The Pride Divide
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Welcome
Reminder about short congregational meeting (if Tad goes over 10 minutes I’ll shave my head… hehe)
Prayer
Pride refers to an unwarranted attitude of confidence. While pride can have a positive connotation of self-worth or boasting, it is often used in Scripture to refer to an unhealthy elevated view of one’s self, abilities, or possessions.
Also: Inordinate Self-Esteem; Arrogance; Boasting; Conceit; Egotism; Gloating; Proud; Self-exaltation; Selfish Ambition; Self-Righteousness; Spiritual Pride; Stubbornness; Vainglory; Vanity.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Pride, oh pride, it is a devil… my devil… and your devil… it haunts us all, sometimes in ways that are subtle, sometimes in ways that are not so subtle; it lurks, it stalks and it attacks when we least expect it. Worse yet, it rears its head without us even being aware of its presence. It leads us astray while assuring us that we are in the right. It makes us feel warm and content in our conceit and self-righteousness. It blinds us to the reality of our perilous state.
As Ben Franklin aptly stated in his Autobiography: “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
One thing you can be sure of is pride will bring division. Pride Divides. That is the one thing I want you to remember tonight - Pride Divides. It brings division between us and God, and us and one another.
Like most topics in the Bible, an entire sermon series could be done on just the issue of pride. I have about 30 minutes or so.
I have three goals tonight: 1) to show you the Genesis of pride (pun intended), 2) to help you try and recognize where pride might have a foothold in your life, and 3) remind you that Jesus is the antidote - Pride Divides, but Jesus Unites. Pride tears down, but Jesus heals. Pride brings exhaustion, but Jesus brings peace.
There is a direct correlation between Pride and Jesus in your life - more Jesus, less Pride; less Jesus, more Pride.
There are also other correlations: more religion/religiosity = more Pride; more churchianity = more Pride; every other world religion based on works = more pride. And now I’m going to touch a cultural golden calf: self-ism. We are a culture obsessed with self, and when self is the focus, pride is almost always lurking at the door. Self-improvement, self-help, self-care, self-love, self-determination, self-defense; there is even a women’s magazine called, you guessed it, Self. Any self- (hyphen) means a focus on self - however it is phrased and for whatever purpose - and when we are focused on self, we are not focused on Jesus, or the others around us. Scripture even tells us a focus on self was the source of the first fall - and it wasn’t Adam and Eve...
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.
“You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering... You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you... Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor." Ezekiel 28:11–17 (ESV)
Most scholars agree that these verses from the Hebrew Bible describe the fall of Satan. We don’t know exactly when, and it doesn’t really matter, beyond the fact it was before our fall, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the source of Satan’s fall is pretty evident from these passages - it was Pride. This is why Proverbs says:
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
And, just to belabor the point, this is not an isolated text (here are just a couple other examples among many):
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 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 breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
Pride Divides, Jesus Unites.
Unfortunately, the story of pride is the story of us. Which, brings us to Genesis:
Did you know you were created in innocence, with honor and power? Does my saying that make you scratch your head a little bit? Are you thinking, “Jay, didn’t you just say we weren’t supposed to be focused on self?” Yes, I did say that, so, lets go to Genesis 1-3 and take a look at what is going on.
In Genesis 1, the creation narrative, we learn that human beings - you and me - were created in the “image of God.” “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
What does it mean to be created in the “image” of God? The Faithlife Study Bible (which I HIGHLY recommend you take advantage of) has this to say: “The image of God likely does not refer to any specific ability (intelligence, sentience, emotional capacity, free will, etc.). This would result in an ethical problem, since human beings do not possess these abilities equally. Likewise, connecting the image of God to the Hebrew words nephesh for “soul” or ruach for “spirit” for people—does not resolve this issue, as both terms are used to describe members of the animal kingdom. Rather, it refers to our creation as God’s image, His unique representatives on earth. People are thus God’s agents, functioning as He would if He were embodied.”
I hope that is making sense. [Detour] This is why abortion is not OK - whether you are two cells, or two trillion cells, you bear the imprint of God, you are His imager, His representative in the creation. There are no stages, there is no point where you “develop” into an imager, you have the status of imager from the moment you are conceived - it is not based on whether you can think, or speak, or breathe or walk; you don’t hit the first trimester and then become an imager. By your very existence, no matter how small, you are an imager because it is a STATUS given to you by God.
We are created to image God, to be his imagers. It is what we are by definition. The image is not an ability you have, but a status you have. We are God’s representatives on earth. To be human is to image God.
