The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 4: Pride

Episode Date: November 19, 2017

Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up every possibility of love and contentment.  Jesus is the cure, He is truly our only hope.

Amen. Amen. Hey, we have a lot to be thankful for church. As I watched that video of my good friend Walker Day, I just am stirred with gratitude and thankfulness for God's work in his life. And that God saved him and that God redeemed him and God called him. And I don't know if you know this or not. Maybe this is your first time here with us today or attending one of our campuses or maybe you've been here with us for a long time. But we have much to be thankful for as a church. God has been incredibly good. to us. And I don't mean that we have many things to be thankful for. We have many people who have been redeemed from life of pain and hurt because of God's grace. And they're sitting around you every Sunday. On your right and on your left, there are stories

of miracle upon miracle upon miracle that God has done in and through this church. Amen. Amen. So we come with grateful hearts today and we come thankful for the work of God in our life and the work of God in our church as we wrap up this smashing idols series.

This series has been incredible, and as God shows us the things in our lives that would be in the way or would get in the way of our relationship with him, and is his goodness to us to show us not just what those things are, but how to replace them with something better. And so we're going to get to wrap that up today with smashing idols, and we're going to get to take a look at pride. And the good news for all of us today is that I'm actually an authority on the issue. I am maybe the most humble person you've ever met in your entire life. I mean, come on. To be asked to preach on pride as though you're an authority on humility is a paradox in itself.

I am not an authority on humility. I am an authority on being prideful. I have snuggled up to pride more times than I can count in my life. My life motto for better or for worse has been me, mine, and more. And this is the song that pride sings, and it has sang that. and it has sang this song in my life many, many times. As I've journeyed through the last few weeks in the Smashing Idol series, God has brought to my mind different seasons of my life where he has shown idols to me

and he has graciously dismantled them and began to replace them with something better. And one distinct season that God reminded me of, we've got to go back just a few years to 2007. In 2007, I'm still relatively a newlywed. We are dinks. We are double income, no kids. And so we are living in the high life. Both of us have great jobs.

We have a great life. We have great friends. I'm doing ministry and getting paid good money to do it. And got all these people reporting to me. I'm in my mid-20s. And everything that I would measure and define as success, I had it in my mid-20s. Had a beautiful wife, had a beautiful life. But I had this, we joke about it in my house.

It's this yearly itch. I have this sensational. itch that rises up in me. And it tells me that whatever I have is not good enough that there's something more and better out there for me. And so I'll set my mind on chasing more and better. And I did it in 2007. And more and better meant to leave this job and to leave this life, which was going

incredibly well. And to go and pursue church planting. I even put God's name on it. And I wish that I could stand in front of you and say, I know for sure I heard the voice of the Lord and that God was leading me in the paths of holiness. But the truth is, I just wanted what I didn't have. And I thought that maybe I could go and plant some churches and it would give me that thing.

And so we went after it. And we had a bunch of money saved up, and God had been really gracious to us. And we spent all that money on a down payment on a house. And so we moved from Birmingham, Alabama, to Auburn, Alabama, as if I need another reason to hate Auburn. We moved to Auburn, Alabama, and we buy a house, and we get some of the way. it in and we go to planting churches and I think how hard can this be? I mean how hard can planting a church be? I'm with a group of men and women who have committed their lives to do

this and we go to plant the church and within a few months you know what happens to the housing market in the early 2008. Some of you were like man why you got to bring it up? You know? It starts to crash and so we go upside down on the house and within months after that our church is failing. We have people attending some, but they're all college students. And Lord knows college students need to get saved, but they can't tithe. And so

our church has no money, we have no income, we're not seeing people come to Christ. Everything is drying up, and we come to the place where we stop drawing a salary. And we literally are spending every dime that we have just staying alive. And it was November

of that year that I sat down with my wife and looked at her and said, babe, I don't think we're going to get to have Christmas this year. We just don't have any money. And it was in this season where God showed to me the idols of power and the idols of control and the idols of success and the idols of more and more significantly, God showed me, brought me face to face with the idol of pride. And I began to learn what it meant to lay those things down.

