels, like from scratch, sourdough, like just, I mean, it's amazing.

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She can pull like magic out of the air and do this stuff. She's like, I'm going to make bagels. It's going to be the bomb. She didn't say that. I said, they're going to be the bomb.

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I already know it. But what's amazing is my son, Augustine, he knows. He's three.

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He understands at this point that the stove is hot. It's hot, right?

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He's known that since he started crawling, like stay away from the stove. The stove is hot. Augustine knows.

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Don't touch the stove. The stove is hot. The stove will burn you. We didn't neglect that. We're not terrible parents.

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We're not perfect parents, but we're not terrible. He knows. Don't touch the stove. And what happened is the stove is open.

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Augustine walks up with all of his experience in this world and decides to just put his hand inside of a hot stove that was like cooking for a while.

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And what happens? What happened? What do you think happens? He burned his fingers. He burned his fingers.

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It's a guarantee. There's a causal relationship and everyone understands this is the way the world works. If A, then

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B. If you do this, here's the consequence. And listen, we understand it instinctively with the bottle.

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We understand it with the stove. We understand it in so many areas of our life. We understand it. And here's where we generally don't get it and we won't embrace it.

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If you want destruction, if you want to be brought low, then this over here, the consequence of the fall, is going to be led first by haughtiness, pride.

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It leads to destruction. All the time. Every time. God says it will not go unpunished.

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Now what's interesting is that Scripture speaks so much. This I want to say, of all the messages that we've done so far in the book of Proverbs unpacking, this is one of the hardest ones to fit into a single sermon and just move on to the next because Scripture talks about this sin and this issue with so much abundance.

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I struggled this week figuring out how do I condense all of this together into a single point, into a single coherent message because God says so much.

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You could literally from this day forward until we all go home to be with the Lord, two messages on what

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Scripture says about pride and humility. It is that much. It's overwhelming. But there's a particular point in the book of Psalms.

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We did it. Tim did it right as we started here today. Psalm 10. Go to it. Psalm 10 gives you a divine insight into the inner workings of the arrogance in their various sins against God and against others.

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Psalm chapter 10. In Psalm chapter 10, listen to how it starts off again.

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This is God's word. Here's a divine assessment of the inner workings of the haughty.

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Here's what it says. Psalm 10 verse 1, why, O Lord, do you stand far away?

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Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In arrogance the wicked haughtily pursue the poor.

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Let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul.

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And the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord in the pride of his face.

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The wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are there is no

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God. There is no God. His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high out of his sight.

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As for all his foes, he puffs at them. Puffs at them. He says in his heart,

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I shall not be moved. Throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.

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His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

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He sits in ambush in the villages and hiding places. He murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless.

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He lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket. He lurks that he may seize the poor. He draws the poor when he draws them into his net.

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And then of course in verse 12, there's the turn of the song to God. Arise, O Lord, O God.

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Lift up your hands. Forget not the afflicted. The psalm of course turns into the judgment upon the prideful, the haughty, and the wicked.

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Now, as a final point in terms of Scripture dissecting down into the heart of the haughty, the heart of the arrogant, the heart of the prideful, the

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Lord Jesus in Mark chapter 7 addresses the sin of arrogance and pride.

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You're familiar with this. It's a famous one. In Mark chapter 7, starting in verse 14,

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Jesus is dealing or engaging in his day with people who are so focused.

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You know this. Religious people tend to do this. They're so focused on the outside. Looking on the outside.

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Just right. Just righteous. Putting on the God face. Doing all the right things so everyone sees me doing all the right things.

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Staying away from this. Abstain from that. Look holy. Look righteous. Look righteous. Outside is everything.

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And in verse 14 it says, And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.

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And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them,

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Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled?

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Now this is important. Verse 20. And he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

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Now notice what Jesus does here. He's dissecting the inner heart, the inner workings of a person.

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He's saying it's not the outside things that are the defiling things, it's what's in you. And the list that he gives, he could give a list of a thousand sins, but the list that he gives looks like this.

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From within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, and pride, foolishness.

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All these evil things come from within and they defile a person.

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So for the Lord Jesus, who is God incarnate, he is wisdom literally walking among us.

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Wisdom walking among us. He addresses this core issue of pride as heart.

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Heart. Now here's the danger. Here's the danger. Right now with a message like this.

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The danger in a message like this is we often will hear this message and we start immediately thinking about the person that is arrogant, the person we know that's prideful, the person we know that's puffed up, the person we know that's wise in their own eyes.

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Here's another danger. You could come in here right now and just be doing the religious experience.

