"Killing Pride"

That's great,

father, it's the supreme challenge to a sinful preacher, to to get small behind the pulpit on a platform elevated in front of other people.

I thank you that my task this morning is to hunker down behind the book of proverbs and to push the text of scripture out to these people.

That's my goal.

That's my job and I pray that she would make that happen.

I pray that you would show us two things at once.

I pray that you would show us the the horror of the sin of pride and show us the beauty and the wonder and the joy of the virtue of humility and all of that.

The the one way it could possibly be communicated through the person and work of Jesus Christ in the preaching of the scriptures where Jesus will be in the book of proverbs today, but we will hear the voice of the good shepherd echoing through these pages and we will find ourselves at the feet of your bloody cross before this is over.

So come and help us to have this whole discussion about pride in the seven deadly sins with the shadow of the cross cast over us.

Humble us, Lord.

Teach us about our pride so that we may hate it and hunt it and kill it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

It's so good.

I got to say it, Gary.

So I.

The first time I heard a phone go off in a sermon 15 years ago, something like that.

Um, I wasn't preaching, at least at our last church was preaching and he just said somebody dying a thousand deaths right now.

He'll humble us.

Right.

So good.

So yeah, I just didn't a double check here.

Yep.

Down everybody down.

That's so good.

So good.

Alright.

Well, somewhere toward the tail end of the fourth century and early church father that I suppose nobody knows the name of here, named[inaudible] of pond to use your[inaudible] upon twos.

He sat down in writing for the first time anywhere, a list that eventually became infamously known as the seven deadly sins.

Evagrius was a theologian who was born just south of the black, which would today be the shoreline of northern northeastern Turkey.

Eventually a vulgar ious came to Jerusalem where he was made a monk, and then he joined a particular monastic order that fled to the Egyptian desert where he spent the rest of his life living in community among other men and it he lived to about 43 years of age.

He didn't live long and the tail end of his life, he just spent time participating in this desert community, observing a bunch of guys and how they do things, and over time he couldn't help but notice that these monks, monks, holy men, had certain temptations, just these certain vices that kept cropping up certain sins that just suggested themselves to this community over time.

And so he wrote a book about it called the practicum practica by a a of Pontus.

Because it was a practical field guide.

It was a handbook for holy living out in the desert and just over the course of about a hundred chapters of[inaudible] of pontoon lists out for the first time.

What eventually came to earned the distinction of the seven deadly sins.

Now he didn't list seven, he listed eight and in the hands of other church leaders like John Kasey and and Gregory the great and Thomas Aquinas.

We have the final catalog that now finds itself at its famous seven, and that list is as follows, pride, envy, anger, slaw, greed, gluttony, and lust.

That's one nasty list.

I'll say that again.

Pride, envy, anger, sloths, greed, gluttony, and lust.

So what's our interest in this list?

Because it's not a list that you'll find in the Bible per se.

There are plenty of so called vice lists though in the pages of holy scripture lists in some cases long lists of sins that would include a proverbs chapter six, Romans one, Galatians five, Ephesians five, Colossians three, second Timothy Three, revelation 21 and others, but this particular list of seven, the way that it's laid out back to front from pride to lust is not native to holy scripture.

So why are we embarking on this study?

And my answer is this though this specific catalog is not native to holy scripture.

This specific catalog is native to the human heart.

Amen.

Pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust.

Let's be honest.

These are the battles of our lives and if you say they're not, you don't know your heart well enough and not only that, but these seven aren't just seven separate sins.

As we peer into them over these next four weeks, what we're going to learn is that there are seven interlocking sins that have everything to do with one another.

Don't imagine each of these sins as a single weed that just kind of sprouts in the garden of your heart.

Rather think of these sins as interlocking root structure.

It's a complex, intertwined root structure in the garden of your art that eventually gives rise to every other sin that's not on the seven deadly sins list because of course these are the seven deadly sins, but there are many centers that aren't listed by name here as you know, but one of the features that makes this list unique is that these aren't so much fruit level sins as they are root level since to change the metaphor and the emphasis just slightly.

