1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,040 Hello and welcome to Trinity Sermons. This week we are starting a brand new teaching 2 00:00:10,040 --> 00:00:17,460 series at Trinity and that series is called The S Word. We're talking about sin, that 3 00:00:17,460 --> 00:00:22,140 thing that, you know, we talk about a lot in churches but we don't actually really like 4 00:00:22,140 --> 00:00:26,960 talking about and maybe we don't even really know what that means. So we're going to spend 5 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:31,320 the next few weeks diving into this topic together starting this week by talking about 6 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:37,920 the sin of pride. And even though pride can be a good thing, it actually can also be something 7 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:42,720 that's really insidious, something that is really harmful for our relationship with God 8 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:51,960 and others. So listen in as Rob unpacks pride for us. 9 00:00:51,960 --> 00:01:00,840 Our reading today is from the Gospel of Luke chapter 18 verses 9 to 14. To some who were 10 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:08,320 confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable, 11 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:15,320 two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The 12 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:21,360 Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, 13 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:30,080 robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give 14 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:36,880 a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look 15 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:44,160 up to heaven but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you 16 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:50,080 that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who 17 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:56,880 exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. The 18 00:01:56,880 --> 00:01:58,720 word of the Lord. 19 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:03,800 We used to live on a hobby farm and one day I noticed we had a problem. I went out to 20 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:10,120 the chicken coop and I saw these little holes in the floor and piles of dirt. And then I 21 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:14,520 noticed that some of the bags of feed that we fed that the chickens, I had holes in that 22 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:17,720 and it was spilling out onto the floor. And then eventually, of course, I started to see 23 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:24,080 them, rats. We had rats and I thought, oh, one rat, two rats, who cares? But we had a 24 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:29,440 lot of rats. I had never, never struggled with rats before but here we were. We had 25 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:34,760 rats. And so what I did is I went to the farm store and I was like, guys, we got rats. And 26 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:39,520 they checked my ID, they checked my farm business registration number and then they grabbed 27 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:45,000 this big tub of rat poison and they put it on the counter in front of me. This rat poison, 28 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,640 there was a lot of pieces in there, like 60 pieces of these little Lego blocks. They look 29 00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:54,800 like blue Lego blocks of rat poison. And they said, this will do the trick. And I said, 30 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:59,400 that's a lot of poison. They said, this will do the trick. So anyways, I took it back home 31 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:03,440 and I took two or three of these pieces of rat poison. I put it around one of the big 32 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:08,080 holes I noticed. I happened to step out of the chicken coop just for a few minutes and 33 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:13,360 by the time I came back, they were already gone. And I was like, oh, geez. So I put three 34 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:19,600 or four more there. I went and ran another errand, came back and they were gone. And 35 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:24,820 so I took like half a bucket of this stuff and I started sprinkling it in different holes 36 00:03:24,820 --> 00:03:29,840 here, there and around the chicken coop again. By the next morning, all the pieces of rat 37 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:33,960 poison had disappeared. I don't know what was going on, but these, these rats were eating 38 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:39,320 the rat poison, you know, faster than I could lay it out. They, I mean, the stuff was, I 39 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:44,120 think it's warfarin, like it's a poison, but to them it was tasty. It looked beautiful. 