The Deception of Pride — Shane Idleman

I've got an important message this morning. We've been talking about demons and demonology. Demonology is the study of demons in systematic theology. The study of how something attacks you is very important because to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

You can be armed, you can be prepared. And so check out the last few weeks. And I believe the major way the enemy works in the lives of believers is through pride. Without a shadow of a doubt, he works through pride.

Pride's Deception in the Believer's Life

So if we allow, if I allow pride to come into my heart and take root into my heart, I will not be loving and gracious to people. It'll be my way or the highway. I'll become critical. I'll become cynical.

I'll become the right way. I know what's right. I've already made my mind made up. And so it can be dangerous in a church. It can be dangerous in ministry. And that's why we strive for humility. We talk about humility.

We push brokenness and a contrite heart. We don't just say it. We truly, truly want that. There's a pastor in the news again recently for doing some things just kind of, you know, just prideful. And I sent the article to our elders this week.

And I said, if you see any of these things in me, please let me know. Please let me know. Because I need to nip those things in the bud. No one is more well aware of their pride than me. And you should be aware of your own pride.

Because there's not anyone, I actually threw it out there to the stadium. If there's anyone here tonight that does not struggle with pride, could you talk to me afterwards? And the reason it's in us is it's part of that what they call the Adamic nature, the nature of Adam.

And how that pride, self-righteousness, it's really, it's really, I don't trust in God and I'm right. And it's the way I want to do things. And it rises up inside of us. And that's why we have to push it down.

Humility Through Worship and Accountability

That's actually one of the reasons we start and we have the 6 a .m. morning worship that's been going on three and a half years on Sundays is because it's kind of humbling to come here. And first you sit in the back and then the middle.

And then you find your way to the altar. And it's that humbling. It's that brokenness. You don't know how many times I've changed sermons on the altar or said, God, please help me with my heart. Please help me with my attitude today.

And one of the big struggles for me right now is many of you know because we have a national ministry. Thousands and thousands of people follow this more than actually attend the church. Tens of thousands on radio in different states and getting emails and requests and to travel and things like that.

But this whole thing that we see what the government is trying to do and we see that you know the spikes in COVID and the variants and different things and trying to navigate those waters while being gracious and loving but at the understand not caving in or capitulating to a government.

Godless government is trying to fear. And so where do you find that balance? It's very difficult because it's a real thing that's going on, a virus. We just prayed for someone and who passed away from it.

Doesn't go to the church but we're going to do the memorial service for them and talking with the family last night just broke my heart thinking about a lot. So we don't want to ignore things but we also it's hard.

And so you gravitate between proud and anger to loving and humble. And I'm sure many of you are feeling that same thing. You don't know where exactly to draw that line. You want to share that post on Facebook but you're like not sure if that's going to send the right message.

And you just get upset at some of our local city officials that every single post is about unvaccinated people and they're causing all these problems and people are causing the racial divide with skin color now.

And apparently if a certain skin color you're a racist just because your skin color. Racism is a hard issue. It has nothing to do with a skin color. But you see that divide coming in. You see the masks and you see the vaccine issues.

The Gospel's Relevance to Cultural Questions

And again I don't want to get on all these issues but I think the pulpit should speak to these things. One of the things that was very frustrating. I haven't I haven't even gotten to the introduction yet.

So I'm just trying to be transparent about pride. But one of the things that was really difficult for me is I thought when this happened a year and a half ago the churches are going to come out and be that voice of truth.

And many pastors just kept going through their teaching in Leviticus. Didn't talk didn't talk about the nation is burning with rioting and different things and all the the forced racism and forced ulterior motives and agendas and and false narratives.

Nobody talks about those things because it's not really you know we shouldn't be going there. That's not stay in your wheelhouse Shane. That's the gospel. Well the gospel affects every area of our lives.

We don't we don't live in a bubble and then all these other things don't affect us. They're actually affecting us at a very deep level. What they're trying to push in the school districts and and and teachers being fired for calling someone the wrong pronoun according to what they want to be called.

It's just it's just is alarming. But we have to take confidence in God and what he's called us. He's called you for such a time as this. And so the title of the message is the deception of pride. And you can see the actually right there.

