Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTN

In the 1980's there was a strong push to build the self-esteem of our children.

This movement found many children mindlessly singing with their teachers,

I am special, I am special, look at me, look at me! (“Frere Jacques”)

However, this movement has had some negative consequences.

Recent comprehensive studies by five psychologists reveal what many of you may have already suspected: Today’s college students, having sung the song, have bought the hype.

They are decidedly more self-centered than their predecessors.

From 1982 to 2006, 16,475 college students completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI).

The standard inventory asks for rated responses to such statements as, "If I ruled the world it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person," and "I can live my life the way I want to."

The nationwide results were quite telling.

In fact, they were so negative that the study’s leading author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University said, “We need to stop endlessly (telling our kids) ‘You’re special’.

Kids are self-centered enough already.”

And this sentiment is setting them up for failure.

The study asserts that our sophmoric narcissists "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors.”

Current technology fuels the increase in self-centeredness.

Just consider the names of our favorite online pass times: YouTube and MySpace.

We may have a shortage of oil, a shortage of backbone in our politicians and a shortage of money to pay our debts, but there’s one thing we have a surplus of in this country: Pride.

NEED

And that’s not a good thing, especially if you want to be a joy-filled believer.

You see, God hates pride.

In fact, in several places in the New Testament we are told that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

That’s such a counter-cultural statement.

In our social economy, pride is a virtue.

Consequently, because of our self-centeredness, we suffer the fruit of our sin.

In fact, you may be here today suffering, and you may not be aware of it.

There are some tale-tell signs of this kind of arrogance.

For one thing, there is a distance you don’t understand..

You want to be close to God, but He doesn’t seem to be close at all.

You may even look at other believers who seem to have this really dynamic walk with the Lord, but you really don’t have that.

There’s a distance you don’t understand

And the reason that there is a distance you don’t understand is because there’s a deception you don’t realize.

Pride tricks you into believing that you have it all together.

It distorts your perception of life to the point that you really begin to feel superior.

You feel you have it together.

No, you may not be perfect, but you’re better than most people you know.

You feel approved by God, even though disobedience characterizes many areas of your life.

Pride deceives you, often without you even realizing it.

There’s a deception you don’t realize, a distance you don’t understand, but last of all,

There is a danger you do not appreciate.

When I am distant from God and I am deceived about where I really stand with Him, you can be assured that I will be trusting in the wrong thing, and I may not even know it.

That wrong thing is, well, YOU! Now this self-trust takes many forms.

Some folks just out-and-out create their own little kingdom of me and sicken us with their self-promotion.

Others are more subtle.

Their pride may hide in their good works and the emphasis they put upon them.

Their pride may hide in their religious activity where conformity to the rules causes them to think highly of themselves.

No matter the disguise, pride is dangerous because of what it does to us.

It destroys our joy, not by making us unhappy, but by making us self-sufficient.

If joy is the current confidence that flows from the future hope and practical guidance made possible by the constant presence of God, then pride is the false confidence that flows from the false hope and selfish guidance, made possible by the constant focus on self.

Pride destroys joy!

You might ask, “Why?

Why is pride such an offensive thing to God?” Well, there’s a parable in the Bible that tells us why.

Read that text with me (Luke 18:9-14) This parable gives us a couple of reasons that pride destroys joy.

In the first place, pride destroys joy because:

DIV 1: PRIDE REDIRECTS YOUR CONFIDENCE.

EXP

This parable tells us the story of two men who place their confidence in two different directions.

One of those directions leads to true confidence, the other to false.

The one with false confidence represents the group Jesus talks about when he says in v 9, Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous . . .

Notice the direction of their confidence: They trusted in themselves.

One commentator said,

First, having become convinced of their own righteousness, they have come to depend on themselves.

They are self-possessed, able, at least in their own minds, to live honorably before God quite apart from divine mercy.

On the other hand, they disdain others,108 their concerns with holiness manifested in the exclusion of others from their circles.

You see, from this story, that pride does some bad things to you.

First, it blocks your relationship.

What I mean is, it blocks your relationship with God.

There is an interesting phrase in v. 11 says that The Pharisee stood and prayed thus, with himself.

That phrase literally says that this Pharisee “prayed these things to himself,” and that the prayer not even got beyond his own hearing, nor higher than the ceiling.

And because he was focused on himself and prayed about himself, his relationship with God was blocked.

That’s what pride does.

It erects a barrier between you and God.

It blocks your relationship, and then,

It distorts your reality.

This Pharisee had a vision problem.

He wasn’t seeing very well.

In his world, reality was distorted.

You know that by the evidence flowing from his life.

For instance, he had a false superiority .

Notice at the end of v 9, not only did the Pharisee trust in himself, he also despised others.

You see, when you and I are seeing correctly, we find it impossible to despise others.

We know that we are not superior to anyone.

We see ourselves as the Apostle Paul saw himself–as the chief of sinners.

When we are filled with pride, though, we walk around with a certain superiority that is deceptive.

Our perception of reality and, especially of ourselves, is distorted.

And that distortion causes us to compare ourselves to others.

Now, that comparison is never fair. it is a biased comparison.

For one thing it ELEVATES SELF.

Now this self-elevation is not real, because he seems to pick out the faults of others while neglecting his own.

One commentator said:

What is striking is (1) that the Pharisee’s prayer begins like a thanksgiving psalm, but never enumerates the divine actions for which one is thankful.

For God’s acts, the Pharisee has substituted his own.

(2) It is also telling that this Pharisee seems to place himself (and presumably those with similar practices) in one camp and all others in the category of thieves, rogues, and adulterers.

With this list, he seems to have caricatured every form of possible sin—robbery, reprobation, and immorality—and declared all other humans as guilty of them

And since they are guilty, he elevates himself by JUDGING OTHERS.

You see this in the way that he responds to the tax collector.

He makes assumptions that this tax collector is bad.

He says in v 11, The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

Can’t you hear the disgust in this verse when he says, or even this TAX COLLECTOR.

This was one judgmental guy.

You would have probably found him using the word “typical,” a lot.