Timeless Wisdom: A Heart Not Ruled By Pride | Weekend Sunday Service | Josiah Smith

Well today's topic really needs no introduction.

I mean, pride is it's almost like oxygen in a way.

I mean, it's it's everywhere in the air.

And it's not just everywhere in the air out there, it's everywhere in the air in here.

And that's often how pride has been spoken of throughout church history.

It's this pervasive sin that burrows deeply into our hearts and honestly touches most everything that we do.

One of my favorite authors, I've I've quoted him before, but is C.

S.

Lewis, and in his book, Mere Christianity, here's what he says about pride.

He says, according to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil is pride.

Unchaste, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all of that are mere flea bites in comparison.

It was through pride that the devil became the devil.

Pride leaves to every other vice.

It is the complete anti-God state of mind.

It is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.

I mean, those are stinging words.

Those are somewhat dramatic words, but I think they're appropriate.

It is pride, he says, which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation, in every family since the world began.

And it's common to hear a sentiment like, and I agree with it, pride is at the root of almost every single sin.

Think about your tendency towards selfishness.

What is selfishness, selfishness, if not pride, steering you in a particular direction towards a particular desire, no matter what the cost or who's in the way?

I mean, that's selfishness.

So selfishness is what we want, when we want it, how we want it, the frequency, the the amounts, uh, how we achieve it.

I mean, it's it's fueled by pride.

And of course, selfishness and pride are both separate sins, but you you could see how pride leads you towards selfishness.

It's all about you, it's all about what you think and what you want and what you desire.

I take another sin like lust as an example.

Lust is fueled by pride because essentially lust, whether it's a woman lusting after a man or a man lusting after a woman, lust is essentially taking other people and making them.

It's as if you think in your heart that they exist for your own personal pleasure.

I mean, that's what lust is, right?

The people external to us, they exist for my gratification.

They exist for my pleasure.

And so lust is fueled by pride.

It's fueled by a selfish, twisted, distorted view of uh sexuality and even desire that God gave us that that is meant to be good within the context of marriage.

Think of how we speak to other people.

Unkind words, of course, are often fueled by pride.

We can often think that people are less valuable than us.

Even if we don't think that, we can act that way and speak to people accordingly, fueled by pride.

Gossip, of course, speaking ill of someone else for personal satisfaction.

We love to talk about other people's problems.

Why is that?

That's because we're we're prideful.

And to be honest, if we're talking about other people's problems, we're not talking about our problems.

And that's good news, oftentimes, for the prideful heart.

Anger, like we talked about last week.

I'm not getting what I want, what I feel like I deserve, and therefore I'm angry.

And the list could go on.

We could list sin after sin after sin and show you that pride really is at the root of it.

Now, let me just kind of fill this out for you.

If we're defining pride and trying to illustrate it in some ways, because pride is so pervasive and it is attached to everything.

Sometimes it can feel like pride is everything and pride is nothing.

I mean, it can be hard to wrap your arms around it.

But let me try to illustrate this for you.

A prideful people believe that they are, or at least should be, the source of what is good, right, and worthy of praise.

All right, think about that for a second.

If there's pride in your heart, there's this desire for you to be the source of what is good, what is right, and what is worthy of praise.

I want people to look at my life.

I want them to look at my intelligence, look at my accomplishments, and think that person is responsible for what is good, what is right in the world, and what is worthy of praise.

And more than that, prideful people believe that they by themselves are or should be the accomplisher of anything that is worthwhile to accomplish, and that they should certainly be the benefactor of all things.

We, in our pride, we believe that we are the source of what is good and praiseworthy, and we want to be the accomplisher of anything that is worthwhile to be accomplished.

We want to put our name next to things that we are proud of.

And that's not necessarily always a bad thing, but certainly it can be intertwined with sinful pride.

So, in essence, a prideful people are believing that all things should be from them, through them, to them, and for them.

Now, I'm using that language intentionally because that's what the scriptures say about Christ.

All things are from him, all things are for him, all things exist in him.