And so on one hand, I was incredibly sad. I was incredibly broken. I was incredibly confused and hurting and afraid and ashamed. And I felt like I was letting my family down and I was letting God down. On the other hand, I was incredibly trusting. I was having to depend on the Lord like never before. I was having to be reliant on him for him to provide. And I think God had me right where he wanted me because he had my full attention.

And it's through these seasons. of life where we begin to realize what idols are and what God can do about them and what he will and wants to do about him. And so we're going to jump into smashing idols, the idol of pride. In order for us, for the rest of our time, kind of two goals that we have. One is for us to clearly identify what pride is and see it for what it is and then better to understand what Jesus did on our behalf to smash the idol of pride. So we want to see pride clearly.

want to see Jesus more clearly and hopefully elevate our view of grace and love for him. I think if you walk with God long enough, you'll begin to realize this truth that pride is not just any old idol. Pride is the mother of idols. Pride is the gas in the tank of idols. How it actually works is that our pride and the dominant culture that we live in, they get together and they start having babies and those babies are called idols. And so pride is. And so pride is. is not a stranger to any of us. A biblical working definition of pride is being self-centered instead of being God-centered. Pride is being self-centered instead of being God-centered.

It's thinking of self-first. It's listening to self-fers. It's wanting to give self-credit first. It's waiting to get noticed first. In our lives, we see pride play out in two extremes. One is arrogance and the other is insecurity, and they're relatively easy to spot in other people's life. They're incredibly hard to spot in ourselves, but they're very easy to spot in other people's lives. Arrogance is thinking too highly of oneself and insecurity is thinking too lowly of oneself.

Arrogant people, they're ultimately the people who are just allowing the rest of us to share their oxygen. You know, they're the ones that are, they're really, really into them and they think they're awesome, and everybody else here is just sucking up their air. Those are the arrogant people. And the insecure people, you can spot them because they're self-deprecating and they make offhand. comments to get people to notice them and they poke at themselves and they put themselves on display in negative light in order to get some attention in hopes to get any second of validation just to feel better for a minute. So arrogance and insecurity are the two extremes of pride, but make no mistake, they are evil twin brothers. Pride is the mother. Because at the center of arrogance and the center of insecurity is still self.

and pride is being self-centered instead of being God-centered. And in order for us to really wrap our heads around pride, we've got to go back in time a little bit. In order for us to get a scope of what the Bible teaches us about pride, about the reality of it, we've got to go way back to when God first began creating. And we have to take a look at the first time that the first created being ever resisted God or ever showed pride toward God. And so if you have your Bibles, open them up, we're going to be in Isaiah 14,

verses 12 through 14. This is not in your notes. This is just in your Bibles. We'll get to your notes in just a second. Isaiah 14, we see God speaking through the prophet Isaiah, and he begins to talk to an angel that he created and that he had purpose for that resisted him and showed pride in his direction. And this is the dialogue we find in Isaiah 14 between God and this angel.

Now, this angel is no ordinary angel. This angel was the most beautiful of all angels. God had given this angel a created purpose by which he was to guard and to protect. He was actually a covering angel. He was called he's the most anointed angel. He was adorned with jewels. He was beautiful. The Bible tells us that he walks through stones that are burning with fire.

I don't even know what that means. But it's awesome. And this angel had everything. God had made provision upon provision upon provision. upon provision and given him great authority, great rule in many, many gifts. And then this angel saw what he had and that it wasn't good enough and he began to show pride in the direction of God. And this is what God says to the angel Lucifer. He says, how you were falling from heaven, O Daystar, son of dawn.