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You're not even really listening. You're doing your time. Or you're a teenager in here, you're a child in a

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Christian home, and you're coming right now doing your time. You're sitting in the pew doing your time.

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This message has no relevance to me. I don't need to listen. I can check out. I can talk to my friends.

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I can be indifferent to this because this doesn't really apply to me. And the answer is you're prideful.

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You are so arrogant and haughty to think that this message isn't about you. It is about you.

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It's about all of us because this sin of pride and arrogance and haughtiness is in all of us.

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It must be continuously put to death until the Lord takes us home. And for some of us, maybe there's been sanctification in our life with haughtiness.

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I hope that's true. I know it's been true in my life, but it's not completely vanquished. We have to continuously put this to death in our life.

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And let me just say, pride, arrogance, haughtiness is at the center of so many conflicts.

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In the family, in the church, in marriages, in relationships. Pride is generally at times actually what creates wars.

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People are so prideful that they have to be right. They have to make the right move. And so they can be completely wrong at times about the facts.

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It doesn't matter. We're going to kill. We're going to move forward. We're going to destroy lives.

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We're going to destroy livelihoods. And it doesn't matter if we're ultimately really right. We're saying it's right.

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It's pride that is the heart of so much conflict. It's a heart issue, Jesus says, that we must all face.

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You see, here's the deal. Can we be honest? Take a breath and think through this with me for a second. In terms of arrogance, haughtiness, pride.

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We know, and they don't. When there's conflict, how do you generally think?

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We know. I know. They don't know what they're talking about. I know. We think we're smarter.

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We think we're wiser. We think we don't need instruction.

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We think we're better. We think we're more valuable. We think we matter the most.

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We think that nobody can tell me what to do. Now maybe there is a spectrum on how we actually express those thoughts, but those are the thoughts that are generally in our hearts to some degree.

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We don't need instruction. We don't need someone to tell us what to do. And what's the core of that pride?

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We're wise in our own eyes. We're haughty. We're arrogant. We think we're better. We think we know.

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We look down our noses with personal favoritism at others because, let's be honest, we think we're better.

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We think we deserve more honor than them. We think we're exalted above the person.

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And so when we show personal favoritism in conflict or just in life generally, it's because we're the center.

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Because we're the determiner. We're the most important. We're the most valuable. And so that's the center, the core of the conflict.

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But remember what does God promise? Pride, arrogance, haughtiness will lead to what?

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Will lead to what? Destruction. Every time. God says, I promise you, it will not go unpunished.

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And so you can run on for a long time, but what? Sooner or later, what?

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God's gonna cut you down. Sooner or later, God will cut you down. And this particular sin of haughtiness, arrogance, pride, being puffed up, this sin is present and we all understand this.

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We know the stories. You could probably already give me a list of them right now. We know the stories that are present in the scriptures about all the greatest failures.

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The biggest face plants you know in the Bible are motivated to some degree by pride.

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So let's just take some names. Let's pull out Peter. Now let's be fair to Peter.

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Apparently he really learned his lesson. He's sanctified just like you're being sanctified.

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But how'd you like your failures to be on the pages of like divine writ for like throughout eternity?

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Peter's there. You know the scene. Matthew 26. What happened? Jesus said to Peter, you will all fall away on account of me.

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So he's warning them. He's about to be crucified. And he says, now this, goodness gracious, that's

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Jesus. It's God. Like, this is such a weird thing for me to even think that this actually took place.

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But it did take place. Jesus who is God in the flesh says to Peter, you're all gonna fall away on account of me.

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And what's Peter's response? What's Peter's response? Even if all fall away,

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I, what? Never will. It's like you just, it's like that, it's like you'd catch the cringe off the page, right?

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You're like, ooh, bad move, Peter. So Jesus lets him know, okay, actually, before the three times, you'll deny me.

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You know the story. This is the perfect example of pride. Here's God telling you, this is going to happen.

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He says, never happen. Never happen. God can't lie. Jesus is the righteous one. He's holy and blameless and perfect.

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Everything he says is true. And you're gonna actually confront the Lord of glory? What arrogance as a creature to speak to the creator in that way.

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But Peter does, and Peter learns his lesson. You know the stories. We don't have to illustrate them in detail, but the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the arrogance, the insolence, the haughty king who ends up where?

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On his face, chewing the dirt, right? Story of Nebuchadnezzar. He was literally brought low.

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Also, real quick, Nebuchadnezzar is like the king of the world, king of the world, right?

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He is everything. He owns everything. He is the most popular, the greatest, the biggest.