Being a human doesn’t mean you are an image of God, it means that you are imaging God by being human.
This concept of being God’s imagers is at the heart of Paul’s “ambassador” analogy in 2 Cor 5. Adam and Eve were ambassadors of the High King, God himself. And, with that status came HONOR.
Next, what does God give His ambassadors? “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion (authority and power) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” These ambassadors were to be kings and queens of the creation. They were given power over creation and authority to rule in His stead and to dwell in His presence. They had POWER.
This brings us to our final piece, INNOCENCE which takes us to Genesis 3. In Genesis 3 we learn of a special tree, the tree of “knowledge of good and evil,” or, as I like to call it, the tree of judgment. Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve did not judge anything. They didn’t judge themselves, others, the creation or God. This is a hard concept to grasp because our lives now revolve around judgment - good and bad, healthy and unhealthy, right or wrong, are the Bears better than Green Bay, or the Vikings?
Trying to imagine life without judging is like trying to contemplate eternity - an existence without time. The problem with judging, and why God intended to reserve that capacity for Himself (one who is omniscient - all knowing), is that we lack the requisite perspective to do it properly; we are not omni-anything - we are finite beings. You and I do not have a full view or perspective about anything on which we render judgment.
So, prior to the fall, as imagers, we were created with Innocence, Honor and Power. All of these were tied to God being the center; to God being on the throne of our lives. Then Adam and Eve fell through pride. Why do I say that? Let’s look at the text:
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
I will be like God - what a lie. Having honor and power wasn’t enough, we wanted judgment, too. We got what we wanted, what pride desired, judgment - in every sense of the term.
This unfortunate turn of events gives us the mess we have today. Our very first exercise of judgement showed our loss of Honor - we sewed fig leaves to cover our nakedness; there was no reason to do so - other than poor judgment. God says, “who told you that you were naked?” I created you this way and I said that it was very good. Do you think you know better than me? You see how this poor judgment shows from the git-go? All of a sudden we felt SHAME - the absence of HONOR.
Then “the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” - as if we are going to somehow hide from God. Another great use of our newfound skills in judgment. Now we are feeling FEAR - the absence of POWER.
This brings us to the pinnacle of this newfound skill in judgment - blame. “The man said, ‘the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’” In one fell swoop - Adam blames God and then blames Eve for his failure. Not me, it was your fault! It was her fault! Now we are feeling GUILT - the absence of INNOCENCE.
What do our three initial judgments have in common? Pride. SHAME, FEAR and GUILT are all about the self - hiding, protecting, excusing the actions of self. At the root of this focus on self is… Pride.
What did this Pride do? It divided - it divided them from each other and from God.
Genesis 3:16 (ESV)
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
The concept of “desire” here in this passage is negative - much like sin’s relation to Cain in Gen 4:7. So, Eve’s desire will be to rule over Adam, and Adam is going to rule over Eve. Their default will now be competing with one another rather than complementing one another. The source of this acrimony, the source of this division, is Pride.
PRIDE DIVIDES.
He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Adam and Eve were now exercising judgment - poor judgment, repeatedly and continually, because finite human beings lack the capacity to judge well. God knew that in this state, humankind would make an absolute wreck of things through poor judgment, through sin. Understand that at its heart, sin is a matter of poor judgment which is a matter of Pride. There is a choice - a choice to sin or not sin - to do right or to do wrong - to hit the mark or miss the mark - Pride tells us that we know best (but we don’t) and we end up judging the situation poorly and do things our way instead of God’s way - that is sin. Pride led to poor judgment which leads to sin. Do you see how this is all tied back to Pride? “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
God knows we cannot be allowed to continue in this state forever, so we are driven from the Garden where the Tree of Life was located. This was Adam and Eve’s source of life - eating of the fruit of the Tree of Life - and the source of this tree was God. Whether this tree is literal or metaphorical, it doesn’t matter - it’s root is God who is the Source of Life. Pride, therefore, separated us from God, separated us from our source of life, and what happened? Death - both physical and spiritual. “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
PRIDE DIVIDES.
One other note before we move on - from a sociological perspective there are three predominate cultures in the world today - and that have existed consistently through history - do you know what they are? (Discuss)
There you have it, the Genesis of Pride.
SO, how does Pride play out in our lives? In preparing this sermon, I couldn’t come up with a better way than to use my own failings as an example, and hope that by discussing some of my failings (and they are many) that it will help you think through where Pride may be lurking in your own life.