40 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:48,800 It smelled good. And, and I had to go back to the store and I had to get more of this 41 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:55,580 stuff. The poison actually didn't kill the rats right away. What we would start to notice 42 00:03:55,580 --> 00:03:59,480 is the, you know, maybe a week later we'd be walking through the chicken coop and there 43 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:05,480 goes a little scraggly rat, somewhat confused, looking disheveled, staggering across the 44 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:09,280 floor. You see what was happening was this poison was, it didn't kill them right away. 45 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:18,000 It was eating away at them from the inside. Gross, you say. Rob, why are you talking to 46 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,440 us about something so disgusting? That sounds horrible. I agree. It was horrible, but actually 47 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:25,920 what we're going to be talking about in the season of Lent, a lot of people would also 48 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:32,400 say gross and this is unnecessary and it's uncomfortable. We don't want to talk about 49 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:38,440 this word, the S word sin. And that's what we're going to do for the next several weeks 50 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:43,600 throughout the season of Lent. Specifically, we're going to be looking at the seven deadly 51 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,280 sins. And I tried to kind of get us started on Ash Wednesday. If you missed that sermon, 52 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:52,040 I encourage you to go back and take a look at that because that kind of laid the foundation 53 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:58,880 for why we're doing this. But the point is this sin is a lot like rat poison, right? 54 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:04,240 It looks desirable. It seems to be harmless, tastes sweet, smells good and doesn't appear 55 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:11,120 to have any immediate consequences. But over time it eats away at us from the inside. It 56 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:17,920 diminishes our souls. It warps our hearts and it withers us away into the human beings 57 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:25,520 that we were never intended to be in the very beginning. It destroys us if it's left unchecked, 58 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:32,360 which is why today we are going to start with the very first sin of the seven and that is 59 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:37,880 the sin of pride. Because if there was ever a sin that appeared harmless and even looked 60 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:42,360 attractive and seemed to have absolutely no consequences associated with it, it has to 61 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:49,760 be pride. I mean, pride, we don't see pride as a problem. We see pride as good. It's a 62 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:55,180 good thing, right? It's a positive character trait. It gives us a sense of achievement. 63 00:05:55,180 --> 00:05:59,560 It gives us a sense of worth. It's something we try to instill in our children, correct? 64 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:06,360 We want them to be winners. We want to be winners. We want them to be proud in who they 65 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:13,200 are. And so we don't actually use the word pride in a negative way these days. We say, 66 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:18,800 you know, oh, my attitude, my attitude. Oh, that's not arrogance. That's self-respect. 67 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:26,840 Oh, you mean my behavior. Oh, that's not egotism. That's just self-confidence. Oh, the way that 68 00:06:26,840 --> 00:06:32,680 I look. Oh, no, that's not vanity. That's just, I have a positive self-image. Oh, that 69 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:36,800 thing I said, that horrible thing I said to somebody. Oh, that's not conceit. That's just 70 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:46,080 my self-esteem. I don't have a problem. I have pride, pride. And yet underneath this 71 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:52,960 thing we call pride, underneath this self-confidence and this self-worth lies something far, far 72 00:06:52,960 --> 00:07:00,320 darker. It's what C.S. Lewis actually calls the great sin. Pride, he says, is the great 73 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:05,240 sin. And he writes this. He says, there is a vice of which no man in the world is free, 74 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:09,060 which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else, and which hardly 75 00:07:09,060 --> 00:07:14,880 any person ever imagines that they are guilty of themselves. And the more we have it in 76 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:21,020 ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I'm talking about is pride. He goes 77 00:07:21,020 --> 00:07:27,760 on to say, this is the center. It is the essential vice, the utmost evil, unchastity, anger, 78 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:33,200 greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride 79 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:38,920 that the devil became the devil. Pride, it leads to every other vice. It is the complete 80 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:49,680 anti-God state of mind. So that's what pride is. It's the great sin. But secondly, in there, 81 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:56,400 we also see that it's the devil's sin, right? This is how the devil became the devil. According 82 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:01,840 to the Bible, the devil was once an angel, but that wasn't good enough for him. No, what 83 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:07,440 he wanted was God's glory for himself. He wanted to ascend above the tops of the clouds 84 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:12,800 and make himself like the most high. And so the reason that the devil fell from heaven 85 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:20,840 wasn't because of anger or greed or gluttony or lust. No, it was pride. And every time 