How Pride Deceives Those Who Know God's Word

The deception of pride. The pride of your heart has deceived you. And the Bible is pretty clear that there are a couple different ways you can be deceived. One way is to know the word of God but not do it.

And I see that a lot in the church. People boy they can quote scripture but they're not living it. And so they're living in deception. And the power of God's word comes in the application not in the head knowledge of it.

And then another way we can be deceived is by hearing or following wrong voices. Being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men. And then another way is through this area of pride.

Pride deceives us. And in case you're not aware of the definition I'm going to read it. But something interesting about pride is everyone knows you're infected with it but you. The most prideful people I know don't think they're prideful.

And those who are humble that I would look at very as humble and gracious they sing Shane help me pray for my pride this week. I'm like what? Because see they see it rising up and they identify it and they they pull it they abort the pride before it takes root.

So the definition which most of us know it's an elevated view of oneself. Your abilities or what you possess. And it's presumptuous. The prideful person is presumptuous. What that means is I've already made up my mind.

I've already made up my mind don't confuse me with the facts. Arrogance. And the biggest thing without a shadow of a doubt is they are indifferent to the needs of others. They are just indifferent to the needs of others because a humble person is gracious and they're loving.

They have compassion. They want to reach out and help because of that humility. But pride. That's where that the word puffed up. You know stiff neck God would say in the Old Testament. Stiff neck. Noses raised up like walking around.

Who's that? Who's that peasant below me? And just it's prideful. And you don't you hate when you're around that kind of person that's really prideful? And I remember when I was a district manager with 24 Hour Fitness in the corporate world.

We would drive down to Irvine. I might share this in my testimony. And these guys were making good money. You know twenty, twenty-five, thirty thousand dollars a month. And they and you would know it by the back when Hummer was becoming popular and the Viper and all this is like look at what I have.

Look what I own. Look at it's just the whole conversation. And when I came back to the Lord I started to get sick in these conversations. That's why I couldn't stay there much longer. About a year and I had I just had to leave because it's self-exaltation.

It's putting down others. And it it brags or a boast and what we have or what we do or what we've done. And that's why I'm very careful. Our leadership team is very careful here. Most people have no clue.

And we want to share with no clue what God is doing through all of you serving through this church nationally. On a national level. It's amazing the lives that are being changed. The people that that follow West Side Christian Fellowship.

A family just moved to Texas and they said Shane there's already people in this community watching the live stream and following the church and wanting to start something in Idaho and Tennessee and South Carolina and Florida.

And people are just it's amazing what God is doing. But when we boast we boast in what he is doing. Because we know without that it is nothing. And the humbler you become the more God will use you. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and then in due time he will exalt you.

Learning Humility Through Small Beginnings

And I remember I think I shared this but some of you are new. When I came back to Lord I'm on fire for God. I feel this call to preach and I'm like okay you know we're going to fill stadiums. And then my first speaking engagement was to nine people at Grace Resource Center in the homeless shelter.

Trying to help them with nutrition and things. And then I would go to remote churches all over Southern California just like Yucca Valley. I had no idea where that was. And North Edwards and Tachepee.

And faithful in these little things of 12, 15, 20 people. Faithfulness. And God began to use that to humble you. And the more humbled you are the more he will use you. And I remember too when I many of you know when I went to visit I went to Texas and was able to meet Jack Graham PowerPoint and go to his church.

And he pulled me up in front of the entire congregation. And I was just shocked because I didn't expect this. I didn't know it. But God was just telling me hey this is we people will identify you. You don't need to identify you.

And he did that and he said you've got to go listen to this church in California and how God has moved. But it just and then he uses the humility to keep us humble. And then I get home and my wife says take out the trash and change the diaper.

You've got to watch these kids. You've got you've got a job to do here. And so God will keep you humble as well. And when pride starts to rise up God wants you to stay humble. Vance Havener said this about I think in the 1950s.

Popularity has slain more prophets of God than persecution ever did. Staying humble. The great strength of the Christian faith is found in her meekness. Meekness. Not weakness. Weakness is the absence of strength.