It says in uh Hebrews chapter one that he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

So rather than giving all glory to Christ, recognizing that he is worthy of all praise, that all things exist from him, to him, and for him, someone who is prideful believes that all things should be from them, through them, and to them, and for them.

Ultimately, that's what a heart that is governed by pride is craving.

So, to sum all of this up, proud people believe that life is all about them, their happiness, their accomplishments, and their worth.

And this is why you can see how it is so pervasive because it touches everything that we do.

In many ways, it can touch everything that we are, every uh desire that we have.

Even sometimes we can have good desires that underneath can also be fueled or at least intertwined with pride.

And so sometimes, even if I can confess to you, when I'm praying to the Lord, I'm even aware of at times I want something good, but I think I want it for a prideful reason.

Could you help me to separate those things?

Could you help me desire what is good and praiseworthy and excellent, as Paul says in Philippians 4?

Would you help me to do that, but in a way where my pride is far from those things, where it's not intertwined?

And so people who are governed by pride that believe that life is all about them, their happiness, their accomplishments, and their worth.

Now, I want you to see in the scriptures how God views and speaks about pride.

If you got your Bibles, I want you to go to Proverbs 16, 18.

This will just kind of be uh the launch pad for us today as we look holistically at a biblical theology of what the Bible says about pride.

But Proverbs 16, 18 is a good place to start.

A familiar verse, perhaps, to many of you.

But Proverbs 16, 18 says, Pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit before a fall.

Now, can I just say as a pastor, I have a bone to pick with people when it comes to this verse because we always quote it wrong.

That drives me nuts, right?

What do people say?

Pride goes before a fall.

But did you read it?

Pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit before a fall.

So, yes, I mean, if we just cut out there there's synonyms, it's a parallelism, I get it.

But look, that's the pastor in me.

I'm like, wait a minute, that's not what it says.

Okay, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

That shouldn't have said that, but that's what's in my heart.

Uh Proverbs 16, 18.

Pride goes before destruction.

Now think about this.

Other places in the Proverbs, it says uh that there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end leads to destruction, right?

So, according to the Proverbs, the fool, the complacency of fools, Proverbs 1 says, destroys them.

A fool dies for lack of knowledge.

I mean, over and over and over again.

And you could see how pride goes before destruction, because a prideful person wants nothing to do with what God has said, what he has revealed, and what he has commanded.

A prideful person rejects wisdom, rejects counsel, does not listen.

Over and over again in Proverbs, it says, hear, listen, remember.

And a prideful person doesn't do any of that.

And of course, that's going to lead to their destruction in a haughty spirit.

Being someone that's so arrogant is going to come before a fall.

Why?

Because you're not counting your steps, you're not careful, you're not prudent in your decision making, you're not taking things before uh the Lord.

Even if you if you've been with us in the Lamp and Light Bible reading plan, there was a story about Achan in Joshua where he essentially sins.

He does sin.

He takes some devoted things, he buries them in his tent, and they uh do these things.

And there's this this whole testimony of uh Israel not seeking the Lord's counsel.

There's this whole story about Israel not asking God.

That's that's the sin of Achan, and then they are approached by the Gibeonites, and they're they're not seeking counsel from the Lord, they're not doing what the Lord says, they're not going to him.

And as a result, what happens?

They they they get into situations, they they fall at the hand of AI.

I mean, there's all kinds of things, destruction literally happens.

A haughty spirit comes before a fall, someone that doesn't listen.

This is how God views pride.

Now, in the same chapter in Proverbs, Proverbs 16, verse 5, it says, Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

Proverbs 16:5

Now, if you were going to ask, what does God think of people who are prideful?

Well, here it is, Proverbs 16, 5.

Everyone who is arrogant in heart.

Now, think with me here.

It's not that when in the moment of pride as a Christian, you're not necessarily an abomination to the Lord.

This is kind of a categorical thing of the fool versus the wise, but certainly we need to recognize that God says about people that those who are arrogant in the heart, those who reject the wisdom of Christ, they are an abomination to the Lord.

And it says, Be assured, he will not go unpunished.