Now let's just stop right there for a second. What an awesome name. I got Ryan. My name is Ryan. That's it. There's nothing flashy about it. Lucifer's name, God, think about this. God is calling Lucifer, O Daystar, Son of Dawn. I mean, what glory, what honor must this angel have had

in order for God to call you the Daystar. It's pretty amazing. Oh, Daystar, son of dawn. You said in your heart, I will ascend to you. to heaven above the stars of God. And so here's in the conversation where we have to start asking the question. Why? Why do you want to go there?

Look at all the stuff that you have. Look at everything that God has given you, all the power and all the rule. Why do you want to go there? That's not where you're supposed to go. You're supposed to go over here. God created here for you, not there. So why do you want to go there? So why, Lucifer?

Why do you want to ascend to the place you weren't created to go? you said in your heart I will set my throne on high I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north well no no you don't want to do that that seat's not for you

that's a seat that God reserved for himself and you weren't created to sit there and the reason that you can't go there is because you weren't created to wear the burden of that seat that seat comes within a immense amount of responsibility, an immense amount of obligation, an immense amount of power that you just were not created to carry. You were not created to bear the burden of that. So you don't go there. You don't want to do that. That is not for you. God has all these other things for you.

Just not that. And Lucifer said in his heart, forget that. I'm going where God's saying, I shouldn't go. And Lucifer says, I will make myself like the most high. Ultimately, what Lucifer wanted to do was to be like God, which is to say that he wanted to be completely free of any restriction or any limitation. He wanted to be able to do whatever he wanted to do, whenever he wanted to do it, and to be able to do those things without consequence.

And this resistance, this rebellion, this is the heart of pride. And we see it clearly in Isaiah 14. We don't have to travel too much farther through history to begin to see that pride is not just a problem. Pride is the problem. And we journey through a little more in created history and we run into our first parents, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. And here we see pride show its ugly face in another conversation between Eve and the serpent. And we see this in Genesis chapter 3. Now the serpent, this is Lucifer.

He shows pride to God. God kicks him out of heaven, banishes him down to the earth. And he's now in the form of a serpent. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden. Now this question, this question, did God actually say? This is still the same game that the enemy is playing with me and with you today.

He's playing the did God actually say game. This is how it plays out in my life. Ryan, did God actually say that you're supposed to love your wife as Christ loved the church? Ryan, did God actually say that you're not supposed to stir up your children in anger? Did God actually say that you don't need to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself each day has enough worries of its own? Did God actually say that you are loved and accepted and you are treasured in his kingdom? Did God actually say it is by grace through faith you have been saved, and that it's not of works

lest any man should boast. Did God actually say that? Did God actually say that male and female he created them both in his image and that everybody is created as an image bearer of God an equal deserving of dignity and honor and respect or did God actually say

that? You see, the enemy is still playing the did God actually say game today. There are many of us in here that the enemy right now this morning as you're getting ready in your ear he is whispering, did God actually say that you were fearfully and wonderfully made? And he's lying to you.

And he's asking you the same questions he's been asking. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. Look at all that God gave us. Look what God said we could do, where we could flourish, where we could go and be in rule and reign and have authority, where we could be.

Look at all that God, that's what Eve's saying. But God said, you shall not eat at the fruit of the tree, tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. Ultimately, God had given Adam and Eve rule, rain, provisions, gifts upon gifts upon gifts, and the enemy is tempting them to want. The one thing that God said they could not have, and the reason God did not want them to have it is because God knew that thing was going to hurt them. And so God is trying to protect them by making provisions for them, and all they see as restrictions and limitations. And so in Genesis 3, we clearly see that pride is beginning to

stir around and pride is beginning to work with the human will or work inside the human spirit to birth resistance and to birth rebellion. And the scripture continues. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Lie. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. Remember, Lucifer in his heart said, I will be like the most high, and this is the same temptation, is to take the seat, to take the throne, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

God doesn't want good things for you, God wants bad things for you. This is ultimately what the enemy is saying, and the scriptures continue with this. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Now, look, this is not a sermon about Adam, but let me just side note. If I could go back in time, and somehow I could miraculously drop into the Garden of Eden, I would look at Adam and I would be like, bro, you're killing me. And I wouldn't even be sarcastic. Literally, you're killing me. Stop. Don't do this.

