Sermon Title: "Seven Deadly Sins: Pride" Part 1 of 7
Author's Name: Rev. Alex Knight
"Jesus told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this. "Oh God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, crooks, adulterers or heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income." Meanwhile, the tax man slumped in the shadows. His face in his hands, not daring to look up and said, "God give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner." Jesus commented. This tax man, not the other, went home, made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you are going to end up flat on your face. But, if you are content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."Luke 18: 9-15
There was a man who seemed to have the Midas touch in business. Everything that he touched turned to success. He was active in his community and active in his church. One day he walked into his pastor's office. He just looked as the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He confessed to his pastor that he had become involved with a woman in his office and his wife had become aware of it and confronted him. The pastor and the man talked for a while and the pastor recommended that he seek long term counseling, which he did. For several months he was going to a counselor every week. It seemed as things were getting better with his family, but with this man, it just seemed like he was in a rut. He wasn't getting any better and he came back and he talked to his pastor again. He explained to his pastor all that had been happening, . . . how he tried to mend fences and to apologize appropriately to people and to own up to the mistake that he had made. His pastor said "Maybe that's the problem. You keep thinking that you made a mistake, like an arithmetic error." He asked, "Have you accepted the fact that what you did was sin against God and sin against your wife and sin against your family and sin against your church and sin against your community?"
The man was a little defensive to be thus confronted. But he thought about it for a moment and realized the truth. He had been treating his adultery like he has just made a mistake, . . . it was like a bad business deal and he hadn't accepted how he had turned his back on Jesus Christ and on his family. That day he got down on his knees and he offered a prayer of confession to God and he received the forgiveness of God. He also received courage to go home and truly confess to his wife with deep brokenness and recognition of the gravity of what he had done.
Centuries ago, the church recognized the devastation of sin in the lives of people. The church recognized that they needed to warn the people of the dangers of sin. Dangers that we need to be aware of because these sins will separate us from God and they will cause destruction in our families and in our churches and in our homes. The church came up with a list known as the Seven Deadly Sins -- Pride; Envy; Anger; Sloth; Greed; Gluttony and Lust. They are deadly, are they not? You can see what had happened to this man that I talked about and how it brought destruction into his family. Only in the recognition of sin for what it is was he able to receive the forgiveness from God and to be restored to his family and restored in a relationship with God.
If you are to pick out one of these seven deadly sins, that is the great sin, the most insidious sin, it's the sin of pride. Jesus points that out in the text that I read this morning.
It's hard to understand that story. We have to confess that up front because we have all been prejudiced if we have been in the church. We are prejudiced against Pharisees. They were the enemies of God and the enemies of Jesus and the ones that brought about His death. So, you say "Pharisee" and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Tax collectors? We have maligned them as much as we have the Pharisees. The tax collectors were Jews themselves, but they turned against their own countrymen and they corroborated with the Romans who had conquered Israel. They were extorting taxes far and above what the Romans required and they were getting rich. They had the full force and the authority of the Roman army behind them and they were despised by everybody. The story seems as it's the lesser of two evils that come to church one day. Jesus says that this tax collector, of all people, has been made right with God. They both were bad, how could either one of them be made right with God?
The Pharisees prayed continually throughout the day. They had an awareness about them that God created the world, they did not create it and they believed that they should bend their knee to God and subject themselves to the authority of God. They believed in it so much that they tithed all of their income. They were so intent about prayer that two days a week, they would fast, which meant they ate nothing, - - - they would drink water and that would be it. Instead of eating, they would take that normal time when you would relax and enjoy fellowship and friendship at a meal, they would take that time to get on their knees and pray. They were devout people, they knew the law of God and they practiced the law of God in their lives. Yet Jesus says, this despicable traitor was justified before God and the Pharisee was not. I wonder why? Part of the reason is the Pharisee never asked for anything. The tax collector said, "God have mercy on me." The Pharisee just prayed, "God, I thank you I'm doing okay. I'm following all your rules and I'm not like these nasty people, these adulterers or these robbers or the tax collector." He just made the statement. It was kind of a praise offering, "Thank you God", but, he didn't ask anything from God. "Ask not you receive not," is not that what the Bible says? The tax collector said, "God have mercy on me."
What other reason can we see, for why the Pharisee was not justified? Well, one of the things Jesus tries to show us, over and over and over again is that God is interested in us from the inside out. He wants to change our heart. He wants to transform us from the inside out. He is not as concerned about the external things as we are. The things that we do that everybody can see. God is concerned about the heart that only He sees. This Pharisee was concerned about all the external things and he put his pride in doing all the right things. Ultimately though, his sin was like the original sin - - - trying to become like God! Isn't that what the Pharisee had become in his own prayer. He substituted himself for God, he looked down at his own life and pronounced that he was righteous. God is the righteous judge. I am not, and you are not. I can't judge you and you can't judge me, God judges all of us. This Pharisee stood in judgment, not only of the tax collector, not only of people he thought had committed sins, but he stood in judgment of himself and pronounced himself righteous. The scriptures tell us that God created mankind. He created all of us in His image. The sin of pride tries to create God in our image because we think we are like God. Pride says somehow we are inherently better than other people. In pride we become God, and judge ourselves, and other people, by some sort of a moral standard or by their performance. This thing called pride is so insidious, it's so destructive. That's why the church wanted to warn the people about pride because once it takes hold of you, once it gets in a little bit, it begins to take over.