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He's better than Trump. He's better at everything than Trump, okay? Now question, who on a map, can you show me today

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Babylon? The Babylonian kingdom? Does it exist anymore? Is there a

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Babylonian kingdom anymore? It's gone. It was brought low. It was destroyed, exactly as God said.

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That pride and arrogance brought him low and his kingdom low, and it is erased from history.

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Or how about Exodus chapter five, verse two? You know the story of Pharaoh.

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The Pharaoh over Egypt. Moses comes to Pharaoh and he says what? What God, the eternal

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God, says, let my people go. And what is the arrogant, haughty, prideful, pagan

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Pharaoh doing? He says this, who is the Lord that I should obey him?

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The arrogance in the Pharaoh, the pride in the Pharaoh brought him low and he was destroyed.

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Who is Yahweh? Who is this God that I, Pharaoh, king over Egypt, should obey him?

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I'm a God. What God is this that tells me what to do and what did God do?

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He sent right into Egypt all the plagues that represented the powers of their gods.

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The water, the flies, the cattle, everything. And then he takes the firstborn.

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And so we know the story of the arrogance and the haughtiness of Pharaoh. Or how about this one?

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And I want you to go back to this one because it's relevant where we're at today. Go to Genesis 19, nine.

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If you haven't heard it, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to Pastor James's message on Sodom and Gomorrah and the angels in Sodom.

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In Genesis 19, nine, famous scene. Go ahead and get there.

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Here's a moment where the men of Sodom are confronting the young and the old.

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The young and the old. They want the men that came to Lot, and in verse five, where are the men who came to you tonight?

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Bring them out to us that we may know them. And Lot's response is to beg them, do not act so wickedly.

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But in verse nine, they said, stand back. And they said, this fellow came to sojourn and he has become the judge?

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Now we'll deal with worse with you than with them. And so what's their response when

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Lot says to them, don't be wicked. Don't act so wickedly. Don't sin in this way.

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The arrogance of the young and the old men in Sodom is, who are you? Who are you to tell us how to live?

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Who are you to judge us? Who are you to act more righteous than us? Who do you think you are?

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The haughtiness and the arrogance of this apparently early pride festival in Sodom and Gomorrah.

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And led to what? The absolute full destruction. The absolute full erasure of those people from history.

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It was fire from heaven for all their pride. They puffed up.

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They were haughty and exalted. They got made low. They were destroyed because that's the consequence.

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Every time, that's the consequence. That's the way that God made the world. And then, of course, going back to the very beginning.

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Yes, the original sin. Yes, that first rebellion had within it, in terms of the network of sins going on, the sin of pride.

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What did God say to our first parents? He said this, but not that.

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The day you do, you will surely die. And Adam and Eve said, let's test that claim.

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Let's test it. I'm not going to believe God on his own terms. I'm not going to believe his self -attesting revelation.

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I'm not going to believe the creator. I'm the creature. I'll make the decision. This serpent over here, this creature over here, is telling me that he's actually wrong.

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That the day I do, I'll actually be like God, knowing good and evil. And so let's test the claim.

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I mean, how does God know in the first place? You see the arrogance there of the creature revolting against the creator saying,

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I know. I'll be wise in my own eyes. I will self -exalt. I will be the one that determines.

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Not you, God. I'll be the determiner. Brothers and sisters, pride, if we're honest, pride and arrogance fuel so much of our sin.

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Just think about it in terms of working in tandem together. Pride and coveting.

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Coveting is wanting something that belongs to something else, right? I'm desiring their stuff.

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And think about the culture that we live in today. The culture that we live in today prizes covetousness as a virtue.

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We put covetousness into legislation. We've actually been so indoctrinated today that we vilify successful people.

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People who work hard, who are successful, that build wealth are the bad guys or the good guys?

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What do you think? They're the bad guys. The successful business owners are the bad guys because in our minds, if you have all that stuff, it's bad.

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Why? Because I want it. Because I don't have what you have. I don't like that God gave it to you and not to me.

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I want what you have. Do you see it? It's in a network. The covetousness is fueled.

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The gas is pumping into it with pride. Pride is, I want it.

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I'm more important. How come God gave it to you and not to me? I deserve it.

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Did you work for it? No. I shouldn't have to work for it. So you're the bad guy.

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I want what you have. Why? Because I'm better. I deserve it and you don't.

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Think about pride and murder. Pride and murder especially is

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I'm more valuable. I mean more. I matter more.

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I'm the most important. My likes, my will, my desire is the most important.

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I don't need self -restraint. I don't need self -control because it is my view of the circumstances.

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It is my pleasure that's more important. I will make the determination as to who's more valuable and worthy of living here.