86 00:08:20,840 --> 00:08:28,080 we seek glory for ourselves, then we are just walking in the same path of the devil. It's 87 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:34,520 the devil's sin. It's the great sin. But thirdly, it's also the original sin. This is the sin 88 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:41,480 of Adam and Eve. This is the sin in the Garden of Eden, right? When the serpent tempted Eve, 89 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:50,760 he didn't just say, here, have some fruit. He said, you can become like God, right? Pride 90 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:57,920 whispers, you know what? You don't need God. You're pretty good. You can be God. In fact, 91 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:05,120 you should be in control, right? You can handle things on your own. That's why pride at its 92 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:11,120 core is actually a rebellion against God. And whenever we choose to follow our way over 93 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:16,320 God's way, then all we're doing is we're walking the way of Adam and Eve. We are repeating 94 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:25,760 Genesis three over and over again. So next, though, fourthly, pride is also the root sin. 95 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:31,000 You know, Gregory the Great said it's the root sin, meaning that this is the sin from 96 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:36,880 which really all other sins sprout. And if you think about it, it's true. After all, 97 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:41,600 why do we lie? It's because we're proud of our image and we don't want people to think 98 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:49,400 bad of us. It's pride. Why do we steal? Because pride says, huh, I deserve more, right? Why 99 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:55,200 do we get angry? It's our pride that refuses to be wronged by another person. It's we're 100 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,840 just the pride is like this rat that keeps reproducing and reproducing and reproducing 101 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:05,120 all these other sins, all these other rats, they all come from one source. They all, it 102 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:12,080 breeds more and more types of sin. Pride is the root. So price, the great sin. It's the 103 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:16,320 devil's sin. It's the original sin. It's the root sin. But finally, it is also the 104 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:24,920 compare sin, right? Pride is all about competition. It's all about comparison. You know, pride 105 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:31,000 won't let you have pleasure of having something only if you have more of it than someone else. 106 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,040 You hear people say that they're proud that they're rich or they're proud that they're 107 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:40,000 clever or they're, they're proud that they're attractive. Uh, but that's not true. They're 108 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:45,200 actually proud that they're richer. They're proud that they're clever. They're proud that 109 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:51,220 they're attractive. Er, then someone else, right? If we actually saw each other truly 110 00:10:51,220 --> 00:10:56,220 as equal, that there would be no pride because pride is completely based on this idea that 111 00:10:56,220 --> 00:11:02,040 some are better than others and we can compare and comparison is actually what makes us proud. 112 00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:06,880 You see that don't you? In our reading today, you see that God, I thank you. I'm not like 113 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:14,200 these other people, robbers, adulterers, evil doers, even this, you know, this tax collector, 114 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:19,420 this guy, he's pretending to lift up his voice in prayer, but all he's really doing is lifting 115 00:11:19,420 --> 00:11:26,040 himself up in comparison to the people around him. That's the disguise of pride. It looks 116 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:33,520 good. It smells good. It sounds good, but it is poison. It is poison. Now, some of you 117 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:38,760 are like, oh my gosh, that sounds horrible, right? I hope I'm not a proud person. Well, 118 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:43,320 well, there are some signs you can look for a little bit of evidence here and there. Just 119 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,840 like when I walked into the chicken coop, I saw, oh, there's a hole over there. There's 120 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:51,520 some feed, a hole in my feed bag over there. There are signs, there's evidence that pride 121 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:59,160 is burrowing into your heart as well. And don't worry if you can't see it, other people can't. 122 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:09,040 Okay. First, the first sign, the first piece of evidence is self promotion. From childhood, 123 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:14,240 we crave attention, right? Kids say to their parents, hey, look at me, look at me, look 124 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:20,120 at me, look at me. And that desire does not fade over time. We still want people to look 125 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:26,840 at us. We still want to be the center of attention. And so pride pushes us to name drop. It pushes 126 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:32,800 