This is the manuscript of the first sermon in the "7 Deadly Sins" series.
I am starting a series to talk about something we don't talk about much in church today. We are going to talk about sin. We love to talk about the blessings that come with being a child of God, but we don't talk about the reason that God had to send His Son to die so that we would be able to receive those blessings. The reason He had to send His Son was sin.
We often hear people talk about “The Seven Deadly Sins” like there is a list in the Bible. However, there is no list of seven deadly sins in the Bible. The Bible says that the penalty for all sin is death.
The list of the seven deadly sins were first compiled by Pope Gregory I around the year 600 AD. Pope Gregory divided all sins under seven headings because he believed that every sin a person commits can be classified under one of these seven categories. These categories are what has come to be called “the seven deadly sins.”
They are;
Pride
Anger (Wrath)
Envy
Impurity (Lust)
Gluttony (Lack of Self-Restraint)
Slothfulness (Laziness)
Avarice (Greed)
These seven sins are inward attitudes that affect character as well as conduct. Although these sins are never listed together in any single passage, they are continually condemned in Scripture.
We’re going to start the series. today with the sin of pride because all other sins grow out of this one.
Proverbs 16:18 NIV Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:5 NIV The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 29:23 NIV Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor.
Scripture:
James 4:3-11 NIV When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
Introduction
I am starting a series to talk about something we don't talk about much in church today. We are going to talk about sin. We love to talk about the blessings that come with being a child of God, but we don't talk about the reason that God had to send His Son to die so that we would be able to receive those blessings. The reason He had to send His Son was sin.
So, the series for the next eight weeks is “The Seven Deadly Sins.” Today and for the next six Sundays, we will look at each sin separately. Then we are going to end on the eighth Sunday with “Jesus the Deliverer from Sin”, because we know that through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be delivered from all sin.
We often hear people talk about “The Seven Deadly Sins” like there is a list in the Bible. Well guess what there is no list of seven deadly sins in the Bible. Actually, the Bible says that the penalty for all sin is death.
Romans 3:23 NIV for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 NIV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The list of the seven deadly sins were first compiled by Pope Gregory I around the year 600 AD. Pope Gregory divided all sins under seven headings because he believed that every sin a person commits can be classified under one of these seven categories. These categories are what has come to be called “the seven deadly sins.”
They are;
Pride
Anger (Wrath)
Envy
Impurity (Lust)
Gluttony (Lack of Self-Restraint)
Slothfulness (Laziness)
Avarice (Greed)
These seven sins are inward attitudes that affect character as well as conduct. Although these sins are never listed together in any single passage, they are continually condemned in Scripture.
We’re going to start the series. today with the sin of pride. Pope Gregory put this sin at the beginning of the list because he believed that all other sins grow out of this one.
Our Text today is three verses from the book of Proverbs. Each one of these verses makes a point
Text:
Proverbs 16:18 NIV Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:5 NIV The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 29:23 NIV Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor.
I know that I gave you these verses are out of order but there is a reason I did this.
I. I started with Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall”; because pride is often the source of all our troubles.
A. Synonyms for pride are arrogance, haughtiness, insolence, contempt, snobbery, presumptuousness, rudeness, sassiness, audacity, disdain, and impudence.
Actually, the list could be longer, but such an endless listing would serve no purpose beyond that which has already been made and that is that pride brings forth a multitude of sinful attitudes and actions.
B. Pride that is unchecked alienates us not only from God but also from other people. It may be a feeling of superiority based on racism, nationalism, intellectualism, social station, spirituality, or materialism. Regardless of its basis, excessive pride that causes us to act arrogantly before people and strut in the presence of the Almighty is a harmful detriment to anybody's future.
C. Now I realize that no one lives out their life without making mistakes. Most of us have made some serious mistakes, i know that I have. We have made the kinds of mistakes where we really need our families’ and friends’ support. But when we are filled with pride, we are often left to fend for ourselves. We have turned our friends and family off with our attitude.
II. Pride is hated by God.
Prov. 16:5 NIV says“The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished”.
A. Now let’s be clear God doesn’t hate healthy self-respect. Some Christians have the impression that it is a sin to believe in yourself, your talents, or your capabilities. These are the people who try to develop an attitude of false humility that ignores the gifts, talents or spiritual maturity that God has given them. This is a kind of “reverse” pride. They think that the more they play down their God-given abilities, the more others will heap praises on them. These people are playing at humility in order to get others to build them up with praise.
B. The pride that God hates is an arrogance. This is evident in someone who thinks more highly of themselves than they should. Believing that God has given them the wisdom to always be right is arrogance.
Let me give you a real-life example
Board meeting example
Romans 12:3-8 NIV says For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
C. The punishment of God is promised to the person who is conceited and self-inflated. Look at Prov. 16:5 NIV again “The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished”.
Like my mother used to say, “The chickens will come home to roost!”. In other words “what goes around comes around”, or what you sow you will reap.
Galatians 6:7-10 NIV Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Sooner or later there will be a day of reckoning.
2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
III. Finally pride leads to humiliation.
Prov. 29:23 NIV “Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor” .
A. Unhealthy pride is a form of self-deification. Someone once wrote, “Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility”.
Adam and Eve’s sin was one of a desire to be God—knowing the difference between good and evil.
Genesis 3:1-6 NIV Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Let’s be honest today, we have the desire to control our own destiny and that leads us to believe, falsely I might add, that we can control our own emotions, attitudes, abilities, and intellect without God’s help.
That kind of faulty reasoning has led to secular humanism, which is the belief that humanity is capable of morality and self-fulfillment without belief in God and we know that isn't true.
B. Adam and Eve died a spiritual and eventually physical death and passed it on to us because of their sin of pride. They wanted to be God.
God promises to do the same to all of us who do not accept our dependence on Him. When your dependence is on God and not your gifts or talents you don’t have to go about boasting about them. People will see it. Exceptional qualities usually find their way to the surface.
Proverbs 18:16 NKJV A man’s gift makes room for him, And brings him before great men.
People will see it. Let God promote you. You don't have to do it.
James 4:10 NIV Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Psalm 75:6-7 KJV For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, Nor from the south. But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.
Let’s read Prov. 29:23 NIV again “Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor”.
Jesus put it this way.
Matthew 5:5 NIV Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
The Greek word translated “meekness”, is praus. It was often used to express the idea of “self-control, which is one of the attributes of the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
So the verse could also be translated, “Blessed are they who are entirely self-controlled for they shall inherit the earth.”
Conclusion
We have seen today that God detests, hates, the sin of pride and brings judgment and discipline to the person who lets pride become a lifestyle. On the other hand, God rewards the person who is genuinely humble.
Proverbs 3:34 NIV He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.
Matthew 23:12 NIV For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
And from our scripture reading today
James 4:6 NIV But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
No proud person can be filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit, because a life filled with pride has no room for the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:12-17 NIV Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Those who are unwilling to be controlled by the Holy Spirit are controlled by selfish ambition, the flesh.
That's why the Lord said that we must become like little children before we enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3-4 NIV And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Children depend on their parents. As God’s children, we are dependent on him. Children don't spend a lot of time worrying about what they will eat, what they will wear, or where they will sleep. They simply assume that their needs will be met by their parents. Our heavenly Father is responsible for our care.
Prayer
God, we are far too often influenced by what others think of us. We are always pretending to be either richer or smarter or nicer than we really are. Please prevent us from trying to attract attention. Don't let us gloat over praise on one hand or be discouraged by criticism on the other. Show us how to be humble of heart, like you. In Jesus name amen
Sermon Audio
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