So there's an ultimate sense where someone who rejects Christ, rejects the wisdom of Christ, will not go unpunished in an eternal sense, but even in a temporal sense, we can also, in our arrogance, we can do things that lead to destruction, we can do things that ultimately lead to our fall.

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

So the the scriptures make it clear that God opposes the proud.

In fact, in James chapter 4, verse 6, this is often the book of James is often referred to as the Proverbs of the New Testament.

James 4:6

James says in chapter 4, verse 6, but he gives, thankfully, more grace.

Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

So God opposes the proud, the arrogant in heart are an abomination to the Lord.

But the good news in that, and the hope for you today, is that God gives grace to the humble.

Other places in Scripture, it says a broken and contrite heart, the Lord will not despise.

And so though it's said in Scripture that those who are arrogant in heart are an abomination, and those who are prideful are opposed by God, God is on the other side.

He is not for you, he's not for that pride, he opposes the proud.

But the good news is he gives grace to the humble.

And even in Proverbs 3, uh 34, it says the same thing.

Towards the scorners, he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.

So the Lord opposes the proud.

The Lord sees the arrogant in heart as an abomination.

But to those who are humble before the mighty hand of God, he gives favor, he gives help, he opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Now I want to walk you through three main questions this morning to help you think through what pride is, how it might be manifesting in your heart, and then hopefully how to uproot it in an ongoing way with the help of the Holy Spirit.

So that's kind of where we're going.

I want you to see just these three questions of how we deal with pride, where it comes from, what fuels it, and how we uproot it and have victory over it.

So here's the the first question.

Point number one What are signs of pride in your heart?

What are signs?

What could you point to and say, okay, this is a sign in my heart that pride is something that I need to deal with and something that I need to humbly submit to the Lord for forgiveness in and the strength to overcome it.

Now, none of the things I'm about to say are necessarily anything new from what we've talked about in Proverbs.

We've been in Proverbs since June.

We've talked about a lot of different things.

And so what I'm about to say is essentially a summary of a lot of what we've already covered.

And hopefully that's helpful for just remembering it, but also an encouragement to see that the scriptures are consistent about these things.

So signs of pride in your life.

The first one that I would say is somewhat obvious according to the Proverbs is if you reject correction, if you're unwilling to receive feedback, that is a telltale sign that there is pride lodged into your heart.

If you refuse to listen when other people bring something to your attention, hey, I noticed this, or hey, you said that, uh, or your your life doesn't seem to be lining up uh with what scripture says.

If every single time someone comes to you to provide feedback or to offer even encouragement by way of admonishment, admonishment is, hey, you need to do what God's word says.

You need to submit your life to what God has revealed.

And if you find yourself always just being defensive, always having an excuse, always being able to explain away whatever sort of concern is being brought to your attention.

I would just say you need to pause and you need to reflect on what that reveals about your heart.

Because in the Proverbs, again and again and again, it's the fool that doesn't listen.

It's the fool that does not receive instruction, it's the fool who refuses to be corrected, it's the fool who will not allow discipline in his life.

And so if you reject correction, if you're not teachable, if you're constantly defensive, that's just a sign that there's pride uh in your heart.

And I would say this pride uh often has a way of seeing the fault in others before we're able to see it in ourselves.

If pride were goggles and you were somehow seeing your heart with your pride goggles on, you know what you wouldn't see in your heart with pride goggles on?

Pride.

It filters it out.

It's like those um what are those called, the blue light glasses for your your laptops, because we we take in too much blue light and it messes with your circadian rhythm and whatever, you know, all that stuff.

I it's a real thing, and I I suppose.

I don't know.

I don't have any blue light glasses, but I probably should.

I have it, doesn't matter.

I'm I'm I'm being a fool right now, I'm going off the trail.

Um, it filters things out, right?

I mean, that's what that's what pride goggles do.

When you're we're trying to self-analyze, if there's if there's something in my heart, you've got the pride goggles on, you know what you're not gonna see?

Pride.

You're not gonna see it.