us to show off. It pushes us to flaunt our success. Look at me, look at me, look at me, 127 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:38,920 look at me, right? Pride encourages us to curate that perfect image on social media, 128 00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:44,320 right? Pride is that athlete who is the ball hog. Pride is that graduate who keeps going 129 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:48,640 on and on about all that she's learned at university. Pride is that influencer who is 130 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:55,080 just obsessed with likes, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh. And so let's be honest here, 131 00:12:55,080 --> 00:13:02,400 right? Those of us who even get up onto this stage, like myself, pastors, preachers, worship 132 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:06,640 leaders, life group leaders, whoever you are, when you're in places like this, it is so 133 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:12,080 easy to make this about you and not about God. It's all self-promotion. It's what we've 134 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:16,680 were born thinking about. And we still think about it all the time. The Bible calls this 135 00:13:16,680 --> 00:13:22,120 boasting sometimes, right? Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom or boast in his might 136 00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:28,920 or boast in his riches. Lots of times that self-promotion comes across as boasting, but 137 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:35,240 not always. Other times it can just be this quiet hunger that we have within ourselves 138 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:43,200 to just want to be noticed by others. So that is the first sign that you might have rats. 139 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:49,000 You might have pride, self-promotion, but there's another type. You see, cause some 140 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:53,640 of you are saying, Oh, well then I can't be proud cause I'm not good looking and I'm not 141 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:59,040 talented and I'm not rich. In fact, my life is pretty bad. So I guess that means I've 142 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:05,000 got nothing to brag about. I've got nothing to promote. So therefore I can't have pride. 143 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:12,740 Not so fast, right? Pride wears many masks and one of those masks is self pity. Whenever 144 00:14:12,740 --> 00:14:20,520 we find ourselves saying, Oh, poor me, poor me, poor me. It's still all about me. You 145 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:26,640 still want you to focus on me. Self-promotion says, I deserve attention cause I've accomplished 146 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:33,860 so much. Self-pity says, I deserve attention cause I've suffered so much. Self-promotion 147 00:14:33,860 --> 00:14:39,720 says, look at how great I am. Self-pity says, look at what I've sacrificed. Look at what 148 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:48,000 I'm going through. Look at how badly I'm being treated. Both, both are self-focused. Both 149 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:54,160 are looking at the self, not God. Both say, look at me. So self-pity though, actually 150 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:58,360 sometimes feels like humility. Oh, you know, when we beat ourselves up in front of others, 151 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:03,360 we feel like we're being humble, but actually all we're doing is turning pride in words. 152 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:08,880 And so we, we, we have this thing where if you feel self-conscious or if you feel, you 153 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:14,120 know, that you're overlooked or you feel insecure, you might not realize it, but that could actually 154 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:22,240 be pride. It could actually be you saying, poor me, really poor me. Now some people who, 155 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:25,540 some people really do need our attention. Some people really are going through crisis. 156 00:15:25,540 --> 00:15:29,680 Some people really do need to say, poor me, I need help. That's true. But there are others 157 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:36,960 who say it out of a wounded ego. They're just craving attention. And so that's why self-pity 158 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:42,200 is just another form of pride. So you've got self-promotion, you've got self-pity, but 159 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:47,060 of course the third and most insidious type of pride, the proof of pride is when you start 160 00:15:47,060 --> 00:15:55,100 to see self-righteousness appear. Jesus told this parable to people who were confident 161 00:15:55,100 --> 00:16:01,320 of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else. So notice two things. They're 162 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:06,480 confident in their own righteousness, which means that if that's who you are, that you 163 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:10,360 don't need God's grace. You don't need God's forgiveness. God actually, I'm doing all right 164 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:15,520 over here. As you can see, I know how to live a good life. So thanks for your grace, but 165 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:19,480 I don't need it. Thanks for your mercy. But you know, I actually, I'm doing pretty good. 166 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:26,360 That's self-righteousness. But secondly, self-righteousness also looks down on everyone else. Well, God, 167 