This is not about Adam. This is about pride. So ultimately, the lust of the flesh, the lust of eyes, and the pride of life show itself, and they go against what God had said. You see, here's what happens. Here's what ever since this day and time, what pride does, pride provides a sympathetic ear for our enemy. There's something in us that wants to listen to the lies of the enemy and believe those things to be truth. Pride ultimately, what happens is the enemy and pride collaborate together, and when they begin to collaborate together, twist our perspective.

And we begin to see gifts as restrictions. We begin to see blessings as burdens. We begin to see provisions as prohibitions. Pride and the enemy, when they get together, it twists our perspective. And from our perspective, we are fighting for freedom, but from God's perspective, it is rebellion. We just want to have the things that we don't have. And that's what Adam and Eve were saying. And what Lucifer was saying is, I know I have all this, but this is not good enough.

I want that. And God's going, you don't want that because that is going to hurt you. That is not good for you. That is not what you were created to do or to be. And the resistance against God's created purposes, this thing is rebellion. But from our perspective, it often feels like we're fighting for freedom. You see, here's the truth about pride's pursuit. Pride's pursuit will always cost us more than we want to pay

and it's going to leave us in a place far longer than we ever wanted to stay. It will always cost us more than we want to pay. Adam and Eve became convinced that God was restricting them when in reality he was protecting them. You see, pride does this thing where it preaches a false narrative. It's just a liar. It lies to us. It tells us it's trying to protect us when in reality it is,

betraying us from the inside out. I mean, think about it. Have you ever had something taken away from you by someone else, like a parent or a boss? And they weren't taking the thing away from you because you were doing something wrong. They were taking it away from you in order to give you something better.

And in that process, if you've ever been through it, you feel like they're trying to take this thing you love away from you and this most important thing away from you. But in reality, they're just trying to give you something better and you don't quite see it. And our resistance to and our rebellion or rejection of this good gift, this thing is wrapped around the axle of our pride. Oftentimes, I believe in my life, people have been trying to hurt me,

but people have been trying to help me, but my pride tells me they're trying to hurt me. And this is what pride does. It preaches a false narrative. I mean, ultimately, this is why all relationships suffer dysfunction. Pride is at the heart of every relational dysfunction. In relationships, we often view restrictions. We often view gifts as restrictions or responsibilities as limitations.

I mean, I do this in my marriage and in my parenting all the time. Instead of seeing my wife as the treasure that she is and as the joy that she is to be married to and the gift that she is from God, I see her as an obstacle in the way of me getting what I want. instead of me treasuring her and seeing her as someone to serve and to joyfully live life with I see her as a challenge to overcome people become

problems to solve instead of created beings to love that's what my pride does in me I see my kids my kids instead of being little disciples to make and missionaries to raise I see them as these creatures who are running around sucking all of my oxygen

and eating all of my food and spending all of my money. This is what pride does. It is just deceptive and it turns blessings into burdens. I mean, have you ever asked yourself, why is it so hard to say, I'm sorry? Why is it so hard to say, you know what? I was wrong. Why are we so afraid to fail?

Why do we jump to self-defense over and over and over and over again? and this fueling of our self-defense mechanisms and our self-preservation and our inabilities to say, I'm sorry, when did it become so hard? What makes it so hard to agree to disagree? What makes it so hard to lay down what I want for the good of others? Well, pride is what makes it so hard. Pride is the fuel in the tank of self-preservation every time. It's this feeling of discontent.

this low-grade frustration, the need to have what I want and have it right now, the desire to be seen as right in other people's eyes and validated in my opinions. This is pride. It wasn't too long ago that I was a couple of years ago, right after I first came to 1122, I was over by the town center sitting at a restaurant, waiting on a meeting to come for lunch. and this gentleman walks up to my table and he says, hey, are you Pastor Britt? And I'm like, yeah, yeah. He's like, hey, can I sit down and talk to you for a minute? And I'm like, yeah, man, for sure.