It's being filtered out.

And what you're gonna see though, when you have those on and you're looking at other people, you're gonna see their pride.

You're gonna see their issues, their their weaknesses, their uh faults, right?

So pride is a way of seeing the faults in others before seeing it in yourself.

This is why Jesus talks about when you're trying to address something with someone else, provide feedback, encouragement, admonishment.

Do you know what you're supposed to do?

You're supposed to take the log out of your own eye before you go and remove the speck from theirs.

Because our pride goggles only allow us to see what other people are struggling with, oftentimes.

And it filters out the areas of concern in our own hearts.

So I would say if you reject correction, if you're not willing to receive feedback from others, that's a sign of pride.

If you're constantly defensive, if you've always got a rationale, if you've always got an explanation, if you do this because of that, if that was your response because of something else and you've got it all worked out, that's a sign of pride in your heart.

And we need to deal with that.

Here's another sign, very practically conversations dominate your interests, your hobbies, what you are doing, the concerns that you have.

Now, as a pastor, sometimes I struggle to say things like that because we as people can over-correct.

You can hear something like that.

Do conversations dominate your interest and then be like, okay, great, I'm never gonna share anything with anyone ever again.

That's not the point.

The point is not that you you you can't talk about how you enjoyed doing certain hobbies or you did something exciting or you went somewhere cool and had a family vacation.

Tell people that.

I'm just saying, if you were to catalog your life and break things down into percentage, when you're engaging with other people, how often are you asking about them, about what they're interested in, about what they love, about what's going on in their heart?

How's your time in the Word?

How's your heart with the Lord?

How's your struggle going with the sin that I know that you're battling?

A genuine love and a genuine care and concern from others.

And it's not always about you.

And so if you were to take stock and inventory of your conversations, would you be able to say, No, I actually am doing what scripture says, I'm counting others more significant than myself?

Or is the opposite true?

It's just about what you're going through, the struggles that you have, the things that you like.

Again, you need to share those things.

You should share those things.

But it could be a sign of pride if those things continuously dominate your interests.

You ever had a conversation like that where you've left a conversation with someone and you went, man, I didn't ask them a single question about themselves.

I don't know anything about them based off that conversation, but they know a whole lot about me.

I've had that happen to me before where I've been like, man, I just I was going on and on and on about how it's pride goes before destruction, not fall.

People know that now, and they probably shouldn't, right?

Well, that's what we do.

We we dominate conversations with our interests, with our thoughts, with what we're working on, with what we care about, rather than being inquisitive about what's going on in someone else's heart, considering others more significant than ourselves.

Of course, uh, you could see how that would be very self-centered.

Now, I want you to know what I'm doing.

I want you to know what I like, I want you to enjoy what I enjoy, or whatever the case may be.

So continue to share your life with others.

Don't overcorrect on me, but we need to recognize that if we're never taking interest in others and asking good conversations and initiating what's going on in their heart, that could be a sign of self-centeredness, which of course is a sign of pride.

Here's another sign of pride in your life.

You need to audit the way that you speak to and treat others.

If you're constantly unkind with your words, if you're critical, if you're constantly given over to being harsh, a harsh spirit.

The scriptures are going to talk about again and again that your words are a sign of your wisdom or lack thereof.

I mean, if you're reading with us in the Proverbs, hopefully you're seeing that repeated theme again and again.

The way that you use your words can be an indicator of your wisdom or your foolishness, your folly that's fueled by your pride.

So if we're constantly speaking harshly, if we're constantly criticizing, we've always got something to say about someone, or we always have some gripe to communicate and let somebody know about.

That could be a sign uh of pride in your life.

Here's another sign jealousy and envy of others.

Now we talked about this last week as a root of anger.

Of course, pride is a part of that, and one of the roots that I listed for anger, but jealousy and envy of others.

Think about this uh someone else's talent, someone else's uh looks, I don't know, someone else's accomplishments, uh, their possessions, whatever the case may be.

Your jealousy and envy of others, of course, is rooted in pride.

And this is uh this can manifest in any kind of ways.