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:31,680 as you can see, my life is pretty under control, but that person over there can certainly use 168 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:37,160 your help. They could certainly use some grace or mercy in their lives, but I'm good. I'm 169 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:43,080 good. So proud people always believe that somehow they have the moral high ground, that 170 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:49,860 they live a better life than the people who are around them. So, so self-righteous people, 171 00:16:49,860 --> 00:16:54,400 they say two things to God. They say on the one hand, God, God, I'm good. I'm good. And 172 00:16:54,400 --> 00:17:01,880 they say, God, God, I'm better. I'm better than them. Now within this category, there's 173 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:07,760 a special case we got to talk about, and that is religious pride. You know, that video skit 174 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:12,260 that we use to introduce the sermon, I can't wait to see the next ones, but they're based 175 00:17:12,260 --> 00:17:17,920 on the book Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. How many of you have heard or read of the 176 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:23,280 Screwtape Letters? I would encourage you, this Lent, get a copy of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape 177 00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:28,040 Letters. It is this amazing little book that is basically supposed to be this correspondence 178 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:33,960 between two devils as they try to decide the best way to corrupt one of their subjects, 179 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:39,720 this poor man. How are we going to lead him astray? It's very, very humorous, but also 180 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:45,840 very true. And one of the things that's surprising in the book is that they say that one of the 181 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:52,680 best ways, one of the best ways to actually get the subject, to get the man to tend toward 182 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:59,760 pride is actually to talk about his religion, right? To make him proud of his own faith, 183 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:04,000 to make him proud of his own church attendance, to make him proud of his own prayer life, 184 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,640 right? That's religious pride. That's spiritual pride. You know, Christians, Christians can 185 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:11,720 feel puffed up, not because they might have more money or they might have better looks 186 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,340 or more talents than other people, but because they know more about the Bible or they know 187 00:18:15,340 --> 00:18:19,200 more about prayer or they understand more about theology or they have a better sense 188 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,680 of this doctrine or that doctrine. And the funny thing is those things should actually 189 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,720 be drawing us closer to God. The more you read the Bible, the closer you should get 190 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:29,120 to God. The more you pray, the closer you should get to God. But they can actually push 191 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:34,280 us away from God when those very same things become a source of pride for us. So do you 192 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:43,480 see how sneaky pride is, right? Self-promotion, self-pity, self-righteousness. These things 193 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:49,640 are really easy to see in other people, but they are really, really hard to see in ourselves. 194 00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:57,540 And if you do not think that pride is a problem for you, then pride is a problem for you. 195 00:18:57,540 --> 00:19:01,760 And if you're starting to feel a little proud right now that, yeah, I'm willing to admit 196 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:06,460 that I'm pride, pride, prideful, proud, then you know what? There it is again. Now you're 197 00:19:06,460 --> 00:19:11,880 just getting proud of your own humility. You can't get away from it. Pride is something 198 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:17,280 that's going to chase you your whole life. So you might say, oh gosh, well then so, so 199 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:23,360 what? Oh, fine. Sue me. I'm guilty of pride, right? What difference does it really, really 200 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:30,480 make? Well, just like that rat poison, it may not seem that dangerous at first, but 201 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:36,280 Jesus makes pretty clear that there are devastating consequences to pride over time. When we let 202 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:44,400 pride take root in our hearts, three things inevitably happen. The first is this. It isolates 203 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:49,280 us from others. Even in the parable Jesus told, right, the Pharisee stood, say that 204 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:56,680 with me, by himself, stood by himself and prayed. He separates himself from others, 205 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:03,880 physically, but also spiritually separate from others. And why is that? Because he's 206 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:10,240 measuring himself against others. That's what pride does. It turns friendship. It turns 207 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:16,680 community into competition, right? And that's why pride is so toxic to relationships. Proud 208 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:23,580 people can't have friends, right? They can only have competitors. Some sins actually 209 00:20:23,580 --> 00:20:28,120 bring us closer together. So people who like to drink too much, let's do it together. You 210 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:32,480 like to eat too much. Let's do it together. Like to spend too much money, whatever. Sometimes 211 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:39,460 some sins actually bring people together, but pride always, always means separation. 