Meekness is strength under control. You have tremendous strength and it's under but it's under control. So let's talk about the scripture for a minute. Obadiah 1 .3. Let me tell you about Obadiah. I like Obadiah.

It's the shortest book in the Old Testament. And some people date it around 846 I think BC. I think it's closer to probably 500 because he talks about the fall of Jerusalem and different things. But the main point is he is writing not to the children of Israel.

He's writing to the Edomites. They are descendants of Esau. You remember Esau sold his birthright and God said I'm going to make you a nation but you're going to be at odds with your brother. And he's writing to the Edomites.

And his name means worshiper of Yahweh. A worshiper. Wouldn't that be a cool name? You look up your name. I'm a worshiper of Yahweh. A worshiper of God. And so Obadiah is writing to the Edomites. The picture is they are kind of rebuking the children of Israel because they're being judged.

And look at us. And nobody's got us. We're safe. We're secure. And be careful as soon as you start. That's what Jesus I believe when he meant when he said be careful the measure you use against someone else that's going to be used against you when you judge them without the right heart.

And so they're mocking the children of Israel. And God said through the prophet Obadiah the pride of your heart has deceived you. The pride of your heart has deceived you. You who live in the clefts of the rock and you make your home in the heights you say to yourself who can bring me down to the ground?

Who can bring me down to the ground? Now to us that might not make any sense. Who wants to live in the cleft of the rocks and up on top of a high hill? Well in this time and day you definitely did. Because you could conquer an enemy coming up at you if they're climbing the rocks.

You just start throwing rocks down at them. Or boiling water. I mean it was so easy to defend something from high up. And even in the army or military they will tell you to defend certain hills. This is a hill on which to die.

Fighting looking down is much easier than trying to go at your enemy going up. So they are secure. They're in the clefts of the rock where the eagles fly he would go on to say. Who can harm us? Who can defeat us?

We are the Edomites. We are strong. Uh oh. Not a good spot to be. God says I will bring you down. So the pride of your heart has deceived you. So here's how it works. The Edomites are protected. They're elevated.

Things are going well. Maybe in our time they were financially good. Things have been going good. Success has been going good. And where we have to be careful. This is more not maybe for a lot of our practical application.

But do you see a lot of Christian leaders out there in social media that are not going in a good direction? Embracing theology and things like that. It's just not healthy. It's not good. The pride of their heart is deceiving them.

They'll have let's say a thousand comments. A thousand likes supporting them. And they say oh I must be right then. I must be going in a good direction. But the pride of their heart has deceived them.

We don't gauge it off of that. And so we gauge finances are going good. Things are going good. Even pastors. Let's say as a church is growing and exploding. They could say I must be doing everything right.

Pride deceives you as things as things take off. And they become comfortable in what is going on around them. That's one of the things about money we have to be careful. Is that as God blesses people and it comes in that pride begins to come in to your heart.

And throughout ancient Israel's history it was always blessings. Abundance turned into apathy. Turned into starting to reject God. And started to compromise. But God keeps them broken and humble and low to the ground.

And here comes some locusts devouring the crop. Now they begin to pray. Here comes the Babylonians. Now we can begin to pray. Here comes the Assyrians. Now we begin to pray. And so God keeps them low often to keep them in a spot of desperation to him.

So the encouraging thing to us today is stay low so God doesn't bring you low. Stay humble no matter what comes your way. And the only way to do that is to stay in God's word. And that God's word will humble you.

Begin to pray. Begin to fast. Begin to seek him. Begin to treat others with meekness and gentleness. Go on in outreaches. Go to the homeless outreach that we have. And you start to minister to those people.

You stay broken. You stay pliable. You stay usable. And there is an oppression sometimes with pastors. Like if I'll go to something like that or go to somewhere. Like oh I didn't expect you to see you here.

What do you expect me just be sitting in a study all day long? And that's all I do. I don't go out. And you have to stay humble and help people and broken. And that takes you to a deep level of compassion when you reach out to other people.