This man I mentioned earlier, said to his pastor, "I knew there is a law against adultery, I guess I just didn't think it applied to me." How blind we can become when pride and other sins begin to work their way in our lives and no longer can we see clearly. God offers us His vision, He offers us the mind of Christ, but when we let sin get a foothold in our life, our vision becomes blurry and we cannot see. It causes us to begin to trust in ourselves, just as the Pharisee trusted in himself. It was his fasting that he thought made him righteous. It was his prayers that he thought made him righteous. He lost sight that it was the grace of God, - - - God choosing to love us and to accept us - - - that makes us righteous.
This man said to his pastor, "I knew there is a law against adultery, I guess I just didn't think it applied to me."
There was a church in this town some years ago that begin to do right well. They had a small sanctuary but it got to filling up on Sunday mornings for both services. They build a new church and within a month it was full. At one of their first services in their new building the people that led the service strutted like peacocks. They said "God is here with us, isn't it good we have God with us!" as though God would not dare visit another church. Within two years the pastor and the senior pastor were both caught having sexual affairs with women in the congregation and they had to replace the whole leadership of the church.
(Prov 16:18 NRSV) "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
I have a good friend who was a pastor in another denomination. He moved to a bigger church and it was not long when word came that he had become involved in an affair with a woman. By the grace of God, they were able to put their family back together again and find healing and restoration. I asked him, "What do you think caused that to happen in your life?" Without hesitation he said, "Pride goes before destruction." He talked about what it was like to go in his church with hundreds of people waiting to hear what he had to say. Pride began to swell up in his heart. Pride goes before the fall and pride leads to destruction because it makes us become like God. We begin to judge ourselves, we begin to judge other people. There was a man one time that prayed and searched God, trying to find God's heart and said "Oh God, I just want to give up everything for you". Little by little, he examined his life and he began to trust God and he gave up all that he had. One day he stood before God and with empty hands said, "God, I just stand before you with these empty hands." God spoke to him and said, "Give me those as well." He had given up everything, but then taken pride that he had given up everything.
We want to be careful that we do not begin to judge ourselves as though there would be no sin in our life. We need to understand that when Christ died for our sins, He died for all of our sins and it was necessary that He make a sacrifice for all of our sins, not just some of our sins. Pride makes us think the opposite and we judge ourselves and come to the conclusion that we are without sin and we do not stand in need of forgiveness.
A New Testament scholar, William Barclay tells a story about a judge in England that was an active member of church. His church started a mission church in a rural area. It became their custom that once a year, around Christmas time, the whole congregation of this small mission church would come and worship with the downtown church. One time an associate of the judge was sitting with the judge in the congregation. When the service was over, he pointed out to the judge that he had observed that when it came time for the judge to take communion, the man kneeling next to him, next to the judge at the altar, was a member from this rural mission church. The associate knew that the man had been a convicted robber and the judge sent him to prison. In prison the man had accepted Christ and when he got out of prison he started attending the mission church. The associate of the judge was saying, "Isn't it a miracle what God has done in that man's life." The judge replied, "That may be so, but it's a greater miracle what God has done in my life." His associate looked at him and could not understand what he meant. The judge went on to say, "I was raised in a fine home. I never went without anything, I had the finest education that could be provided and I think it's a greater miracle that God could get through to me and show me that I stood in need of a savior as much as that robber."
Folks, that's the attitude the heart that God is looking for in us. A recognition that we all stand in need of the savior. When we hold onto that truth, then we guard out lives against the sin of pride.
We sang a little chorus to begin this service, and I want to sing it now before we share communion. I want you to listen in your heart, to the words of that little chorus:
"As the deer panteth for the water,
so my soul longs after thee.
You alone are my hearts desire
and I long to worship thee.
You alone are my strength, my shield
and to you alone may my spirit yield.
You alone are my heart's desire
and I long to worship thee."Dear friends when we make this our prayer to God,. . . "may you alone be what my spirit and my soul responds to. That you are my life, you are my all in all and I trust you for my salvation, I trust you for my life" . . . when that becomes our inner heart attitude the Holy Spirit is on guard in our lives, guarding us against the intrusion of the enemy, the sin of pride.
Let us sing this song together, as our closing prayer.
"As the deer panteth for the water,
so my soul longs after thee.
You alone are my hearts desire
and I long to worship thee.
You alone are my strength, my shield
and to you alone may my spirit yield.
You alone are my heart's desire
and I long to worship thee."