212 00:20:39,460 --> 00:20:45,120 You distance yourself from people. Why? Because they might outshine you. You distance yourself 213 00:20:45,120 --> 00:20:48,680 from them because you know what? They were right about something and your ego couldn't 214 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:56,920 handle it. Pride always separates us. And that leads to the second consequence of pride. 215 00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:01,480 And that is the pride not only isolates us from each other, but it separates us from 216 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:08,200 God. After all, when you come to God's presence, you are coming up against one of the most 217 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:15,760 magnificent and beautiful and awesome beings that ever existed and will ever exist. We 218 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:21,080 don't even come close to this person, this God. And therefore, if you're proud, you're 219 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:26,200 not going to like that, right? Because you like to look down on people, but you will 220 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:34,920 never see God if you're looking down because God is always above us. Some sins that we 221 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,680 struggle with, we know we need help. And so we actually go to God and we say, God, I'm 222 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:44,000 struggling with lust. God, I'm struggling with greed. God, I'm struggling with my anger. 223 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:49,680 I have a horrible, horrible anger problem. But the proud, no, no, no, they're not going 224 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:54,440 to go to God. They're not going to go to God, right? They don't need God. They're already 225 00:21:54,440 --> 00:22:02,040 their own God. And so they don't know God. That's why the Bible says that God opposes 226 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:09,120 the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. In some ways, pride makes God's grace impossible 227 00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:14,280 for you. How do you receive God's great gift of grace when your hands are already holding 228 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:24,120 on so tightly to yourself? Which means ultimately that the final consequence of pride is destruction. 229 00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:31,640 Pride leads to a fall. Jesus said, all who exalt themselves will be humbled, not might 230 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:39,360 be humbled, not could be humbled. You will be humbled. Pride always leads to a fall. 231 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:45,540 Proverbs 16, pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. And how many 232 00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:49,640 times have we seen this play out in our world over and over again? How many times have we 233 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:56,680 seen an athlete or a pastor or a celebrity or whatever, a leader, right? They believed 234 00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:02,920 their own hype, right? They thought they were invincible and they came crashing down. And 235 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:07,500 sometimes that crash is spectacular. There's a scandal. It's in the newspaper. Everybody 236 00:23:07,500 --> 00:23:13,800 knows about it. It's humiliating, right? But there's another way that you can crash and 237 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:19,860 burn with pride, which is quieter and not everybody sees it. It's when pride keeps you 238 00:23:19,860 --> 00:23:26,780 from asking for help. And so you ended up just suffering alone or pride makes you too 239 00:23:26,780 --> 00:23:31,520 stubborn to apologize. And so you lose your relationship. So our pride convinces you that 240 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:35,480 you don't need God. And so you just drift further and further away from God. And then 241 00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:42,480 one day you wake up and you realize you're completely alone. This is why pride is spiritual 242 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:47,720 poison. It doesn't just isolate you from others. It doesn't just separate you from God. It 243 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:54,100 actually destroys us from the inside. All who exalt themselves will be humbled. The 244 00:23:54,100 --> 00:24:06,880 only question is, will you humble yourself before you are humiliated in some way? So 245 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:15,380 humility is the solution to pride. How do we get it? How do we get humility? It's a 246 00:24:15,380 --> 00:24:19,640 great question. And I just want to remind you, the whole point of us doing this teaching 247 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:26,300 series on sin is not to beat us down. It's to build us up. Lent is a perfect time not 248 00:24:26,300 --> 00:24:30,060 to just remember the brokenness inside us, but how we can be cured, how we can be healed 249 00:24:30,060 --> 00:24:34,660 and how we can be restored. And to do that for pride, today