The seven deadly sins aren't just seven distinct sins.

They are actually seven distinct species of sins that give birth to hundreds and hundreds of other forms of sins in our lives.

How does that sound relevant to you?

Sounds relevant to me.

So beginning today and continuing through the season of lent, our Sunday morning preaching series is going to be entitled slaying the seven deadly sins, a lenten season study from the book of proverbs, and if you haven't done so already, I'll invite you to turn there in your bibles to the book of proverbs, Old Testament book of proverbs.

It begins on page five slash 27 and the read bibles five slash 27 in the read bibles, the ones we have in the seat underneath you in front of you, slaying the seven deadly sins, a lenten seasons study the book of proverbs, so why this and not luke today, because we're pretty invested in the gospel of Luke where three chapters deep, 21 chapters to go, well, I want to give us a couple of reasons why we're going to do this series and then we'll turn right to it.

One reason why not luke right now is that luke is long like 1000, 151 versus long.

Luke's Gospel is the ironman.

Race of the New Testament is not for the faint of heart.

It's taken me 12 years to want to even approach it as a, as a pastor, verse by verse, and if we're actually going to cross the finish line one day, I think some pitstops would be appropriate on the way to the goal of finishing Luke chapter 24, and so we're going to use lent as a, as a breather.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Another reason why now this series is that we're a church that over the last several years has come to pay attention to two particular seasons in the Christian calendar, one being advent, the weeks approaching Christmas, and then lent the weeks approaching Easter and more on lent.

If you're not familiar with it in the days ahead, we'll talk a lot about lent, but we're a church that thinks carefully about those six to seven weeks prior to Easter, and as we do that, I want to think thematically and I just couldn't find a way to jam luke chapter four and five into the season of lent.

It just didn't make a whole lot of sense and so we're going to go this direction because the study of sin is a really good idea.

During lent more on that, on that next week, third, and finally, it's been nearly a year since we've been in the old testament together as a church.

Last time we were in the Old Testament was finishing our study of Daniel Daniel Chapter 12.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

That was about a year ago and it's been almost five years since we've been in the book of proverbs, so just in the interest of preaching the whole counsel of God to us, I want to move into another portion of scripture for these these weeks.

Um, and then just add to that that we are a church that is seeking to grow rich and wise in the care and the cure of the human soul.

We're a church that cares deeply about biblical counseling.

Part of our broader 20, 20 vision is to launch the Harbor Center for Biblical counseling over the next 36 months in this congregation.

In three years time, we seek to have an entirely nonprofit for our church and for the community counseling center where we offer the resources of the Gospel to people in this community free of charge.

And so it seemed wise to me and to your elders that we dedicate this upcoming season of lent to learn to hate and to hunt the seven deadly sins in our lives.

The very realities that call for biblical counseling in the first place.

Because if these didn't exist, biblical counseling wouldn't exist.

Pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust.

Now it's interesting that in our 21st century, this is not how we diagnose the greatest battles of our lives.

Twenty first century Americans would point to things like depression, anxiety, addiction, marriage problems, parenting and so on.

Those would be fruits, but they're not roots.

The roots are the seven deadlies in many, many ways, so I'd be willing to argue that these central issue and the deepest and most widespread source of all of our whoa when it comes to all of our personal problems, is the seven deadly sins in particular.

The first one, pride.

We begin with pride today because pride is altogether unique.

Pride is pervasive in our lives and we can't merely justified describing it as part of the root structure of sin.

It's more basic than that.

It's more diffused than that.

Pride is far more universal than we might ever care to admit or even possibly realize in our lives.

So here's the big idea today.

Pride is not simply one of the seven deadly sins.

Rather pride is the soil in which the seeds of all of the other six grow.

That's the big idea of this morning.