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And so murder, pride fuels murder. Or how about pride and lying? When we lie, when we won't tell the truth, pride motivates the lying.

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It's haughtiness. It's haughtiness that makes us lie. Think about it. I lie because I'm trying to preserve myself.

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Say you did something sinful, something terrible. Say you fell short. Say you failed as a wife.

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You failed as a husband. You failed as a child. You'll lie and not be honest about the failure because you're trying to preserve what?

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Your image. You've got to look like you don't make mistakes. You've got to look like you've got it all together.

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You've got to look like the most important person in the room. You couldn't be seen as wrong.

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You couldn't be seen as guilty and so you lie. You lie to self -preserve. Pride motivates the lying because we're unwilling to be seen as wrong.

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Or we lie because we want something and we're not willing to earn it.

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So we lie in order to get it. We defraud people and we lie because we want what they have and so we lie so we get it.

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Or how about pride and scoffing? Remember the message we did on scoffing, the scoffer?

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What's a scoffer? What's a scoffer? Okay, let's do the whole message again, right?

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Okay. No, a scoffer, just as a summary, is what? The unteachable person.

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A scoffer, it's just, you get it in the word too, right, like, right, a scoffer.

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It's in the word. You can sense it even in the word itself. The scoffer is the unteachable person.

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They won't be instructed. They can do no wrong. And so what fuels the scoffing?

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What fuels the I will not be taught? It's pride. It's I'm haughty.

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I'm arrogant. Pride and scoffing. Listen to this. The unteachable person is so because of arrogance.

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They won't be taught because they're arrogant. Because they're prideful.

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Or how about pride and adultery? Pride fueling adultery.

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How so? Well, because in adultery, the truth is, deep down, it's unspoken, it's not acknowledged, but deep down, the adulterer says in their heart, my pleasure is more important than my promise and your well -being.

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Gotta be honest with it. If we're ever gonna heal from a sin, you gotta actually go to the heart of the sin.

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You gotta be honest with it. You gotta be real with it. Vanquish pride by telling the truth about the sin. Pride and adultery go together because my pleasure is more important than my promise and it's more important than your well -being.

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It's more important than your good. There's the haughtiness. There's the wickedness in it. Or how about pride and disobedience to parents?

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Pride fueling disobedience to parents. How so?

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I will not obey my parents. Even when they're right, even when they're not sinning,

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I won't obey because, what is it? What's at the core? Every time, I know and you don't.

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I'm right and you're wrong every time. You can't instruct me, you're wrong and I'm right.

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So what is at the heart of not honoring father and mother? What is it? I know more than you.

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I know more than you. I think I got a better way. I think I understand more than you.

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And so what's the heart of it? Arrogance, haughtiness, pride. That's the center.

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I'm wise in my own eyes and God says to the child who resists the wisdom and instruction of their parents, godly instruction, he says,

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I promise you, you won't go unpunished. I promise you, you'll be laid low. I promise you, there's destruction every time.

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These are the words of God. Or how about pride and stealing? Pride motivating stealing.

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What is it? When people break into businesses, take stuff that doesn't belong to them, when you steal from your neighbor, pride, arrogance, haughtiness, insolent behavior is fueling the theft.

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Because what are you saying when you steal from somebody? What are you saying? You're saying, I want that and I don't care if it harms you.

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Why? Because I'm more valuable. Because I matter more. Because my plight is the most important.

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You are fodder. You are irrelevant. I am the most important.

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My needs, my desires, my wants are more valuable than you.

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And I don't care how much it hurts you. I don't care how much it hurts your bottom line. I don't care how much it disrupts your family and takes food off your kids' tables.

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If I want it, I'll take it. Why? Because I am the most important one in the room.

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Or how about pride and foolishness? Now, pause, because this one, this one is something that we'll taste every single day.

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In relationships, personal friendships, in our families, in our homes, churches, you'll deal with this all the time.

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Pride fuels foolishness. What scripture defines as foolishness.

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Scripture tells us that you need to hear both sides of a conflict. One person's case sounds true until another one comes to examine them.

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Well, pride will fuel the foolishness and you won't hear both sides of a conflict because, let's be honest, you already know.

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You've already made the decision. You already know everything. You are the wise one who's already determined that you understand.

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I know everything I need to know. I don't need to know anything else. I don't need to hear the whole story.

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I don't need to hear both sides. I don't need all the facts. I'm the wise one in the room.

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I've made the determination. And so pride fuels foolishness. You won't hear both sides of a conflict because you already know.

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You don't wait for all the facts, as scripture calls you to, to hear the whole thing before you open your mouth because you already know.