I want to encourage you, 250 00:24:34,660 --> 00:24:40,340 this Lent, to lean into three Christian practices that will help us overcome pride and become 251 00:24:40,340 --> 00:24:46,120 people of humility. Ready? Here they go. First is this. It's confession. Confession. If you 252 00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:52,360 think about it, pride is all about self deception. It's lying to ourselves. It's lying to others 253 00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:57,380 about ourselves, right? But confession is telling the truth, right? It's telling the 254 00:24:57,380 --> 00:25:01,680 truth to ourselves. Confession means telling the truth to others. And confession means 255 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:07,680 maybe telling the truth to some of the people in your life. Pride says, you're fine. Confession 256 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:17,100 reminds us we're not. World says, believe in yourself, trust in your own goodness. But 257 00:25:17,100 --> 00:25:23,060 scripture comes along and says, if you claim to be without sin, you're deceiving yourself. 258 00:25:23,060 --> 00:25:32,680 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us. Confession isn't 259 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:39,020 self hatred. It's just self awareness. It's just being honest about who you are. You know, 260 00:25:39,020 --> 00:25:43,720 there's this old Jewish saying that says that Jewish people basically have two essential 261 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:52,160 beliefs. The first is there is a God. And the second is you're not it. Confession is 262 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,860 how we remind ourselves of that second one. Confession reminds us that we are not our 263 00:25:55,860 --> 00:26:03,360 own little gods ruling our own little lives. So this land lean into confession, confess 264 00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:07,600 your pride, whether you do that at home in your own prayer time or whether you just come 265 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:13,240 here Sunday by Sunday. And as we're about to do, we confess our sins together as a community. 266 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:18,600 Confession as a habit will lead to humility, tells the truth and leads us back to God. 267 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:25,000 That is the first thing that we can do. Now, there is a second, a second practice that 268 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:31,160 cures us of pride and teaches us humility. And that is service. Here's why pride keeps 269 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:37,680 us focused on ourself. But serving causes us to focus on others. You know, C.S. Lewis said 270 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:44,280 that humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's just thinking of yourself less. And that's 271 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:50,120 what serving does. It allows us to somehow forget ourselves long enough to realize, oh, 272 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:54,880 there are other people in this world and there are people I can love and take care of. We 273 00:26:54,880 --> 00:27:00,600 forget ourselves long enough to love another person. Jesus modeled this perfectly on the 274 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:04,560 night that he was arrested. He was having dinner with his friends and guess what they 275 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:09,520 were arguing about? Who's the greatest? Who's the greatest? But he, at that moment, melt 276 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:16,600 down and he washed their feet. Right. He said, I'm doing this to set an example for you. 277 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:24,080 Right. He set an example. He says that you should do for others as I have done for you. 278 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:29,800 Jesus stepped down from his throne to come down and serve us so we can do the same. We 279 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:34,840 can step down from our little thrones where we're king of our little kingdoms and serve 280 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:41,320 others. So ask yourself seriously this week, ask yourself, who can I serve this week? Who 281 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:48,800 can I go and listen to who needs to talk without me feeling like I have to be heard? Right. 282 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:54,560 Who can I give something to without expecting anything in return? The more we serve others, 283 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:59,000 the less we focus on ourselves. That is a cure for pride. So confession is a cure for 284 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:05,720 pride, right? Service is a cure for pride. But thirdly and finally, worship is a cure 285 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:10,880 for pride. What you are doing this morning is a cure for pride. Why? Because if the cause 286 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:15,300 of pride is that we worship the wrong thing ourselves, then the cure for pride must be 287 00:28:15,300 --> 00:28:22,760 that we learn to worship the right thing, which is God. There's this rule and the rule 288 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:31,900 says that you become like that, which you worship. If we worship God, we will become 289 00:28:31,900 --> 00:28:40,640 more humble, which means God is humble. Right? We become like that, which we worship. And 290 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:45,280 if we become more humble by worshiping God, then God must be humble. Now that sounds crazy. 