Come on in and have a seat. And he sits down and he's like, hey, I just need you to pray for me. And I'm like, okay, man, how can I pray for it? And he's like, well, my kids hate me. And I don't want him to hate me anymore. And so can you just pray for me? And I'm like, I'm going to need more than that. Like, I'm going to need dialogue just a little bit here.

And I'm like, tell me what happened. and walk me through the journey. And he's like, well, you know, for years and years and years, their mom just didn't treat me the way that she should. She just didn't appreciate me. And she got more interested in her work and in her phone than she was ever interested in me. And she just ignored me. And finally, I just got fed up with it and I left.

Okay. Well, tell me more. Tell me more. And he's like, well, you know, I just think there's better for me. There's more out there for me. There's just something better for me that God has. And I'm like, hold on. Before we bring God into this, let's just have a straight conversation.

And so I began to ask him questions, well, was she verbally abusive or was she running around on you? Or tell me more? And he's like, no, no, no, none of that. She just didn't treat me the way I deserve to be treated. Okay. So, hey, man, can I, before I pray for you, and I did pray for him, I feel like I need to hug you all right now. Y'all are all like, hey. But I hugged him and I prayed for him.

But before I did that, I said, can I give you some advice? he's like, yeah. I said, brother, what you need to do is you need to go get a bowl and a towel. And you need to fill that bowl up with water. And you need to take that bowl full of water and that towel to your family. And you need to get on your hands and knees and you need to wash their feet and beg their forgiveness. Because somewhere in your life, you began to believe the delusion that this is about you. And that God gave you a family to serve you. And that is not how it works. God gave your family to you for you to serve them.

They don't exist for you. You exist for them. He just looked at me very similar to how you're looking at me right now. And his eyes were about this big around. But I said, man, I said, you need a bowl and a towel. And you do that and you beg their forgiveness. I promise God will start doing the work of reconciliation. And then I prayed for him and then he was like, thanks, I think.

and on about his way. But see what pride does? I mean, the truth is, what does pride have to cost us before we call it what it is and we repent from it? What is it that pride is going to cost us before we call it what it is? Pride ultimately dislocates us from God's created purpose for us. And God created us to love him and to be used by him, to glorify him by offering our lives in love.

love to him. And when we do that, he uses us to serve others. And this brings him glory. Pride dislocates us from our created purpose. Ultimately, if we are working in opposition to God's purpose for our lives, we are living in opposition to God. And this is what the chasm that pride creates. And so what do we do? How do we smash this mother of idols? How do we overcome this idol this idol of pride. Well, the good news is the Bible tells us in James chapter 4 it gives us a diagnosis and it gives us

the ability to replace it with something better. So with all idols you have to diagnose it for what it is and you replace it with something better. In James chapter 4 does this for us, starting in verse 1, it's in your notes. Here's the question. This is the diagnosis. What causes quarrels

and what causes fights among you? Or inside you is another way to ask that. What causes fights inside you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? James asks a great question. What is it that causes all of this inner turmoil and this inner strife and this inner struggle? What is it that's rising up in us, causing all of this

dysfunction and tension? Is it not this that you do not have what you want and you think you deserve and you're mad about it? That's what James is asking. And he continues with the diagnosis. He says, you desire and you do not have so you murder. You covet. You brag. You lie. You manipulate. All these things that pride does

and you cannot obtain so you fight and you quarrel. You don't have what you want. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. James

continues with the diagnosis. You adulterous people. Man, why are you so aggressive, bro? Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Pastor Jobi has a great illustration where he talks about having one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock. I mean, how long can you ride that out before you're in serious trouble? That's what James is asking.