Pride is not simply one of the seven deadly sins.

Rather pride is the soil in which the seeds of all the other six, they grow.

So turn with me in your bibles to proverbs 16, 18.

I want to begin to establish this right out of the gate.

Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Did you hear that?

It's actually a proverb that's relatively well known in our culture.

If any proverb is well known in the American culture, this one might be it.

We hear this in our world today.

I'll say it again.

Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Now, that word before, uh, in grammar is what's known as a temporal prepositions.

And that may sound irrelevant to you, but it's really important because what this verse is saying is that pride gives rise to destruction.

It comes on the front end of destruction.

Pride is what precipitates a fall.

So what sort of destruction, what sort of a fall are we talking about?

Well, it's certainly focused on moral destruction, a moral fall, but as we noticed, it's awfully nonspecific.

So I take that to mean every sort of moral destruction.

Any kind of moral fall is precipitated by pride.

Cs Lewis called pride quote, the great sin, and he continues.

Lewis said the essential vice, the utmost evil is pride capital p, uncheck it.

Anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are immediately flea bites in comparison to pride, there's not a great image.

Pride is not simply one of the seven deadly sins.

Rather pride as the soil in which the seeds of the other six grow.

Consider proverbs 17, 19.

Proverbs 17, 19 says, whoever loves transgression loves strife.

He who makes his door high seeks destruction.

Now it's a bit of an obscure reference, but it's an image of a proud person building their home on a prominent peak of the city on a house on a high hill to be admired and seen by all that's most likely.

What this verse means when it speaks of he who makes his door on high, he constructs a monster castle on the highest elevation in town, so it can be noticed and noted and prized and praised.

It's a vivid word, picture of pride.

So what's it saying?

Let's read it again.

Second half of proverbs, 17, 19 says, he who makes his door high seeks destruction.

You see how this verse on pride goes a step further than the other step.

Then the verse on pride, He who makes his door high seeks destruction.

Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before destruction.

Proverbs 17 says pride, six destruction.

It invites annihilation.

So we all know what sins wages are, right?

For the wages of sin is death.

That's right.

So not content to merely be the entryway of all other sins whose wages are death.

Pride actually goes out looking for death.

Pride has inexplicable suicidal tendencies.

Pride is not simply one of the seven deadly sins.

It's the soil in which the seeds of the other six grow.

One more example of this, and I'll actually start preaching.

We haven't reached point one yet.

Don't worry.

The points are brief for that before, right.

Let's turn to proverbs 21 four.

Proverbs 21 for once again, pride is set in an utterly exclusive, completely one of a kind category in the book of proverbs as it relates to the vices in our lives.

Proverbs 21 for haughty eyes and a proud heart.

All the lamp of the wicked are sin.

We'll talk in a moment about what we mean by Hottie eyes, that that'll be an in point number one.

Let's just focus on the rest of this verse Hottie Eyes, and a proud heart.

The lamp of the wicked are sin, so haughty eyes and a proud heart are the lamp of the wicked, the the inner light of wicked people.

And notice that it doesn't say hottie eyes, and a proud heart, and the lamp of the wicked produced sin or good versus and although they do, this connection here is far more definite haughty eyes and a proud heart.

The lamp of the wicked are sin, the arson.

They are the essence of sin.

The very substance and soul of sin is pride.

Uh, Gregory.

The great was a church father who who really knew the human soul well, he understood the human heart.

A proof of that is in the way that he sought to diagnose what's wrong with us.

He was a great pastor and a great word, pictures for this.

Gregory pictured pride as a wicked queen, barking orders to a bunch of generals over her army, and these generals are the other deadly sins that go out and set the troops to wage war on us.

So Gregory writes this for the tempting vices which fight against us in invisible contest on behalf of pride which rains over them.

Some of them go first like captains, others follow after the manner of an army.

When pride, the Queen of sins has fully conquered a heart.

She surrenders it immediately to the seven principle sins as if to some of her generals.