291 00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:49,480 But humble, I've never heard anyone say God is humble. God is the most beautiful, most 292 00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:54,300 powerful, most amazing being there ever is. No one else comes close to him. If anyone 293 00:28:54,300 --> 00:29:01,020 had a right to be proud, it's God. And yet God is not proud. God doesn't go around forcing 294 00:29:01,020 --> 00:29:06,180 himself on other people. In fact, many people go through their whole lives and they never 295 00:29:06,180 --> 00:29:12,280 notice God at all. And when God actually came down and walked among us as Jesus Christ, 296 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,520 he didn't draw attention to himself. He didn't go around saying, Hey, everybody, look at 297 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:19,560 me, look at me. I'm God, I'm God, I'm God, I'm God. In fact, many people met Jesus of 298 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:24,880 Nazareth and walked away saying he's just another guy. He's just another rabbi. God 299 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:31,600 is humble. Right? God emptied himself in order to get down to our level. That is not a quality 300 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:39,680 we often associate with God's. But if God isn't proud, God isn't proud. Why on earth 301 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:49,480 should we be? We're created to be in the image of God and we are most human when we are most 302 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:58,440 like God and we become most like him when we worship him. So even when we worship God, 303 00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:02,040 you know, it's funny. A lot of people think, well, why do we worship God? Is it because 304 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:07,960 actually God secretly is pride that he likes his ego stroke that our worship makes God 305 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,480 feel special? No, that's not it. In fact, the Bible tells us God doesn't even need our 306 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:16,600 worship. God doesn't need bulls or goats. He doesn't need sacrifices. He actually already 307 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:22,400 has everything. He has every animal, every tree is a thousand cattle on a thousand Hills 308 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:29,360 or whatever it is. No, we don't. We don't worship because God needs it. We worship because 309 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:38,360 we need it. Worship isn't about giving God something that that he lacks. It's about realigning 310 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:47,400 our hearts, changing our priorities and reorienting our focus. If you worship success, you're 311 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:56,320 going to be restless your whole life long. If you worship power, you're going to be ruthless. 312 00:30:56,320 --> 00:31:01,480 If you worship approval, you will always be anxious. But if we learn to worship God, it 313 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:08,840 will become humble like God. And so as we end, I just want to remind you of one thing 314 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:13,800 we do every single week here at Trinity in our worship that actually is probably the 315 00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:20,160 most humbling act, the most countercultural act of worship you could ever think of. What 316 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,880 we do is in a few minutes, you're going to get out of your pews and you're going to come 317 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:26,720 forward. You're going to line up and you're going to hold your empty hands out like this 318 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:31,080 empty hands, like children, like children who don't have anything, who are waiting to 319 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:36,760 receive something. This is, this is so odd. It's so countercultural. Normally in life, 320 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:41,480 we come with clenched fists holding onto everything that we have and what we think we've earned. 321 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:46,160 But here we come with open hands, admitting actually we don't have anything. And I'm admitting 322 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:51,400 that if we don't get something from God, we're going to remain empty. This is who we are. 323 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:56,400 This is, we're not the big self-sufficient adults, but we're just weak and empty souls. 324 00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:01,120 We're weak, empty children, desperately in need of grace. You cannot enter the kingdom 325 00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:07,280 of God with your fists clenched on all your stuff and your, your status. You have to become 326 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:12,720 hungry and humble like children. So the question is, will you do that today? Will you come 327 00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:22,560 to God today with fists clenched? No, with hands open, ready to receive. The Pharisee, 328 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:31,760 he walked away unchanged, still proud. The tax collector walked away justified because 329 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:41,560 he came humbly with nothing except his need. May we come to God in the exact same way. 330 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,760 Peace be to God. Amen. 331 00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:49,240 Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded 332 00:32:49,240 --> 00:33:11,960 at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga on March 9th, 2025.