And he continues with the diagnosis, and he says, or do you suppose it is of no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jeans jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? Here's what that means. It means that God wants God's best for you. God wants God's best for you, that God is jealous for the future he has promised for you. He is jealous for the purposes that he has created you to walk in and to live in, that he deeply desires, passionately desires a hope of future filled with joy and filled with holiness

and filled with God glorifying realities that God is jealous for yours and my futures. He earns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. So the diagnosis is this, and here's the power verse, but he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to grace. The humble. Now, this verse gets quoted a lot and often used way out of context, but in order to understand the diagnosis, let me just tell you this quick thing that happened to me earlier this week.

I'm in my room with my seven-year-old daughter, Annie Catherine, who is beautiful and joyful and just a gift for sure. She just lost her first two teeth, her front two teeth, and so we're hoping those things come in for Christmas. And, man, she's awesome. But I'm sitting with her. At nighttime, when I'm putting her to bed, I'll start to ask her. feeling questions. I'll be like, okay, Anna Catherine, tell me something that makes you excited.

And so I asked her, what's something that makes you excited? And she's like, when we go to Disney for 100 days? And I was like, well, Anna Catherine, we've never been to Disney for 100 days. And she's like, I know, but it'd be awesome if we would, and I'd be super excited. I'm like, she's smart too. And then I asked her, I said, Anna Catherine, what's something that makes you happy? And she said, she sat there for a minute. She was like, well, it just doesn't happen all the time. And I'm like, well, that's okay, but tell me what it is. What makes you happy? And this is what she said, seven years old. She said, when I get what I want. She's seven. And I thought, and I thought, well, at least you're honest. You know, that's a step

in the right direction. And so that's the diagnosis. But the good news is God does not leave us to our own devices to battle against, to resist against, to overcome pride, because we cannot in and of ourselves. It says this, but he gives more grace. It is God's grace. This is what this verse means. It is God's grace that God would oppose anything in us that would rob the future he has planned for us. It is God's grace that he would oppose anything in us that would create resistance or rebellion toward him. It is God's grace that he would oppose anything in us that would cause us to suffer relational dysfunction, that he would put things in our way, albeit painful things at times, in order to get our attention and to put us on the floor of our own pride,

so that he can begin to build us back up and put us back together. It is God's grace that he opposes our pride and that he gives grace to the humble. The prescription continues. And so this is it. The first thing, so what do we do? How do we smash this idol of pride? Number one, verse 7, James Chapter 4, submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Here's what that means.

Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. It means bow down. That's what it means in Greek, submit. I don't know if that's what it means at all, but that's what I'm saying today. It means bow down. It means bow down before the Lord to acknowledge that life is not all about us and that we are not the center of the universe and that God has created us and that his plans are better and that his desires are better.

It means to bow down. And there are many ways that we can bow down before God. But one way I would encourage us in today as a church, one way to bow down is to give God credit in all things, to give him glory both with our mouth and with our actions, to give him glory in all things. This is one way that we bow down to God. We give him credit or in everything. A great reality that we have to come face to face with is this,

whatever we do not turn into praise turns into pride. Whatever we do not turn into praise turns in to pride. And so we give God praise. I give him glory for my healthy kids and my beautiful family. We give him glory for the good things in our lives. I mean, have you ever had that point in time where you're just sitting there in your life, whatever the season is? And you're looking around and you're like, man, it just does not get any better than this.

And in that moment, do you take credit for creating that, or do you look to God and say, God, thank you? I mean, this just happened in my life. We got the Christmas tree up at the Brit house. Nailed it. We got the Christmas tree up already I'm a Christmas tree guy I love Christmas I've been asking for it

since Halloween Ultimately how I do it My daughters, they hate my beard They're not into it at all And you can ask my little one What do you think about daddy's beard And she'll go, nah That's what she does, she's for her

So very affectionate And so here's how I'm like All right look you want me to shave my beard No problem, put the tree up Put the tree up So it's a negotiating Negotiating tactic Probably rooted in pride

but we're not even talking, wait, we are talking about that, but regardless. So I'm sitting in our living room and my wife and my two beautiful daughters have the tree up and they're decorating it and they're laughing and Christmas music is playing because Jesus is more into Christmas music than any other kind of music. And it's just, I have that moment where I'm just sitting there and I'm like, does it get any better than this? Thank you, God. So we give God glory. But we don't just give him glory and the good thing. we also give him glory in the hard things, in the sufferings of life, in the pain of life, and through sickness and loss and broken relationships.