Lay waste for pride is the root of all evil, but seven principle vices as its first progeny, no doubt spring from this poison this route, and then he named some of the sins in his own language.

He says, vainglory envy, anger, melancholy, avarice, gluttony, lust, and so on.

It's powerful, isn't it?

Pride is a wicked queen, barking orders to all the other seven deadly sins that in turn ruined our lives.

So pride is not simply one of seven deadly sins.

It is the soil in which the seeds of the other six grow.

So now we come to our first point, which is perhaps better stated as an application, um, because we're not going to leave this in the realm of theory for very long.

We shouldn't.

We want to learn how to spot and how to smash pride in our lives when we see it through.

Here's the first point today from the book of proverbs, Mount Evangelical Free Church.

God hates pride.

God hates

pride.

Beginning with mine.

Proverbs six, 16 and 17, you could turn their proverbs six, 16 and 17 says there are six things.

The Lord hates seven that are an abomination to him.

And the first on the list is what?

Verse 17 Calls Haughty Eyes.

Haughty eyes.

So let's be clear on this.

The Lord hates he abominate.

It's haughty eyes.

Literally, the Hebrew is a rising pair of eyes, high i's when the word for pride appears in proverbs.

That's the basic idea behind it.

The word pride or proud and the Hebrew conception is something that lifts us up, something that swells us up or they start perception of ourselves, swelling us up until we are too high and big for God to walk with.

That's pride.

Jason Meyer, pastor for Preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis writes this, pride is a cosmic crime.

As finite creatures, we cannot fully grasp God's infinite revulsion against prides.

Rebellion.

What makes pride so singularly repulsive to God is the way that pride contends for supremacy with God himself.

Other sins lead the center further away from God, but pride is particularly heinous and that it attempts to elevate the sinner above

God unquote.

Yes, indeed.

Oh, God hates pride.

He hates vivid picture here hottie eyes.

Some English translations this as a proud look.

That's the idea, a proud look.

Now we know out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Did you know that out of the abundance of your heart, your eyes speak?

Yes they do.

Don Henley, Glen Fry had it right 40 years ago.

You cannot hide your lion eyes.

The eyes are the window to your soul.

You may fake a humble heart, but your eyes will give you a way.

Have you ever done this that Hottie eyes rolling your eyes at another family member, at your spouse, your kids, your parents, those in authority over you or at God himself.

God doesn't just not like it.

He doesn't just prefer that we not do it.

He doesn't merely wish we'd work on it.

He hates it.

God absolutely hates haughty eyes.

A proud look.

Another place we see this proof.

This truth is proverbs eight, 13 can flip over to that one.

Proverbs eight, 13, we read the fear of the Lord, his hatred of evil, pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Now.

This is lady wisdom speaking lady wisdom is wisdom personified.

Um, the personification of the very wisdom of God says pride and arrogance.

I hate.

I mean, can you imagine God thinking this about you?

Much less saying this about you.

I hate it when he does that.

I hate it when she does that.

This is serious business, isn't it?

One more verse and then we'll.

We'll do some application.

You say do some application.

Yeah.

Proverbs 16, five, proverbs 16, five.

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

Be assured he will not go unpunished.

Now, this is the second time we've seen the word abomination.

It's the Hebrew word, toe ever, and it literally means a thing of horror to God.

It's a thing that just makes God sick, sick to his stomach.

When God abominate something he's saying, it turns his stomach when he looks at the arrogant in heart.

Just in case you have the idea that you somehow have escaped the cross hairs here, please understand the biblical breadth of what pride actually entails.

We've mentioned it a little bit here, but let me.

Let me quote one author I read this week who said this, there are three fruits of pride that demand close attention.

Three common fruits you ready?

Number One, self promotion, number two, self pity a, and number three, self righteousness.

These are the various masks that pride can wear.

So what is its true face?

The answer is self pride is self centerdness, self concern in ordinance, self love.