Pride's False Sense of Security and the Danger of Wrong Voices

It's incredible how pride will come in and begin to deceive you. It actually gives you a false sense of protection. That's what these people had the Edomites. A false sense of protection. I'm reminded often of listening to the wrong voice by this story.

In 2017 actually two bungee jumping staffers were found guilty of manslaughter. Why is that? Because a teenager jumped to her death because of their broken English. They said no jump. She thought they said now jump.

Now jump. Now jump. No. No jump. The wrong voice. Be careful what voice you're listening to. You need a lot less media and a lot more the Word of God. Young adults, if you're watching TikTok and hanging out on Instagram all day long, you will not hear the right voice.

You've got to remove a lot of those distractions from your life and limit that time. And then ironically, as I was looking for the story just to make sure I quoted it right, this just happened again this month.

Things went wrong after the operators signaled to someone ahead of the jumper to take the plunge. But thinking that the cue was meant for her, the young lawyer leaped off the bridge without an attachment safety cord and fell 164 feet this month.

I think it was in a different country. The wrong voice. The wrong voice. You have competing voices. The voice of the flesh. The voice of the world. The voice of the enemy planting fiery darts. Staying grounded in God's Word is the only true voice.

It's the only sure foundation. That's why I'm actually getting very excited. I think I've never been this excited to do a study before as far as when I think of the long-term fruit that is going to happen from going through the Word of God beginning September 12th.

Every Sunday going through the Word of God as an overview. What does Genesis teach? What are the practical applications? What is this thing that's going on in our nation with critical race theory? How does that come in?

How does the LGBTQ agenda, what's going on with transgenderism and hitting all the issues according to God's Word? Because that's the safety net. That's the grounding. That's the foundation of truth. Jesus never backed away from the truth.

He always spoke the truth in love. And that's truly how you help people. And so we have this idea of pride gives you a false sense of protection. Pride will kill your marriage. It will harm parenting.

And it will fracture relationships. I've shared this before me and my wife chuckle now, but we thought we were, I mean, marriage was going to be so easy. I mean, we've just been spending years with the Lord, single, humble, loving God, worshiping together.

Oh man, we are so humble. And then you move in together. Oh, I didn't realize how pride fly. Because what happens when you're single, you're also set in your ways. You know, this is how I do things. And so it takes, God takes two broken people, but that's interesting how the two shall become one flesh.

And I think now looking back, marriage is one of the most wonderful gifts God has given us for iron sharpening iron. You can't get here what you can get in a marriage where you're being fine-tuned for God's kingdom.

I see a lot of you laughing. So I guess that's a good point. Another point on that is to stick with it if you can. We encourage people to fight for their marriage and contend for it. There's too much at stake.

Pride's Painful Consequences

So let's talk about a few ways that pride can deceive, the deception of pride. It results in painful circumstances and can result in physical injuries. Second Chronicles 26, 16, and he's talking about the king here.

But when he was strong in his heart, have you ever been there? Maybe you're there this morning, strong in your heart and your heart is lifted up. You're arrogant, but it was to his destruction. What he did, he transgressed against the Lord, his God, and he entered the temple of the Lord and he burned incense on the altar of incense.

Now this is a no, no, no, no, no. Big time in the Old Testament. God gave prophets certain goals or goals, but certain callings. A priest was set apart. The holy items and then the king was set apart to do something else.

So now the king in his pride, in his arrogance, this conquering king does what only the priests are allowed to do. He takes the incense and he burns it in the temple. And God said, because the pride of your heart has lifted you up, you will become leprous all the days of his life.

And there are so many examples. I could have just stayed on this point. Pride will lead to painful circumstances. How many of us can say, amen? It hurts. It hurts and physical injuries, physical injuries.

I just thought of this. My son's not here, right? He's there. He's watching. Oh, he's up in the balcony. Okay. He might be okay with this, but he was, he was telling me how they're going to beat this football team because they're playing the worst football team.

We're going to beat them. We're going to crush them. I said, be careful. And a quote of pride come, you know, and guess what happened? Yep. You know, but the reverse happened. And so God will use humbling things in our lives, painful things.