Do you know if I can speak Honestly, this morning, do you know where I see this?

I see it in all kinds of ways.

Uh, but I see this perhaps more prominently.

Maybe it's because of social media, maybe it's just conversations that I have.

Uh, in the mom world, with one mom looking at another mom and saying, I'm jealous.

Maybe not saying that, but feeling that, experiencing that in their heart.

I'm envious.

They seem to be a great mom.

They're a great wife.

Their household is so in order, their kids are so well behaved.

Uh, the uh whatever the case may be.

I see that all the time.

There's this comparison game, and there's this jealousy and envy, and and even women struggling to uh put themselves down because they're looking across the aisle and saying, Well, I'm not like them, I'm not doing it like them.

Does my husband wish that I was like that wife over there?

Is he not content with who I am?

I mean, that can be a sign of pride.

Of course, men can do that uh as well in any number of ways, but I'm just saying uh jealousy and envy of others is rooted in and is a sign of pride.

It manifests in a thousand different ways.

We we used the example last week uh of someone at your work that got the promotion that you felt like you were due, right?

And you're envious.

I feel entitled to that, I feel like I've been wrong.

Something that was due for me was kept from me.

That's rooted in pride, and so jealousy and envy, if you were doing an inventory on your own heart, is a sign of pride that needs to be targeted and uprooted.

Here's one that you might not think of um superficiality.

Superficiality.

What I mean by that is a lack of authenticity, and this can sort of show itself, perhaps most prominently, in two places, I would say, in the church, before and after the service, and in a life group.

Superficiality is when you're having the conversations, you're standing in line for crowned coffee, there's just no substance.

There's no real I'm struggling.

And listen, I'm not saying, hey, get in crown coffee line and then just start bearing your soul to the barista.

But I am saying you get it, superficiality that every conversation that you ever had is just small talk.

There's nothing real, there's nothing genuine, there's no struggles, there's no burdens that are.

I'm doing great, you know, I'm busy.

Everyone's busy, right?

That's our default.

Uh I'm busy, you know, but things are good, things are good at home.

What does that mean?

I don't know.

But they could be worse, I guess.

Right?

Superficiality uh is again, it's it's a lack of authenticity, it's a it's a lack of vulnerability.

So think of think of your life group.

You ever in a life group with someone that is always sharing to teach and or correct and never to say, I'm wrestling with this?

It's really tough.

It's really tough to be in that kind of environment.

That's superficiality.

I I want to teach the class about what they should be doing to not be prideful because I'm so humble, right?

I mean, that's that's superficiality in a life group.

And I'm not saying that you can't share some some people are uh have more training, some people have more education.

I get that, but I'm just saying that in a life group context, you know the people that will never share anything of actual substance.

And some people have a skill of making you feel like they're sharing things that are of substance until you walk away and you retrace the conversation and you go, wow, I don't know anything about them.

Even though we just had the 20-minute conversation.

I know nothing.

Who are they?

What's going on in their heart?

What are they struggling with?

That can be a sign of pride.

Why?

Because if we are vulnerable, if we're authentic with people, if we share our actual burdens, if we say, hey, I'm struggling with this sin, everyone starts to get uncomfortable, even though we would all say we're all sinners, yes and amen.

Romans 3.23, all have fallen short of the glory of God.

We get it theologically, but then someone says to you, I'm struggling with sin, and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what do we do?

We get so uncomfortable by it.

Or we are so fearful that someone's going to think so lowly of us because we're not the perfect Christian that we hope they think we are.

That's superficiality.

We lack authenticity, we're overly concerned with what people think of you.

There's no genuineness, there's no sharing burdens.

You're not allowing the body of Christ to carry burdens with you because you're not willing to share.

That's a sign of uh a pride.

Right?

If I'm not going to share something because I'm worried about what you think of me, what else is that than pride?

If I can't say honestly and vulnerably, because I'm struggling.

I this week has been terrible.

I was angry at my boss, I spoke harshly to my wife, I abdicated some things with my kids.