So here's a helpful definition of pride.

This comes from Brian Hedges in his book, Hitlist taking aim at the seven deadly sins.

Here's a quote.

Pride is thinking much about one's self and much of oneself.

That's pride.

Pride is thinking much about oneself and much of one's self.

So now we should be just asking the question.

I hope we are.

Do I have a problem with pride?

And if you say to me that your answer is no, I just want to encourage you to think a little longer.

Dr Stuart Scott, who's spectacular, 30 manifestations of pride.

His list is in your sermon notes this weekend and I invite you to look at that in your own private private devotions.

Use it in family worship, use it in your community group this week.

But Dr Stuart Scott drafted a list of 30 manifestations of pride, practical examples of pride in our daily lives.

Now you don't need to raise your hand when you hear these and please whatever you do, refuse the right to elbow the person next to you or even think of the person next to you.

Just this is about you and this is about me.

You're ready.

Here are a few that have Stuart Scott List that I found most compelling in my heart over the past 48 hours.

Seeing yourself as better than others or at least as better than some others or not as bad as some others.

Talking too much, talking too much about yourself, being concerned with what others think about you.

Inordinately concerned with what other people think about you being unteachable.

Blame, shifting, being defensive, lack of admitting when you're wrong and you're caught red handed and you won't admit that you're wrong.

Being impatient or irritable with others if you don't have close relationship with other people.

I just listed about seven or eight of them.

He's got 30.

Do you have a problem with pride?

That's all of us.

That's every one of us here today.

Pride does not simply one of the seven deadly sins.

Pride is the soil in which the seeds of the other six gross amount evangelical free church just so we know God hates pride.

Second Point Today, Mt.

Evangelical, free church.

God honors humility.

God honors humility.

I remember our definition of pride.

Pride is thinking much about oneself and much of oneself.

What then is humility a lot.

Go with CS Lewis.

Again, here, this is probably the best definition I've ever heard of of humility.

Humility isn't thinking less of yourself.

It's just thinking of yourself, less humility.

It's not so much thinking less of yourself because if you can, if you could be thinking, it's just thinking less of myself, then I'm thinking of myself as smaller, but guess what?

I'm still thinking of myself, so Lewis would say it's not so much thinking less of yourself, it's just thinking of yourself.

Less your eyes upward on God in Christ your ice outward toward loving other people.

That's humility.

Humility isn't thinking less of yourself.

It's thinking of yourself less.

Now, this book of the Bible is not shy about unfolding before us.

The results of true humility.

Look at proverbs 15, 33, proverbs 15, 33 says, the fear of the Lord is instruction, wisdom and humility comes before honor humility and it's fruit runs in the exact opposite direction of pride and it's fruit.

Do you notice that?

Remembering that pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

That's proverbs 16, 18.

Proverbs 15, 33 tells us the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and humility comes before honor.

So pride goes before destruction.

Humility comes before honor.

Here's another text that just ratchets up the importance of, of humility in our lives.

Proverbs 22, four, proverbs 22 forces, the reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.

He will reward humility with riches and honor and life.

Another way of contrast in pride and humility is just to remember the basic meaning of what these words are at root pride is, is being high and and swelled up and lift it up.

Humility, our English word humility comes from the Latin word[inaudible], which literally means low to the ground, which is particularly appropriate for those of us who are made of dust.

Dustin breath.

That's all we are by the way, low to the ground.

Now, as you might imagine, there are a number of verses in proverbs that pair both of these realities side by side so that we can see the stark contrast between the two.

So let me just list a handful of these before we do application on humility.

Proverbs 11, two, proverbs 11, two says, when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

When pride comes, comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

Proverbs 15, 25, 15, 25 says the Lord tears down the house of the proud, but maintains the widows boundaries.

This is serious business.

The Lord tears down the house of the proud.

He's thinking about the household, the family of proud people, but he maintains the widows boundaries.

