The Pitfall of Pride: Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah (3 Kings of Judah)

2 Chronicles 24-26

Scripture:

Prayer:

Introduction:

The river of life. The horror of hell. A passion for God. The pitfall of pride.

The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

Pride is the ground in which all the other sins grow, and the parent from which all the other sins come.

William Barclay (1907–1978)

Pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

John Ruskin (1819–1900)

Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.

T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)

If you think you know it all, you haven't been listening.

Ignorance and power and pride are a deadly mixture.

C. S. Lewis called pride "spiritual cancer," which eats up love and contentment. It is actually a sign of our own insecurity and feelings of inferiority.

Pride and weakness are Siamese twins.

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

A haughty person signals his pride like a flashing red light at an intersection. He displays how "great" he is by his walk, his talk, and his mannerisms. English clergyman Caleb C. Colton said, "Pride, like the magnet, constantly points to one object: self. Unlike the magnet, it has no attracting pole, but at all points it repels."

The man who blows his own horn has everyone dodging when he approaches.

Things average out: if you think too much of yourself, other people won't.

The man who thinks too much of himself usually thinks too little of others.

Pride is a form of selfishness.

D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930)

Don't get stuck inside your own ego because it will become a prison in no time flat—and … don't think that "self-realization" will make you happy. That is the way you will end in … your own hell.

Barbara Ward (1914–1981)

A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

There is one kind of religion in which the more devoted a man is, the fewer proselytes he makes: the worship of himself.

George Macdonald (1824–1905)

God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.

Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899)

Self-complacency and spiritual pride are always the beginning of degeneration. When I begin to be satisfied with where I am spiritually, I begin to degenerate.

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)

Though the Bible urges us on to perfection, it gives no encouragement to suppose that perfection is achieved. A man who thinks he is righteous is not righteous … for the reason, primarily, that he is full of spiritual pride, the most deadly form that sin can take.

D. Elton Trueblood (1900– )

But too many people now climb onto the cross merely to be seen from a greater distance, even if they have to trample somewhat on the One who has been there so long. Albert Camus

Pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil: the danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness.

In his pride, Moses lost his temper and was kept out of the Promised Land (Numbers 20:1-13). Pride kept Joshua from seeking God's will at Ai, and he lost the battle (Joshua 7). King Nebuchadnezzar's pride turned him into an animal (Daniel 4), and Peter's pride led to his denial of Christ (Luke 22:31-34). Warren Wiersbe

No matter how dear you are to God, if pride is harbored in your spirit, He will whip it out of you. They that go up in their own estimation must come down again by His discipline. Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Conclusion:

There is an interconnectedness in life and we must remain connected to one another by remaining connected to Christ. We must not forget where we came from. We were bought with a price (1Cor. 6:20). We have nothing we have not received. We were redeemed with a blood not our own, and we have not yet resisted sin to the point of shedding our own.

It is all too easy to forget where we came from - to forget the pit from which we were dug - to forget the Christ who loved us and died for us. And how about the husband or wife who stuck with you in hard times, or the employer who gave you a job when you had none, or the parent who cared for you, or the brother who bailed you out, or the pastor who loved you in spite of sin, or perhaps the child who endured you.

We must not forget where we came from lest we forget where we are going. We must not forget where we came from lest we forget to whom we belong. Let us break this bread in communion remembrance of renewed confession of our spiritual poverty and overwhelming need for God’s grace and mercy. Let us seek God in the hope of becoming broken in Christ as He was for us. Let us confess and forsake our pride and cast ourselves at His feet and give thanks and worship to Him as He picks up all the pieces and fashions us into His likeness, holiness and perfection - the body of Christ.