We don't look deeper and deeper into ourselves. We look at God and we say, God, even though I may not understand what you're doing, I give you the glory, even though I cannot see your plan. I'm going to trust your heart. We give him glory in all things because we know this, that whether good things or bad things, that God is working all. things together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. And all things means all things. And we know that those who he called he foreknew and those who he

foreknew he predestined and those he predestined and those who he predestined he called and those who he called, he will also justified. And he has also justified them in order to glorify them. And that by being glorified one day we will not be burdened with this self-ridicule of pride, but we will be completely free in the presence of Jesus where pride is not a thing only honoring glory to the king. And so what shall we say then? Shall we say that who can bring a charge against God's elect? If God before us, then who can be against us?

Here's what that means. If God is for me, then I cannot even be against myself. Think about that for a minute. If God is for us, then who can be against us? We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, It's neither height nor depth, nor famine, nor sickness, nor sword, nor anger, nor anything the enemy can throw at you. Nothing now, nothing in your past, nothing in your future.

There is nothing in all of creation that can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. And this actually means that not even your pride can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, because once God turns the hounds of heaven on you, your pride is going to fall and we will bow down to God's glory. Now we may put up a fight But submitting to God It's not something we can do in and of ourselves It is a gracious act of God that he would bring us to a place of Submission

The prescription continues Submit yourself Therefore to God resist the devil And he will flee from you It means when things rise up in us When self-glorification and self-exaltation And self-defensiveness Rises up in us

We resist that. We say no to that. We stiff arm it. And we do this through prayer. We do this through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we ultimately do this through discipline. Life following after God is a life of both desire and discipline. We choose to say no to the flesh so that we can say yes to God.

That's what it means to resist the devil and he will flee from you. The prescription continues. Draw near to God and he will draw near. near to you. So how do we do this? How do we draw near to God? Ultimately, there's only one way to draw near to the Father, and that is through the Son who is Jesus. You may never thought about this, but Jesus never, ever, not one time ever, had a prideful second. Never. Because had he had one second of pride, he would not have been a perfect accepting substitution for us. But because Jesus lived his life in complete humility, in complete service to others.

He is how we get to God by placing our faith and holy leaning on him. Flippian's chapter 2 says this about Jesus. And this is where we see that Jesus truly is our only hope. It says this, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. You have this mind. You have to fight to cultivate and preserve. it in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

You see, Lucifer, Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. Jesus is God and he laid it down so that he could come here and be in the form of human. And the verse continues. He emptied himself of all glory, all honor, all power by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, highly exalted him,

and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, and that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. so that at the name of Jesus in heaven and on earth, every tongue confess that Jesus is what? Lord. This word Lord is a really, really important word when it comes to our

battle and our struggle against pride. Ultimately, the question is this, who is the Lord? To the glory of God, the Father. And so how do we draw near to God? It's by submitting and surrendering unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We say this

phrase here all the time. The Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And here's what I would offer you as a working definition of what it means to be surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Now we place our faith in Jesus unto salvation and then we surrender to him every day

over and over and over and over again. This is why Jesus says these things. Jesus says in many different forms, he says, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. A way to interpret that is deny your pride, take up your cross and follow me. What does it mean to be surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? I think it means that to be surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

is to want to be surrendered to the authority of Christ in all things. It is to say that I willfully want to spend my life telling my pride no, giving of all that I have for his agendas, loving others at great cost to myself, forgiving fast and seeking forgiveness faster, repenting always, and being wholly aware of my complete obedience, my complete dependence on His grace for all things. Ultimately, it means I want what he wants. And when I don't want, I will deny myself and I will go with what he wants. This is what it means to be surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and that I believe in my heart that he has earned the right,

that through the cross of Jesus Christ, God both proved his love for me and provided a way for me to enjoy him forever. By faith, I look at Jesus and believe that I will follow him at whatever cost to whatever length and say no to my pride as many times as I have to, a thousand times a day, in order to enjoy God forever, because I believe by faith that whatever he has for me is better than anything I could muster on my own.