The one in humble position, proverbs 18, 12, 18, 12, says before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor for both of those emphasis before, but they're all together in one verse there, Proverbs 18, 12, finally one last verse, proverbs 29 slash 23, proverbs 29, 23 says one's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor, lowly in spirit low to the ground.

Okay?

We've made the point, humility as opposed to pride is what we want to cultivate.

In fact, humility is the pathway out of the perils of pride.

So just one final question to ask and that's how do we get there?

How do we get to humility?

Um, it's important to say at the outset of this question that this is a character trait that we never quite get there with.

If we think we are there, we ain't there.

Um, if you ever set out to publish a book entitled Humility and how I attained it, just mark it down.

You're not there yet.

Um, you're a proud person if you would write that book.

But what would growth in humility look like?

Any practical steps for us as we close?

Yeah, let's look at the most obvious place and that would be the gospel.

Many years ago, a new testament scholar Don Don Carson once at the opportunity to interview two titans of the Evangelical movement a generation ago, both Carl Henry and Dr Kenneth Concert, and it's a wonderful set of videos you can still view today on on Youtube.

It's called knowing your evangelical roots.

And a Dr Carson is interviewing these two great evangelical theologians.

And at one point in the q and a, he turns to Karl Henry, who was essentially billy Graham would tell you, is the architect of evangelicalism.

So pretty important guy.

And, uh, Carson says to Karl Henry, Carl, you are a world famous theologian.

You have written countless and it made a profound influence on the direction of Christianity and in the world in the 20th century.

And you are an eminently humble and wonderfully approachable man.

Tell us, how do you do it?

How do you stay so humble?

And Karl Henry just sputtered and embarrassment at the thought that he would have been considered as Carson said he was and all Henry could get out was he didn't even lift his eyes to look at the congregation he was looking at.

He just said, how can anyone be arrogant when standing beside the cross?

And you could've heard a pin drop in the Arnold t Olsen chapel that day.

He's writing, how can anyone be arrogant when standing beside the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ on which the Prince of glory died.

I mean he's merely echoing the wisdom of Isaac Watts right from centuries to go when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain, I count as loss and poor content on all my pride for bid it Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God, all the vein things that charmed me most, I sacrificed them to his blood.

How can anyone be arrogant when standing beside the cross?

So the person and work of Jesus Christ?

In principle, it's the answer to killing our pride and cultivating humility.

But what if we were to get even more specific about that, like what would that look like kind of on a daily basis when to offer us another, another list, and this one comes from cj Mahaney.

Once wrote a list called how to weaken pride and cultivate humility.

I'll give you a few of these.

Number one, as we mentioned, always reflect on the wonder of the Cross of Christ.

Always reflect on the wonder of the Cross of Christ.

Secondly, and this is he says, as each day begins, here's what you do when the sun rises.

Tomorrow, Begin Your Day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God.

Begin Your Day tomorrow by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God.

Next, he says, begin your day tomorrow by expressing gratefulness to God.

Begin the day with gratitude toward God.

He also offers these, this practice, the spiritual disciplines, prayer, study of God's word, worship when they're not backfiring on us, they are designed to humble us and do this consistently at the day, at the outset of the day, if possible.

He says, here's one for those of us who commute and that would not include me very much, but if you commute, sees your commute to memorize and meditate on holy scripture sees your commute.

To memorize and meditate on holy scripture sees your commute to listen to good preaching, sees your commute to sing when I survey the wondrous cross on the way into work that day.

Finally, as the day begins, cast your cares on him, for he cares for you at the beginning of the day when you wake up, anxious now, Mahaney offers as each day ends.

Here's two bookends here.

At the end of the day, don't take credit for your day.

Transfer the glory to God.

If somebody has called attention to an evidence of grace in your life or if they have praised you in some way, just transfer that glory to God.

You know why they said what they said?

