CRS-7Lesson-9

In this lesson, the speaker discusses the topic of pride and its impact on our lives. They emphasize that pride is the violation of the commandment to have no other gods before God. Pride places self above God and loves self more than others. It displaces God from our lives and leads to various sins. The speaker highlights the importance of humility and detaching oneself from pride. They also mention that God sees us as well-loved sons and daughters and invite us to embrace His will for our lives. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the need for a daily relationship with God to overcome pride and find release and power in life. Okay, we're going to do number 9 here. That's number 9. So, do we have everything going? 3, 2, 1. Well, here we are again. Lesson 9. And we're still in course 7. Today is something that affects all of us because it is about pride. So, I think what we're going to do is start all over because, as usual, I forgot to do half the things I was supposed to do here. But that will get all of our recording devices on the same track. So, let's just start again. I don't think that's going to record very well like that. Okay. 3, 2, 1. So, good morning. Here we are again for lesson 9. Still in course 7, Attitudes and Behaviors. Never forget having coffee ready. Coffee will always enhance a Bible study. Which is basically what we're doing here. So, today we are again on pride. And we'll see if we can get the video started here. Oh my goodness. Here we go. So, let's just start again. Number 3. Start. 3, 2, 1. Good morning. Here we are again. I think this is my third start on this. So, we're having a slow morning, I suppose. Always have your coffee ready. This is course 7. Attitudes and Behaviors. And this is the lesson on pride. Which C.S. Lewis says correctly. It is the granddaddy of all sins. Almost all sins will come from pride. So, let's see what the course has to say about this. So, introduction. Pride pops out of the history books. The armies of Alexander the Great conquered the world. But then he wept because there was no more worlds to be conquered. How sad, right? Okay, eagles in the military, political, science, business, religious communities, have driven the great into near great. But big eagles do not just afflict the famous. If you will ever know or remember Mr. Haskell, my seventh grade football coach, whose pride drove him to methodically destroy the self-esteem of dozens of his young charges. What is pride? Simply put, pride is the violation of the first and greatest commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20, verse 3. Pride places self before God. I bet you never thought about considering yourself a god before, but we do that a lot. Anytime that we go beyond God's law, God's commands, we're placing ourselves above God's law, above God. Cannot do that. Let's continue on. Pride loves self with heart, soul, mind, and strength. Pride does not stop with offending God. Pride violates the second commandment to love neighbors like we love ourselves. Talk about competition. Pride is the great competitor. Pride seeks to put self first in everything, from sewing to soccer and from bonuses to basketball. The chant rises to the rafters in every gym, office and home. We're number one. Pride displaces God. Another way to understand pride's perversion is the way in which it displaces God from his rightful center in our life. Using the words of the Apostle Paul, we exchange the creator for the created one, placing self in the position that God alone should hold. Romans 1, verses 18 to 25, tells us, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thanking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And although they claimed to be wise, they became fools in exchange of glory for the immortal God, for images made to look like mortal man, and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over, in the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity, for the degrading of their bodies with one another, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator, who was forever praised. Amen. God is effectively ousted and placed at the fringes of our life, moving God to their fringes turns pride into much more than a summer cold. Pride is a terminal illness that terrorizes every attempt at finding joy and peace in life. And I want to mention something here, in case this course doesn't, that even when we think we're being humble, when we are embarrassed because of something we may have done, we have to realize all these things are pride. When, oh my goodness, you have to give deep thought that every time you think of yourself, if you're humiliated about something, if you're very proud about something, this is all pride, this is putting ourselves on the pedestal, and we have to stop doing that, and I'm the world's worst. So, it's one of the things I work on myself, and I want to share with you, because often we don't even recognize these things. Sometimes we confuse pride with strength, humility, and weakness. These false assumptions effectively disrupt any attempt to get the heart of pride. Strength of character is rooted in self-assurance, not in self-assertion. Likewise, true humility finds resonance in being confident about who we are, who we really are. Proving oneself to others or to self is unnecessary to those who possess strength of character and true identity. Pride, humility, it covers up, lets go, builds up walls, opens up possibilities, needs to be in control, allows God, root of all sin. Christian thinking has historically viewed pride as the root of all other sin. The reason for this becomes apparent when one considers how pride sets us on a path that can lead to envy, greed, or lust. When I am at the center of my world, then I am free to pursue anything that pleases me. Of course, this does not mean that we are nothing, for God created us, and we are special in His sight. Look at Psalms 8, verses 3 through 6. