Sermon Tone Analysis

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, 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...

“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:

And, just to belabor the point, this is not an isolated text (here are just a couple other examples among many):

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:

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.’”