They said it because if it's something that is genuinely praiseworthy in your life, it's something that you came by as a gift from God, so transfer the glory to God, and then finally, as the day ends before you sleep, received the gift of sleep from God and acknowledges its purposes.

Purposes for sleep, we spend one third of our lives horizontal, not a humble us, proud people can't sleep.

The humble could sleep.

Not always.

I know there are other reasons why we can't sleep, but the humble person should receive God's purposes for sleep.

Few other ideas Mahaney offers.

He says, study the attributes of God.

Ah, remember our systematic theology class this morning, study the attributes of God.

It will humble you.

It will decimate you.

Study the doctrines of grace.

He says, study the doctrine of sin.

He says, play golf as much as possible, right?

Laugh often.

Laugh at yourself.

Take the gospel dead seriously.

Take yourself a little less so.

Finally, he says, identify evidences of grace and others.

Encourage and serve others each and every day.

Invite and pursue correction.

Beat God to the punch.

Invite correction into your life.

Don't wait for it to be a lover of correction, and finally manny says, respond humbly to trials and suffering.

One more quote Brian Hedges observes this.

If pride is the root of all sins, that humility is the root of all virtues.

Humility flows from a double awareness of God's glorious holiness and our spiritual poverty.

When we've been humbled, we become less consumed with ourselves.

The great secret to humility is not to focus on yourself at all, but to fill your mind and heart with the glory of God is revealed in the sin, conquering death and resurrection of Christ.

So I just have this question, do you know this Christ, this is a room big enough today that there probably are individuals who do not have not come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

The very first thing when the gospel pierces into our lives, it's designed to humble us to create humility.

So do you know Jesus?

Have you come to a definitive point in your life where you have turned from your sin definitively and put your faith in him in His grace and forgiveness and you can.

You can come to him today, but you can't have anything in your hand when you come to him.

Nothing in my hand.

I bring that humility simply to your cross.

I cling.

We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, apart from works, and at that very mechanism of the Gospel.

It is designed to humble us.

Therefore no boasting.

Now, if you are a Christian, I do want to encourage you to boast.

I just want to encourage you to boast in cross of Christ because I suppose from what you've heard this morning, perhaps like me, you've been convicted and that's good.

We need mornings like this.

We are far too proud as it is, but God rewards humility.

So walk with him, talk with him, confess your sin to him.

Other brothers and sisters in this church, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

Well, let's review.

Pride is not simply one of the seven deadly sins.

Rather pride is the soil in which the seeds of the other six growth, so mount evangelical, Free Church.

God hates me.

Pride, not evangelical.

Free Church got honors humility this week.

The season of lent officially begins this coming Wednesday and we will seek to gather here in the sanctuary at 6:15 PM.

It's Ash Wednesday, so it's the perfect opportunity to come and gather for worship meals across the street at Bethel, but come back here for a time in the word.

We'll finish the book of Philippians will pray over our 20, 20 vision together and we're going to sing together as well, childcare's available so we hope that you'll make plans to attend and then one week from today we will take up our our second step in this series on the seven deadly sins with a sermon entitled killing envy, and I look forward to that.

All right, now let's pray.

Father in heaven.

The one thing that I didn't anticipate was that you would show me a glimpse of how very proud I am this morning.

It just, it just didn't hit me as I was studying this week.

The type of conviction that I'm experiencing experiencing this morning.

We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You don't flatter us, Holy Spirit.

He's simply exist to show us our need and to point us to all of the riches and resources that are there in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and so we thank you for the gospel of fresh today.

Oh God, we thank you that we have hope as we studied the seven sins, these are photos that God is at work against in our lives.

In Philippians one, six assures us that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus, and so we look forward to that day.

We look forward, Lord, to your kingdom, and better yet to the new heavens and new earth where there will be zero pride.

It will be a world of humility and it'll be a breath of fresh air.

Until that day, create an us a culture of humility outward looking out to you, Oh God, and out to one another in love and service and genuine care for one another.

In Jesus' name, Amen.