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, for angels, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under their feet. So, a sticky wicket is the next title here. The problem with pride is that it is so easy to see it in others and so difficult to detect it in ourselves. Once, while the philosopher Plato entertained friends in a room with a richly ornate couch, a friend entered with dirt and grime caked on him from head to foot. He plopped down on that couch and sprawled out all over it, announcing, I trample upon the pride of Plato. Plato mildly answered, but with greater pride, my friend. God's invitation. Indeed, God created us and placed humans in a world specially designed for us. Every human being is unique and special, possessing our own special character and intelligence. Each of us enjoys the very real possibility of experiencing a meaningful life. How? Through the invitation God gives, God invites human beings into a relationship with him, to know and love him. The invitation to share God's life and bounty is an invitation to trust in him and to discover and enjoy the life we were created to enjoy. This invitation is really a request for us to open our lives and allow God to be in the center of things, all things, our things, to be filled with God. However, it is also an invitation that can be rejected, and without fail, human beings' doctrines decline God's invitation and seek to determine their value and destiny by self-assertion. Number four, pride, the original shape shifter. Pride takes on many different shapes in our lives. First, for A, vanity. Vanity is one way that pride pops up. Vanity is the attempt to be the center of attention for using something or some part of ourselves. A woman can use her body, and a golfer can use his score. The key to understanding vanity is the distortion of our human worth. We allow something about ourselves to erroneously determine who we are. B, narcissism. Narcissism is related to vanity. Narcissism is creating oneself into whatever image one likes. People develop their image out of whatever they think is cool or appropriate. Teenagers susceptible to narcissism can be seen working to be the noted athlete, the best-dressed dude, or the hottest babe. C, snubbing. Another shape of pride occurs in relationships. Relationships, snubbing others, is one way of getting at this form of pride. As Stafford says, for the self-centered, other people do not easily make an impression. Nothing besides the self has this very much reality. We either put up with people, or we find ways of using people to our own ends. Pride is an inevitable attempt to be more than we really are. Let me repeat that. Pride is an inevitable attempt to be more than we really are. Boy, am I guilty of that. Five, charting a course. How do we deal with the reality of pride? What can we do to overcome the ongoing struggle of self-centering, thinking, and living? We begin by recognizing that without the work of God, we will forever be unsuccessful in ridding ourselves of the ugly forces of pride in our lives. So this is Title III, Movements. One, I must trust, I must see myself as I am, not as I think I am. I must admit that I am a person who deals with pride somehow, some way in my life. In the language of the New Testament, this is the putting off of the old man and the setting aside of the old clothes, a recognition that the old way of living is inadequate, Romans 6. I need to be up front about this. No other idea is more difficult for human beings to understand. I've got to have a drink of coffee. My throat starts getting sore, and I'm trying to read. So anyway, no other idea is more important for human beings to understand and do. Bernard of Clairvaux, a noted Christian thinker of the 14th century, replied to the question of what are the 400 cardinal virtues? Replied, huh, okay, I didn't read that right. Humility, humility, humility, and humility. This is how Peter Craft speaks out about the need for detachment. It is the weight of glory. C.S. Lewis says, God appeared to us like an uncle to a slum child playing with mud piles in the street, offering a vacation at the seaside. But we stick to our mud piles. We are too easily content. Poverty of spirit is not mediocrity and cheap contentment. It is exactly the opposite. It is detachment from the mud piles for the love of the seas. The Buddhist and the Stoic and the peace of mind addict teach detachment for the state of tranquility. Or, Nirvana. But the Christian wants to be unclothed with the world and the goods of the body of self only to be reclothed with heaven and the resurrection body. Christ opposes selfish desire only to replace it with unselfish desire, not with emptiness. We are to be spiritually poor only for the sake of becoming spiritually rich. Detached from what that we can own so that we can