Pride Produces Quarrels and Relational Strife

It leads to quarrels. How many fights are going on right now in your home? Because of pride, it leads to quarrels. Me and pastor Abram just joked this morning, but it's true. That's why we take separate cars with our, from our spouses.

We, we get here a little early, they come late and here come the kids walking in, crying, throwing a fit. And it's like, you know, Oh, it's easy to take a separate car early in the morning, but often pride leads to quarrels in our marriage with our children.

And so if God has gifted you with kids or grandkids, steer them in the right direction, shepherd the heart of your child, teach them how important humility is. It's okay to be proud of what God has done, proud in the gifts that God has given you for his glory, but pride will lead to fighting.

Proverbs 13 .10, by pride comes nothing but strife. By pride comes nothing but arguments. And I looked back on the life of this church, 10 years now, or going to 11 years in September. I mean, it's like 95 of the strife over the last 10 years has been because of pride.

95%. You know, feelings get hurt. Anybody get hurt feelings? What, what at the, at the core of hurt feelings is pride. Yep. And so, and I, my feelings have been hurt probably more than all of you put together from this church.

So I can relate. I mean, every, every day something's going on in a, in a living church, a vibrant church where God is moving, the enemy's also moving. And people say, oh, it must be so easy to lead a church like that that's growing and spirit filled.

I'm like, well, it's spirit filled, it's also demon filled. And so it's, it's, it's very, it's, it's a, it's the best thing we've ever done in our life. Pastor Abram will attest to that, my wife, his wife, I'm sure.

But it's also one of the most difficult because where God is genuinely moving and healing a marriage, he's tearing, the devil's tearing this one down. Where ministries are growing, here comes pride. Here comes pride, where a ministry's growing, and they don't want to be maybe a part of the church necessarily.

They want to do their own thing. Well, I want to be on the worship team, and I want to do my own thing. And now here comes pride, and pride will fill my heart, right? Because I'll get defensive. Oh no, no sir.

And then, and then here comes pride, here comes strife, here comes quarrel. So one of our goals is to always encourage people in each other and build us up and remind all of us, listen, stick with it.

This is a work in progress. This is how we grow. This is how we become better, not bitter. This is how we become stronger and united by humbling ourselves and going to people saying, hey, listen, let me encourage you too at this service.

I don't know if I'll remember this at the next service, but if there's any issues with people at the church, go to them and just say, I love you. I don't want the enemy to have this, this root of bitterness because that's what it is.

Pride, right? I'm not going to them. I'm not going to work that out. I don't have to do that. It's all pride. You look at how deceptive pride is, and it's very dangerous. It leads to fighting. It leads to quarrels.

It leads to strife. I mean, I can stay there a while if you guys want. Next point, huh? It leads to humiliating situations and financial loss. Daniel 5 .20, but when his heart was lifted up, who's he talking about again?

Pride Leads to Humiliation and Loss

The king there. And his spirit was hardened in pride. And that's what happens. Do you ever hear the word hard heart? Well, it's hardened by pride. And it's interesting when you preach the word of God, it's interesting for me to see this.

Some hearts are broken and contrite and they begin to weep and they turn back to God. Other hearts get harder. And the Puritans used to say the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. And that's where we have to really remove pride from our heart.

So Daniel says he was removed from his kingly throne and God took away his glory because of his pride. Lifted up. Trust me, I am well aware, well aware that the enemy can use pride to really hurt this church.

I am fully aware that if I start to become prideful and lifted up, that God will begin to remove his anointing, remove his covering, his shelter, and what he is doing from this church. The higher you elevate yourself, the more God will bring you down lower.

And it's that humility that is so important. And kids have a way of reminding you how humble you need to be, right? Mine will tell me, dad, that's pretty prideful. Well, no, let me explain it. Let me explain it.

Don't go there just yet. But it's that growing. And we do have a pretty good, and you should do this maybe in your own family, but at our church with the office staff, with the core team, I will let them know.

Now, sometimes people might be a little nervous, but I will say, listen, if you see something, if I'm doing something, you have permission to let me know how that's coming across. I'm learning, too. I'm growing, too.