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You don't wait for all the facts because you're too wise to need to. You're too wise to need to.

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Pride in talking too much. Boy, this is the one all of us go, ah, I know that girl or I know that guy, right?

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Or maybe you is that girl or is that guy. Pride in talking too much.

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Scripture, the book of Proverbs, we're going to deal with it, talks with a person that just can't stop running their mouth, right?

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With many words is transgression. You, if you keep talking long enough, you'll hang yourself, right?

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That's why we need to be measured as God's people with your mouth. Like B, you don't need to talk all the time. You don't need to say everything that comes to mind.

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You don't need to open your mouth constantly. Pride in talking too much. Let's be honest.

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You run your mouth constantly because you think you're the most important, interesting, valuable person in the room.

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You can't stop talking about yourself and bragging because you desperately need everybody else to believe it all too.

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You ever been into like a party or a get together or a gathering and you just can't wait to get out of a circle with that guy or that girl who will not stop talking about themselves.

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They just love to talk about all they've done. They love to talk about all their exploits. They love to talk about everything.

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The whole conversation is always about them. Or have you ever had a conversation with a person where you're trying to genuinely have fellowship and talk to a person and you realize about 60 seconds into the conversation, they're not there, right?

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You're talking because they asked you a question. They asked you a question. You start talking and you realize they disappear and they're only thinking about the next time they're going to get a word in.

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That's an arrogant person. Pride fuels the person who talks too much.

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Or how about this one? Pride and submission to your husband.

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Pride and submission to your husband. Why'd it get quiet in here? I'll get the guys too, don't worry.

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Before you ever preach a sermon, you better preach it to yourself first. Every sermon that ever comes across this pole, but it's first preached to myself,

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I promise. But let's deal with it. If we're going to be honest and not prideful, if we're going to be honest and not arrogant, we got to deal with all of our sins, even if we're guilty of it too.

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Pride and submission to your husband. Women today, even Christian women will cloak their feminism, their secret feminism in Christian garb.

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They'll make excuses for not submitting to their husbands. They'll argue mutual submission, mutual submission, and the answer is yes and amen.

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We submit to one another, amen. But the text doesn't just say submit to one another, it says what?

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Submit to your husbands in what? Why is it whispering?

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In what? Everything. Now, of course, caveat, of course, if your husband tells you to do something sinful, it's understood at the bottom of that, no, you don't submit to that, that's a given.

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But the text says submit to your husbands in everything. And you have Christian women today, professing

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Christian women today are really closet feminists hiding their feminism in Christian garb by every time there's a talk or a sermon by a godly woman on submitting to your husband as a wife, even in these little things, inconsequential things, you'll have the secret closet feminist going, no, no,

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I disagree. No, no, it's a mutual submission kind of a thing. It is sort of waving the hand of the fact that no, the text says submit in everything to your husband.

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And maybe the reason there's such a lack of peace in your home as a wife is because you refuse to submit to your husband in even the inconsequential things that you may even disagree with, but they're just his decision, he's trying to be a godly leader.

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You don't like it, you shouldn't have married him, but you did. And so welcome, submit to your husbands.

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Oh boy, you know that I love you, right?

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Next, husbands, your pride is fueling the destruction of your home.

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Your wife, a godly wife, appeals to scripture about your horrible attitude, about your sin as a man, about your arrogance, about your haughtiness, about your failures as a husband.

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And rather than just being humble and finding a way to love your wife, you are so puffed up and arrogant to think that it couldn't be you, it's her, right?

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If you would just be a better wife, I would love you. If you would just do this or if you would just do this or if you would just have more kids or if you would just do this or whatever the case may be, you are making excuses because of your failures as a husband.

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Because you're too prideful to recognize, actually, I'm the problem, mostly. And so our arrogance fuels, men, the destruction of our homes because we won't just be honest enough to simply say,

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I failed as a man, I failed as a husband, I failed as a father, I'm gonna repent and glorify

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God and do better. Maybe it's really not mostly your wife's fault.

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Maybe it's yours because you're a prideful, arrogant man who will not walk humbly before God and with your family.

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Maybe you're the problem in your home. And maybe things will change in your life when you start repenting, acknowledging that you're an arrogant, prideful man, walk humbly with your family.

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Maybe you need to go home after this message and go to your family and say, I've sinned against you, I've sinned against God, please forgive me, hold me accountable,

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I wanna glorify God and be a better man, I wanna love you, my wife, in a way that glorifies

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God. I wanna be a humble servant and leader in my home. And what will, listen, what will stop every horrible, despicable, disgraceful husband in this room from leaving here and doing that every single time is your arrogance and your pride.