Marriage - Tina is a saint - an absolute saint - and it is a miracle we are still married. I have had an unhealthy inclination since childhood toward needing to always be right. Pride unfiltered. I can be pretty forthright, pretty blunt, a tendency toward arrogance that I have struggled with for years. It has, in some respects, served me well as an attorney, but in the other 99.99% of my life - not so much. Early in our marriage, Tina was ready to leave me; had it not been for the kids she probably would have. My pride, my need to always be right, had her in constant defense mode - walking on eggshells wondering where the next battle was going to come from. This would lead to regular fights, with both of us, naturally, pridefully, digging our heels in. But God, I thank God for Jesus - for the life of Jesus living out through Tina’s life. Healing started with.... a cup of coffee. One morning she, without being asked, brought me a cup of coffee - despite the fact it was the last thing she wanted to do. And then the next day, another. And then I did the same for her - and so forth and so on. One seemingly small selfless act led to another which led to me reciprocating which led to… a concept we learned called intentional selflessness which saved our marriage and has been invaluable in our relationship with Jesus. Pride ruins marriage - learn from my mistakes.
On to a lighter story of my failings...
Parenthood - (C & Q story) …Caleb paid the penalty for my prideful, poor judgment. Remember when I said we lack perspective to judge rightly? I’m the poster-child. Pride leads to poor parenting - learn from my mistakes.
To misquote what John wrote at the end of his Gospel, “Now there are also many other things that [Jay] did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that could be written [about the stupid prideful things Jay has done in his life!]”
That being said, let me quickly hit a few more of the highlights and see if any of them resonate with you:
1. Pride has made me over commit because I think I can do “it” better than anyone else.
2. Pride has led me to deny others the chance to exercise their gifts because - see #1.
3. Pride has led me to sacrifice things that were important in order to ensure I did not fail at something I should not have been doing in the first place.
4. Pride has blinded me from learning from other because “I know” and didn’t ask questions.
5. Pride has kept me from countless opportunities for laughter and joy because I didn’t want to look foolish.
6. Pride has put me into countless foolish situations because I didn’t want to look foolish, or I wanted to look “cool.”
7. Pride has blinded me to the feelings of others by my certainty that I am right.
Every one of my prideful failings led to division in one form or another - they divided me from others and they divided me from God. PRIDE DIVIDES.
So, what are we to do with this problem?
Remember me talking earlier about being an imager of God? That imaging is not a quality you inherit, it is a status you possess simply by existing? Remember that with this status came Innocence, Honor and Power?
Remember how we bought the lie and in our Pride decided that we deserved to be like God “knowing good and evil?” How we lost our innocence and replaced it with poor judgment? How in our Pride we became alienated from one another and from God? PRIDE DIVIDES? How there is nothing we can do to fix that problem? Works don’t work?
BUT GOD, BUT JESUS
Scripture describes Jesus as God’s imager - the perfect embodiment of God in human form, fully man and fully God. Jesus, God in human flesh, was uniquely positioned and qualified to fix the mess you and I have made. To repair the division between us and God and between us and one another. And He did - in His life, death and resurrection. To restore our Innocence, Honor and Power. And, all of this He offers to us as a gift - and incredibly costly free gift.
So, how do we access this gift? How do we accept it?
By laying down our Pride, setting aside Self - this is what the Bible calls Repentance, but we cannot stop there, we must replace our Pride, our faith and trust in our own abilities and judgment, with faith and trust in Jesus, in His abilities and His judgment.
Once we do that, Scripture calls us to act as Jesus would—to live like him. This is what the Bible calls being a disciple. We are renewed, we are a new creation. By imaging Jesus, God incarnate, we work, serve, and behave the way God would if He were physically present in the world.
When we cease being our own judge of right and wrong and trust in Jesus’ judgement - our Guilt is dealt with and our Innocence is restored. By trusting in his sacrifice for our sin, there is no more basis for our Shame, and our Honor as sons and daughters of the Most High God is restored. And, last but certainly not least, by trusting in Jesus, the veil is opened to us so we can approach God without Fear - there is no more need to hide amongst the trees. And in our weakness and humility, our Power is restored - true power - evidenced in the Fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.
In this, this believing loyalty in Jesus, we find our hope, hope made possible through His resurrection, hope that one day, our imaging of Christ will transcend our life on earth. As Paul says: “just as we have borne the image of the one man who is made of earth, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor 15:49).
This hope is available to all - will you repent and believe?
God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. – Dwight L. Moody
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”