I'm hurting, I'm confused, I'm I'm struggling.

Can we say those things?

We should be able to say those things in a life group context or just in the church in general.

But because we're often so superficial, we we we are comfortable with people having some really well-defined understanding of who we are and nothing more.

And we never move beyond that.

That could be a sign of pride.

It is a sign of pride in your life.

And I would just say that if that's you, if you're superficial and you never share meaningfully in life groups, I would say that the the life group and the body as a whole is worse for it.

We need, and by the way, uh have you ever been in a life group where someone just suddenly was like, I'm this is me, I'm a sinner, I'm struggling with this.

You know what happens in those life groups?

People start going, yeah, me too.

It's like, okay, yeah, we're all struggling with the same thing.

We're we're we're wrestling maybe in different ways and different circumstances.

We need to share that so that we can actually bear one another's burdens.

Superficiality is a sign of pride.

And the last one is attention seeking.

It's a sign of pride.

Attention seeking, right?

We want to draw attention to ourselves.

This this is kind of part and parcel with conversations dominating our interests, our hobbies, being self-centered in that sense.

But we can use humor to be attention seeking.

Uh, we can treat other people in certain ways to be attention-seeking, we can even make foolish decisions to be attention-seeking.

All of that is uh rooted in the pride.

So if those are signs of pride, okay, if you're gonna uh examine your heart and see, okay, what's going on in my heart that would be reminiscent of pride.

The next question would be well, what fuels pride?

What's fanning pride into flame?

Uh that's the next question, point number two.

What fuels pride?

And I'll give you a couple of things.

The first one is the most obvious.

This is the Sunday school answer.

It's your sin.

Your sin, plain and simple, fuels your pride and mine as well.

But let me give you some some more practical things.

Uh, you've experienced this.

What fuels pride?

I would say uh as a category, power and or position.

You ever had a boss that couldn't stop reminding you that they were your boss?

That couldn't stop saying, do this because I'm in charge.

You know, that some people you recognize that even the the word, the title leader, has fallen on such hard times because of what I'm saying, because power and position are now almost always associated with pride.

You almost automatically are suspicious of someone in a position of leadership because of how pride often can interweave with that role or with that reality.

And so power, meaning that we we feel like we have some sort of uh influence or say uh to govern someone else's life, or our position, which perhaps in a in a company environment may be true to some extent, uh, but but that can be fueling your pride.

There's a sense of, well, I I have the experience, I have the title, I have whatever, whatever, whatever.

And that that that's just a way of uh puffing yourself up.

I'm the boss, I'm in charge, I have the authority, I have the say, I can do what I want.

You have to listen to uh to me.

You you've seen that, you've experienced that uh in your relationships, in your workplaces.

That is something that fuels pride.

Here's something else that may strike you as interesting.

I would say spirituality can fuel your pride.

And I mean uh negatively, a negative spirituality, not a healthy spirituality, but things that are good and proper, like reading your Bible, praying, serving, giving, those things that you ought to do, that are uh commanded by God, that are healthy for you, healthy for the church that you're a part of, those things you recognize can lead you to pride, which is why the Bible says that knowledge puffs up.

There's a sense in which we can even know something like the Bible and be prideful about that we know the Bible.

Is that not crazy in our pride?

We're prideful about how much we know God.

I mean, that's what pride does.

We take a category that is so good, knowing our creator, knowing our savior, and we twist it in our pride to elevate it and lord it over others.

You know what I'm talking about.

You've been around those people that seem to bring up their Bible reading and their prayer life, but in a way where you're kind of like, are you bragging right now?

Are you just telling me that you read the Bible so that I know that you read the Bible?

What are we talking about?

I mean, that happens all the time.

Uh people, again, don't don't pendulum swing, right?

I'm not saying don't share with someone something that you're reading in the Bible, but this sort of superficial spirituality, even with something that's good, like Bible reading, prayer, giving, serving, I never miss church.

Which I don't think you should, but I'm just saying we can get puffed up from that.

I'm always there.

I'm the first one there, I'm the last one out.