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You will not simply admit your failures. Next. OK.

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Whew. OK. Go to the text to 1 Timothy. In terms of arrogance, again,

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I struggled so much, brothers and sisters, trying to figure out how do we encompass all that Scripture says and encapsulate it into a point.

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Go to 1 Timothy. As an example of further how pride and arrogance will destroy everything it touches.

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But in 1 Timothy 3, there's the qualifications for pastors, overseers, elders.

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And this is, this is actually very, very important. And it doesn't just go, listen, I'm gonna take the principle here from Scripture about leadership in the church, but it also goes for your business.

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It goes for leadership anywhere, in your business, in life, everywhere. That the principle here is this.

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Here's what it says. 1 Timothy 3, 6, it says, regarding this person who's potentially an elder or a pastor or a shepherd or overseer, it says this, he must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

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Right? Same situation with Satan, pride, arrogance, haughtiness. And when you are looking at a person, examining a man that's gonna care for people's souls, the text says he can't be a novice.

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He can't be new to this. Why? Because the danger is, is you take a man who looks skillful, he looks gifted, he looks passionate, but he's a novice.

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He hasn't been worked on. He doesn't have wisdom. He hasn't had the time.

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You take him and you put him in a place of authority over others and what is the danger?

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Arrogance, puffed up, haughty, conceit, the same condemnation as the devil.

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Which is why, again, the principle runs across everything, but in terms of us as elders in this body, one of the things that we are, and look, it hurts us,

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I recognize this, look, we can't plant as many churches as Apologia. We can't plant as many churches because our process of identifying, watching, and working with a potential elder is a process that takes time, where we watch.

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We look at your family. We watch your wife. Is she a gossip? Is your wife a gossip?

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How's your home? Not perfection, but how is it? What's your, what's your consistent life like?

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Because here's, look, watch this, this is very important. There are so many gifted men who are passionate about Jesus.

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They love the word. And so many men, they could, they could teach better than me. They're amazing.

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But if you put them too early into this role of shepherding people's souls, it will be a danger to the people because it will lead to them being conceited and puffed up.

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It's a danger. And I can tell you about over the last, I'm going on over almost 20 years of ministry, how many times

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I've had such promising, gifted young men come into ministry, wanting to come into ministry, bragging about themselves, their skills, and trying to force their way into authority over people.

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And those are the people, I can guarantee you, we've immediately gone, check, put them at the bottom of the list.

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I'm going to watch you for even longer now because that's terrifying. We never want to put someone like that who is fighting for that position of authority.

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They're fighting for that position. We never, ever want to put them into that position too soon because it can lead to abuse.

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So we watch. We're careful. You can't be a novice. You can't be new to this. You need some wisdom.

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Now, some important points. Pride, the danger of pride in salvation.

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We did this a couple of weeks ago, remember? A couple of weeks ago, we talked about justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ.

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What does Paul say in Romans 10 about the people in his day?

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He says they did not submit to God's righteousness and they were trying to do what?

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They were trying to establish their own righteousness and they missed this righteousness that's actually a gift from God.

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Well, what tempts a person to try to establish their own right standing before God by works when this gift of righteousness is given freely by God all to his glory?

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What tempts a person to resist this gift of righteousness that's all boasting in God and to stand within their own righteousness?

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And the answer is what? Pride, arrogance. I don't want

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God to get all the glory. I've got to have something to do with this. There's got to be some of me in this story.

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Every synergistic system somehow places yourself into the story as well.

01:00:05

So there really is some way, a sharing of credit for salvation, a sharing of credit, some of God, some of me.

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And it's even seen, I think most supremely, and you know this because we touched it, it's my favorite way to encapsulate it is the

01:00:23

Pharisee and the tax collector. We recently talked about it. The Pharisee and the tax collector, what's the

01:00:29

Pharisee doing? He's got his head held high to God. He actually thinks he's good.

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And he's so wise in his own eyes, he's trying to coat his self -righteousness in, oh

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God, and you get some credit. He goes, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men.

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What arrogance, what pride, what haughtiness. God, how offensive is that prayer to God, right?

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God, thank you that I'm not like other men, right? I'm giving you credit, God. You see how we veil, we veil our arrogance in sort of like, but God, thank you that you made me so spectacular, right?

01:01:09

Arrogance, even in that prayer, but there's always a tip of the hat to God's grace. God thanks for your grace, right? You did this,

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God. You get all the credit for it, right? God, I thank you, I'm not like other men. And then the arrogance to go, not like the tax collector, not like this guy over here.