This is what it means to be surrendered to. the Lordship of Jesus Christ and then James ends with this. It says humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. And so we look into the throne room of God and we look at the face of Jesus

and we ask God to give us the grace to see Jesus as supremely beautiful. And we ask God to give us the grace to see Christ's agendas and Christ's priorities as more important than ours and that we would choose to serve him and be

humble before him and willfully and joyfully follow him because he is better. Jesus is just better. And when we taste that and we see it, God begins to birth in us humility and he cultivates it and he grows it through the power and the work of the Holy Spirit. Through faith in Christ, when James 410 says that he will exalt you, what it doesn't mean is that if we pray the right prayer, we do the right things or say the right things, that we get cash and prizes in life. That's not what it means that he will exalt us.

What it means is that he has seated us in Christ and where Christ is, we will dwell forever. And we know that Christ is at the right hand of the Father. And then when God looks at us, he no longer sees sinners soaked in pride and this great chasm between us, but he sees saints soaked in blood and closed in the righteousness of Christ. This is the promise of God through Jesus. and how do we humble ourselves and find ourselves exalted in the seat by God's work, by God's grace through the person of Jesus Christ and Christ alone? So we have much to be thankful for today.

No question that Jesus has smashed the idol of pride on our behalf for all of eternity. And that every day, by willfully submitting to him, he can help us overcome the pride that would rise up and create in us, dysfunction and resistance. And by God's grace, we can be free people. So I want to close a little differently. I want to close differently than maybe we have ever. So at all of our campuses here at Bay Meadows and at Mandarin,

if you will just stand where you are, I'm going to pray a blessing over us. And as you stand, just go ahead and close your eyes, all of our locations, all of our campuses. Let's close our eyes and let's focus our hearts and center our attention and affection on Jesus, who is supremely beautiful, and who has smashed the idol of pride

in our lives and we would ask him to give us the grace to lay down our pride every day all day over and over again. I want to pray this over you and so with your eyes closed in all of our locations if you will just hold your hands out in front of you as though to receive a blessing. Sometimes we raise our hands in worship, sometimes we clap and ultimately what we're trying to do is to get our bodies in the position that we want our hearts to be. So I would deeply desire that your heart would be in the position to

receive this blessing as I pray, Colossians 3 over our church. Colossians 3 says this. The Church of 1122, if then by faith you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. God, would you give us eyes to look up? Would you help us to take our eyes off of ourselves and off of our agendas and off of us as primary? And would you give us the ability to look to you where you are? us the heart and the desire to seek things that are above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, Colossian says, set your mind on things above. Lord, would you please help us to take our minds off the things of this world

and to put our minds on you? Would you take away the rat race and the addictions that we have to progress and would you help us to seek your word and to seek your face and to make ourselves servants and to give of ourselves with. joy in our hearts so that your name could be made much of in our city. We know that Jesus, you have died, and because you died for us, our life is hidden in you. And we thank you for that. God, more than anything that we could do, we want to say thank you for Jesus. He truly is our only hope. Thank you that he came and lived the life we could not live and died the death,

marked for us so that we could spend eternity with you. We could be beloved and we could be adorned and we could be treasured. Father, I pray that you would help every man, woman, boy and girl here today, to know that you have a better plan for them and that they are your treasure, that you laid everything down to come and get. Would they be stirred in their hearts and overcome? Would you overcome our pride with your love, Father? Lord, we love you, and we glorify you, and we thank you

that you would be so good to us to oppose anything in us that would resist you or rebel against you. And we say all these things by the power of the blood of Jesus. And all God's people said, amen.