Anytime they need somebody to serve, I'm the first one to sign up.

Is that not pride?

And you can do all of that, by the way, and not be prideful.

But I'm just saying, typically, uh, you can see that that fuels pride, even something that's good.

I know more about the Bible, I know more theological terms, I've been walking with the Lord longer, I have more verses memorized.

I mean, whatever.

All those things are good things.

But in our pride, in the twistedness of our pride, we can take good and godly things like prayer and be prideful about it.

I talk to God more than you do.

What I got up earlier than you did to to read my Bible.

I've seen that a lot, right?

You don't you don't do your Bible reading at 5 a.m.

You're a pastor.

We we we use these things.

As ridiculous as it is, you know what I'm talking about.

You've experienced it.

That's why the Bible says knowledge puffs out.

You can know and know and know and know without ever growing and without ever being humble in that knowledge of God is supposed to produce humility, not arrogance, and not pride.

And so the pursuit of those things, as good as they are, Bible reading, prayer, theology, whatever, if they're not done in humility, they they fuel your pride.

So we need to watch out for that.

Another category of what fuels your pride, wealth possessions.

You know this as well.

People have money, they've got material things, they've they uh they have different possessions that signify that they have money.

Even the Proverbs talks about people that literally clothe themselves in wealth.

They're just playing the part.

You know, we talked about that on the podcast.

People will max out credit cards to buy clothes they can't afford so that they can maintain an appearance that they really don't have.

All of that.

Your wealth, your possessions, or perhaps even your lack thereof can can poke at your pride.

Well, I don't have as much as they do, or I don't drive the car that they drive, or I don't wear the clothes that they wear.

Right?

So it can go both directions.

Our lack of wealth and possessions, or our the fact that we have them, maybe in plenty, can fuel our pride.

I would say achievements and compliments and accomplishments as well, that fuels pride.

Look at what I've done, look at who I am, look at what I've achieved, look at the recognition, the awards, whatever, and then, like I said, knowledge and learning.

We can be prideful about all of these things.

So here's the last question.

Point number three: how do I identify an uproot pride in my life?

So we started with the the signs, the examination.

Okay, how do we know?

Well, do we reject correction?

Are we jealous and envious of others?

Are we superficial?

Are we attention seeking?

What fuels it?

Of course, our sin, our power, our position, our spirituality, our wealth and possessions.

How do we how do we identify and uproot pride in our lives?

The first thing I would say is uh pray for the Lord to humble you.

Pray for the Lord to search you and know your heart and see and reveal if there's any wickedness in you.

I mean, with the with the sincere desperation.

Lord, would you help me to see?

Help me to remove my pride goggles so that I can see in my own heart, like a man of understanding, to draw the intentions of what's going on with my pride.

Lord, help me search me, know me, see if there be any wicked way in me.

How do you identify an uproot pride?

You gotta have a strong prayer life, you've got to be dependent on the Lord.

Because our pride is something that can be difficult to see.

It can be difficult to pinpoint.

So we need the Lord's help.

We need to believe that Hebrews 4.12 is true, that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrows, and discerns the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

God, would you would you help me?

Would you show me?

Would you reveal in my heart where there's areas and pockets of pride that I need to, by your spirit, by your grace, put to death?

Would you help me, Lord?

It starts there.

The second thing I would say, and this is connecting to what we talked about last week, but is increasing your view of God.

And I would even say more specifically, I always think of Philippians chapter 2, where Paul points to Christ as the ultimate example of humility.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant.

Our Lord, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one again, by whom, through whom, and for whom all things exist, the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power, humbled himself, becoming in the likeness of men, taking on the form of a servant.

And we look to the example of Christ and Christ's humility.

And we grow in our view of God in order to identify and uproot pride in our life.

So the flip side of that is we maintain a proper view of ourself.

Like we talked about last week.

Almost every sin comes down to a low view of God and a high view of self.

And so the fix for that, and of course, that's rooted in pride, right?

A high view of self and a low view of God is rooted in pride.