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And then what? Story shifts. The story shifts into what must take place in each and every single one of us if we're going to know

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God. If this hasn't happened to you in some way in your life, you better get there in a hurry.

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The tax collector's a ways off. He doesn't feel comfortable standing very close to God and the temple.

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And he won't even lift his eyes up to God. And it says that he's beating his chest and saying, what to God?

01:01:57

What's he saying? God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

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So watch, arrogance will keep you from salvation. Pride, self -righteousness will keep you from salvation.

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The heart of a person who is saved is the person who recognizes their true condition and is honest.

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Think about this, how do you ever come to Jesus? You hear the gospel, you recognize your own sin and failings, you recognize the holiness of God, and that your only hope is in Jesus.

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And so you flee to Jesus, repenting of sin, and what's it take to repent? Acknowledgement of our sin, confession of sin, you're saying to God, God, you're right.

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You're right about me. You're right. I'm a liar. I'm an adulterer.

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I'm a thief. I'm a murderer. I'm the man with haughty eyes.

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You hate this in me. I've got bloodstained hands. It's my lips that are full of curses and bitterness.

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I've hated you. I've been an enemy all my life of you. I'm guilty. What's it take to get to that place?

01:03:19

You must repent of pride, arrogance, because if you come to God with your pride intact, you don't know him.

01:03:30

Because God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. There's the principle in scripture.

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So finally, the path of honor, grace, and exaltation is not arrogance, but humility.

01:03:49

Some words here of encouragement. Here are some positive. Go to Proverbs 27 .2.

01:03:57

Positive instruction, 27 .2, Proverbs 27 .2.

01:04:04

The text says, let another praise you, and not your own mouth, a stranger, and not your own lips.

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Let another praise you, and not your own mouth, a stranger, and not your own lips.

01:04:25

You know what you should do? You know what we should do as human beings? Do all we do to the glory of God. Be the best at what you do, and let everybody else see it and recognize it.

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You and I, shut our mouths. Because you know what? If you truly are the best at what you do, guess what?

01:04:42

Everybody else is going to see it. You know, when people go to art galleries or they see the Sistine Chapel and everything else, there's no question, right?

01:04:50

When you go to the Sistine Chapel, you see that glorious scene, and you're like, my goodness, this is insane. Everybody stands and stares for a reason, because it's the best.

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Obviously, objectively, it's the best. And you don't need to tell everybody that you're the best at it to do it.

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It just is the best. Let everybody else praise you. Let everybody else acknowledge the gift in you.

01:05:18

That's how we should live as God's people. Don't be arrogant. Don't be haughty. Don't be wise in our own eyes. And don't praise yourself.

01:05:25

Don't brag on how you're the very best. You know, an illustration of this that I think is powerful is, you ever notice, guys, when you get around a bunch of guys, when guys are together, do you ever notice how much guys jab each other and talk trash about each other?

01:05:44

Yes? This is divine wisdom. Oh, I'm not joking.

01:05:52

Do you ever notice how men, when they're in groups with other men, do you ever notice that when they're very close, they freely and frequently talk trash about each other in a joking manner?

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Right? Yes? Yes? You know why? Truth? You know why?

01:06:11

Because men don't trust or like other men that think too highly of themselves.

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Men don't like other arrogant men. And so what we do is we test the waters with each other to say, are you willing to laugh at yourself?

01:06:27

Are you willing to laugh at yourself or do you think so highly of yourself that you'll get offended if I take a little jab or joke with you?

01:06:37

So men will frequently sort of maneuver in their relationships to the guys that don't take themselves very seriously and they don't get offended very easily because they don't think they're that important.

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So in men's relationships, we do that. We tease each other, joke with each other because we don't want to surround ourselves with prideful men.

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You can't take yourself that seriously and be close to me. That's what we do.

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I was talking to some Navy SEALs, active duty Navy SEALs, and they were talking about Dev Grew SEAL Team 6.

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Now that's like the elite of the elite, right? In order to get to that, you have to have already been to combat. You've been to war.

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You've had to kill the enemy. You're good at what you do. You've risen to the top in all the teams. And you get asked, would you like to screen for green team in Dev Grew?

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And it's like terrifying even for the most elite Navy SEAL to go to that screening for Dev Grew SEAL Team 6 is what it's commonly known as.

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But what's interesting is that this is commonly understood. You'll go to Dev Grew SEAL Team 6.

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You might be the best shooter. You might be the best, amazing. And they'll say, no, thank you.

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Sorry, we don't want you here. And do you know why many times? Because this person, though they are amazing at what they do, they are prideful, arrogant.