And then see, through that, God will begin to move powerfully because you stay. We shouldn't think so highly of ourselves than we should. Just because, for example, in preaching, God gives a person the gifting.

It's God's gifting. It's God's anointing. And that person is just an empty vessel who God uses to promote the cross and the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. There should actually be nothing we boast in other than what God has done in our lives.

And it hurts others and brings shame. Fathers or mothers, one of the worst things you can do, especially when your kids are little, is remain prideful because it will hurt them. It brings shame to the family.

Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor. He's contrasting there. Being humble, there's honor. But being prideful, it will cost you. We see it how often in the news.

All these people just falling left and right. Secular media, I mean, just all these high-profile figures. You know, Jeffrey Epstein thought he had it well. How many other people? Mayors and governors and so many people.

Pride Prevents Spiritual Revival

Pride will eventually bring them low. The sin will find you out. Proverbs 11, 2, when pride comes, then comes shame. But with the humble, there is wisdom. Now, this one is interesting. Pride prevents a mighty downpour of God's spirit.

Did you know that? If you want God to do more in your heart, more in your life, more in your family, you want to be closer to God, pride will prevent that from happening. Because to receive a mighty downpour of God's spirit, to be filled with God's spirit, it costs you.

And it can't be on your terms. It's on God's terms. God says, give me everything and I will fill you. God says, begin to praise and worship me. Come with a broken spirit and I will honor that. So Isaiah 57, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who habits eternity, whose name is holy.

I dwell in the high and holy place. And also with, what does it say up there? Kim, who has a prideful and arrogant spirit. I mean, this scripture is so profound that God says, my name is holy. I live in a high and holy place.

I am above eternity. I sit above the circle of the earth. I am the God of the universe. I am that I am. I am holy and no one can dwell with me except those who have a contrite and lowly spirit. And what will I do?

I will revive the spirit of the lowly and I will revive the heart of the contrite one. God says, give me brokenness, give me humility, give me full surrender. And that's a person I can use. I can speak boldly through that person.

I can use that person because they are humble. They are pliable. They are teachable. The humble I will not turn away, God says. He says, and the humble he teaches. I teach the humble. And you can also see, I thought of that this week, the stirring of the spirit.

That's what's going on here. In case you're wondering what's going on at West Side Christian Fellowship, God is stirring the people. Unlike anything I've seen before, it's a very unique atmosphere. Most people realize that.

They either love it or they hate it. They're either coming back or they're never coming back. It all depends a lot on the work of the spirit. So the stirring of God's spirit among the humble is not well received by the prideful.

Isn't it interesting? The more you press in to God, the more you'll see who's truly on fire for him. With prayer meetings and worship nights and worship mornings and extended worship and uh-oh, we might have emotional worship.

Oh dear goodness. Don't get too emotional because I'm comfortable in my box. I don't want to get too into God. And prideful people are opposed to personal and corporate spiritual awakenings. I would have to say that this is, and a lot of times I don't say things I don't want to, but it's so applicable and it does help people, but sometimes it offends people as well.

But this point right here, over the years, people who have left the church, a lot of times it's because of this point. God is moving too deeply and too profound. Things are too emotional, too many worship mornings, too many prayer meetings, too much of God almost.

They won't say that. But when God is stirring and God is moving and people are being broken and humbled, pride, pride, what is pride saying? They have what I don't have. They have passion for God that I don't have.

Instead of admitting it and giving it to God, they get prideful and they put down the church or they put down the ministry or they put down worship. It is one of the big obstacles in our nation right now, the worship wars.

I'm sure you've heard them. I don't know if you have. The worship wars, and usually it's often over emotional contemporary or hymns or whatever. It's emotional worship. If you go past five minutes singing a song, you're brainwashing the people.

If you repeat a certain thing, holy, holy, holy is our God, beautiful is your name, God, you are worthy of it all. And you just, oh, no, no, don't go past a minute and a half because now you're, don't tell people to come to the altar.

Now you're going, now you're pushing against their will. No, the problem is, sir, you've got a prideful and arrogant heart and you need to be, you need to be broken of that. Listen, I've seen it long enough.