Humility says, no, no, no, I recognize that God is holy, holy, holy.

And that if it were not for the grace of Jesus Christ, I would be undone because I'm a man of unclean lips.

So we maintain a proper view of God.

We increase our view of God, and we maintain a proper view of self.

We pursue humility through pursuing personal holiness.

And ultimately, all of this is summarized in what the Proverbs refers to as the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, is the beginning of instruction.

That's how we began in June when we went to Proverbs 1, 1 through 7.

The fear of the Lord.

To recognize, to understand, and to know God's character, and to respond by revering, trusting, worshiping, obeying, and serving Him.

That's the fear of the Lord.

How do you think of what uh Ecclesiastes?

The end of Ecclesiastes.

You know what it says?

This is the end of the matter.

Fear God and keep his commandments.

So the fear of the Lord is the continuous solution.

It's the remedy, the medicine that Proverbs dispenses again and again and again to any number of sins, but specifically pride.

Fear of the Lord is recognizing who God is, who you are in light of who God is, that you are not the creator, that you do not sit on the throne, that you are not all powerful, you are not all good, you are not holy, holy, holy like God is.

You recognize who God is, who you are in light of who God is, and you respond appropriately with worship.

That's what the fear of the Lord is.

And you see that repeated again and again through the proverbs.

And someone who's growing in the fear of the Lord is growing in humility before the Lord.

Because as your fear of the Lord increases, your view of God increases.

And the higher view of God that you have, the more humble, I believe, your heart will become.

Because you recognize how far the gap truly is between you and God, and the amount of mercy and grace it took to span that gap.

And that, I believe, produces incredible humility.

So fear of the Lord.

We have this proper view of God.

We humble ourselves before the Lord.

I even think of what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.

Philippians 2:3

This is a proper view of self.

He says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count to others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

So it begins with a proper view of God.

He is holy, holy, holy.

He is high and lifted up.

He is a great king over all the earth.

And then what follows is a proper view of self.

It's not all about us.

Consider others more significant than yourself.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

We see a proper view of self flowing from a high view and a proper view of God.

And the good news in all of that is what James tells us in James 4.10 humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Pride is something that often interweaves all throughout the intricate corners of our heart.

It can even take something good, like our spiritual disciplines, and turn them into something that is sinfully prideful.

It can take something that's intended for good, like being a part of the body or serving or giving or whatever, and be one of the reasons why we're prideful rather than dependent on the Lord for his grace.

And so as we wrap up our study in Proverbs for the summer, I want you to remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of your pursuit of victory over pride.

The fear of the Lord is the solution that the Proverbs gives for you to live skillfully in God's created order.

The fear of the Lord is what is going to produce by the Spirit, by the word, humility in your heart as you recognize who God is and who you are in light of who God is, and humble yourself before Him.

And the good news again is that if you do that, if you humble yourself before the Lord, He will exalt you.

Because God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

Let's pray.

God, thank you.

For the reality that though our hearts can be ruled by pride, that by your spirit, through your word, God, you can grow us in humility.

You oppose the proud, but God, you give grace to the humble.

So I pray for Compass Bible Church, South Valley, that you would help us to have humble hearts, hearts that are teachable, not only from one another, but ultimately and especially from your word.

God, that we would humble ourselves to what your word says, how it speaks of us, the commands that are given to us, how we ought to live our lives.

God, I pray that we would have an increasing fear of the Lord that leads to an increasing wisdom in our lives.

God, we need you.

We need your spirit pursuing wisdom, pursuing victory over sin or anger or gluttony, as we've talked about.

It is a fool's errand if we try to do it in our own strength.

God, we recognize unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain.

So we want to be fruitful, effective laborers.

We want to be people that are successful in targeting our pride, growing in humility.

And we recognize that we can't do that on our own.

We need your help.

We need your grace.

But God, we're so thankful for the promise of your word that if we humble ourselves before you, you will exalt us.

So help us, Lord, to trust you.

Help us to trust your word.

Help us to count others more significant than ourselves and to remember that the greatest among us are our servant.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.