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They do not get along with the rest of the team. They think they're the best. And these guys who are like the best killers in terms of guys who are trying to bring the hand of justice into the world, these guys who are the most elite of the elite, they don't want the guy that thinks he's the best, acts like he's the best.

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They want the guy who is humble with his skills and is clearly the best at what he does.

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He doesn't act like it all the time. He works well with the team. Don't brag on yourself.

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Let somebody else praise you. We should, as scripture says, when it comes to our boasting, only boast in God and the cross of Jesus Christ.

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2 Corinthians 10, 17 through 18 and Galatians 6, 14.

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Go to Galatians 6, 14 to see that text. It's an important one. The Apostle Paul, Galatians 6, 14, he says, and this is the

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Apostle Paul, inspired Apostle, changes the world through his proclamation of the gospel and his sacrifices.

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He says, but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our

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Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

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So here's the Apostle Paul, let's just go ahead and grant it, he has accomplished more for the kingdom of Christ than any of us ever will, without question, hands down.

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And he says, far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. I want to boast in Jesus. I want to give

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God the glory, not me. Scripture says that's how we're to live. Let someone else praise you.

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Walk in humility. Boast in Jesus Christ. And remember that scripture says that God resists the proud, so be like God.

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You do it too. Resist the proud. Resist the proud around you.

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Resist the proud in you. Resist it. Scripture says in Romans, go there.

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Chapter 12 in verse 16,

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God says, live in harmony with one another. Live in harmony.

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Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

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Never be wise in your own sight. Those are the words of God. Do you feel it?

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Do you feel it? Do you get that understanding and that sense from God's word?

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Here's how you live, together in the body of Christ. This is how you do it. Associate with the lowly.

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Be in harmony with each other. Don't be arrogant. Don't be haughty. Put that to death.

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Don't be wise in your own sight. Don't think that you have all the answers and you know everything.

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In the incarnation of our Savior, you see that the path to exaltation is humility and being made low.

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Think about Jesus, Paul says, in Philippians 2, who was in the very form of God.

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He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped or held onto, but he emptied himself.

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He emptied himself. He humbled himself. He became, Paul says, obedient even to the death of the cross.

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And so here is God, creator of all things, God, the all -knowing

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God, the all -powerful God. In Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, he humbles himself and becomes low.

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The infinite God, the limitless God, the all -powerful, all -knowing God, the eternal

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God from eternity into eternity, that God condescended to chase the rebel, you, you, the offender, me, the offender, the guilty, the righteous one for the unrighteous, the guiltless one for the guilty, the law -keeping one for the lawless.

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Why? Would we entertain pride in our hearts and our lives? Why do we think we're better when

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God condescended to take on flesh to save you, the rebel, and on the way condescends, humbles himself into the womb of a young woman, puts himself in a position where he has to humbly and in a lowly way nurse from his mother's breast, depend on Joseph and Mary to provide for his needs as a young boy?

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He scratches his knees. He gets pimples. Jesus gets stomachaches.

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Jesus endures everything you and I have, whether it's people who are hostile towards him, people who abuse him, spitefully use him, people who slander him, people who hate him, people who lie in court about him.

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He's beaten and tortured and bruised. Jesus, who is God incarnate, wisdom incarnate, he is made low.

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For what purpose? For the Father to exalt him and to give him the name that is above every name.

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But Jesus, who is God in the flesh, was not exalted without first being made what?

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Low. And so the path in Scripture of the perfect image of God through Jesus Christ is that low path, that humble path, is what leads,

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God says, to exaltation. The promise from today, from Proverbs, is it is a pride that will always lead to destruction and being made low.

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It will not give you what it promises. And here's the last word for us as a church.

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One final word. I just want to read you the text. The summary of everything, really, that I've been saying is in James, the brother of the

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Lord, chapter four. James says, in chapter four, verse one, he says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

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Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have, so you murder.

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You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

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You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

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You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives more grace.

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Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

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Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded.

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Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

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Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

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Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the promises in your word.

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Lord, only you can change the heart of the arrogant. Only you can fix the haughty eyes.

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Only you can heal hearts and minds that are filled with pride and arrogance.

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And so I pray that you would, by your word and your spirit today, move in our hearts and minds. Heal the fathers of their pride, the husbands of their pride, the men in this church of their pride.

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Heal the mothers of their pride, the wives of their pride, the women of their pride.

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Heal our sons of their pride. Heal our daughters of their pride.

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Bless us, God, for your glory and kingdom. Grant to us humility and strength of your spirit to walk in humility, to bring you glory and praise.