be attached in a different way to what we cannot own. Detached from consuming us that we can be consumed by God. Thus, detachment or letting go of self is a critical first step with pride. This step requires much from us for it is easy to see the falseness of pride in our spouses and our co-workers and our movie stars and politicians. But we go blind when we look in the mirror. The only thing that we can restore sight is an encounter with God's love. It is only when we experience God's love that we can recognize the lengths to which God has traveled to extend mercy. His journey of love to us illuminates the enormity of sin and the smallness of my real knowledge, ability, and spirituality. Why do I hang on to my every attempt to my own attempts to assist, assert myself when God has done what he has done to give me much, much more than I could ever hope to give myself. Two, I must choose to see myself as God sees me. How does God see me? God sees each of us as a well-loved son or daughter and as we discover the joy of God we embrace his will for ourselves rather than self-will. It is knowing that God loves and embraces us that transforms our vision of ourselves and frees us from pride. Being free from pride can be illustrated by contrasting two men who betrayed Jesus, Peter and Judas. We don't really think a lot about Peter betraying him, but he certainly did. Like each of us, both men had carefully built up a notion of themselves that was colored and shaped by pride. Undoubtedly, Judas was quite sincere in his turning Jesus over to authorities. His actions reflected for him what was the right and noble cause or course of action. Sure, greed was there, but was his betrayal any worse than his brother's disciple? Peter, with arrogant boldness, declared that he would never forsake the master. But when the crisis was on, when the chips were down, so to speak, Peter did otherwise three times. What is the difference between these two? Both were men of action who enjoyed a healthy case of pride. It seems that the difference between the two lies in what one was willing to do. Peter surrendered his pride and embraced the love and will of God. He opened himself up to the forgiveness and wisdom of God and embraced what God had in store for him. Judas, on the other hand, was unwilling to admit the mistake, unwilling to accept God's interest in him. Judas clung to his pride until it destroyed him. We find ourselves at a crossroads. We must choose between the response of Judas or that of Simon Peter. We must be willing to accept God's vision for us, to detach ourselves from the past and hold on to what God has for us. It brings about the transformation of our lives as we set aside the old and new. Foolish pride will inevitably cause us to hang ourselves. Faith in God's way will result in a life that is poised for a victorious living, free from the tyranny of pride. I must live with the reality of God's Spirit in my daily life. Not only do we need to yield to God's vision for our life, we must yield to His ongoing presence in our lives. Our day-to-day relationship with God is the thing that saves us from ourselves and our pride. If we don't continually experience the presence of God in our lives, we will fall back into old ways of thinking and old ways of acting. Let's look at Peter again. Through the experience of betrayal, he learns the need for God in his day, his day-to-day life, and as Peter, who preaches at First Sermon on the Day of Pentecost, it is then that he is reminded of God's power in his life, renewing the commitment and desire to be God's man and not Peter's man. The historical novel of Quo Vadis, whatever that is, tells a legendary story of Peter's last days. During a time when many Christians were being persecuted by Nero, some Christians are flinging Rome. Peter is an old man trying to escape as well. On his way out of the city and on his way over the wall, it is told that he encounters Jesus in that terrifying moment. As Peter is trying to run for his life, allowing his old man to take root, he stops and asks the question, Lord, where are you going? Again, Peter encounters the presence of God in his life. Jesus responds by saying, Peter, many of my brothers and sisters are dying and I'm going to Rome to be crucified again. Where are you going, Peter? Peter turns around and goes back into Rome and legend tells us that he was crucified at that time. Tradition says that Peter was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. This story tells us that God spoke to Peter throughout his walk, his work, his life, and who is really in control and of who is really in control as he speaks to us only if we will listen. So in summary, the first step to freedom from pride is to recognize who we are. We are creatures of pride. Second, we then need to set that aside and recognize all that which God has in store for us. Third, we must embrace the ongoing presence of God in our life and make it part of our daily living. When we recognize that our relationship with God is more important than any other thing, we find release and power for our life. Of course, no greater model exists for us than Jesus himself. So thank you for your time. This is the end of Lesson 9. I know it was a long one, but one of the most important lessons we'll ever see because pride does lead to all other sin. So thank you for your time and I'll see you in Lesson 10. Amen.