Pride Is Harder to Spot Than You Think

Nobody thinks they're the proud one. And that's the hardest thing about pride. Is it's the easiest in the half, but the hardest one to see. So in today's episode, I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about pride. What scripture says and why we should avoid it. You see pride, whether conscious or not, it's a decision to put your place in the self of God, rather than God being your shepherd. Look at the fruit of your life right now. If you're someone who thinks that your decisions matter the best, that you have your best interest at heart, and nobody should listen to anybody else, put yourself, look at the fruit of your life. The fruit of my life when I live for myself was decay, destruction, hopelessness, depression, anxiety. You name it and not enough self-help books gonna dug myself out of that hole I just dug myself. And so the fruit of your life, when living for yourself, is death and decay. And you know, I don't know if you hear this, but like in church, we always talk about oh, like pride was birthed in the garden. And the first time we ever see pride in scripture was at Genesis chapter three. No, no, no, no. Pride happened before the garden. Look at Isaiah chapter 14. When we look at the story of Lucifer, who was an angel created by God in glory, he said, yeah, I want to be my own God. I think I can be better than you. Pride happened before the fall. And so that's why we have to be able to recognize what pride is, because whether you're consciously or subconsciously making the decision, pride is so nasty, because you're putting yourself in the place of God and thinking that you can lead your life rather than letting the one who created you lead your life. Isn't it crazy that we think we have our own best interest at heart thinking that, oh, yeah, I know it's best for my life, because I've lived, I'm 22 years old, Bryce knows what's best for his life. Or let me go back, I'm 15, I know it's best for my life. No, no, no, no. There's something beautiful about leaning on the creator to show us that we need him. You know, pride doesn't just happen by being loud. It can happen intrusively by reaffirming beliefs that you have about yourself. By reaffirming beliefs that you have about other people. By reaffirming beliefs that you have about situations. I mean, look at people you want to apologize to because you think you're right. Look at relationships that have broken because you're like, yeah, I'm not men in it. I'm in the right. Look at people that you've hurt because you want to sit on a high horse because you're not humble enough to be wrong. You're not humble enough to receive correction. Where's the Bible would say, God corrects those whom He loves that you aren't willing to be corrected because you think true love is being right all the time. James chapter 4 verse 6 says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. I don't think you understand that your breath right now if you're living in pride, whether you see it or not, is God's grace for your life. And God doesn't want you to sit in pride. He wants you to lean on Him. The Bible says you can't have one or the other. You can't be your own God and have God. You can't serve two masters. You're gonna have a house divided against itself and that house is your heart. This body that you have as a temple of the Holy Spirit ain't split and rent with how you feel in your ego. Holy Spirit ain't split and rent with your ego. Most guys don't even think twice about what they're putting on their body every single day. You'll think about what you eat, you'll think about how you train. But then you go to the shower and you use whatever random shampoo or body wash has been sitting there for years and you never question it. I was the same way. I ended up switching to base body works and honestly it's been one of the simplest upgrades I've ever made. I've been using their shampoo and conditioner it's called the shower duo and the difference is immediate. The peppermint hits your scalp and it actually feels clean. Like genuinely clean, not stripped and your hair just feels healthier, thicker, not dried out like most of the stuff out there. And once I started seeing the difference it made me think a little bit more about the products I'd been using before. A lot of the stuff guys use daily have ingredients linked to hormone disruption things getting absorbed through your scalp every single day without even realizing it. That doesn't even sit right with me. So knowing this is a clean, no soul fates, no pair of beans, none of that stuff. It just makes it an easy choice. And I like that it's actually simple. I'm not doing some 10 step routine. I swapped what I was already using for something better. So if you're serious about taking care of yourself not just what goes into your body but what goes onto it, it's worth looking into. Go to basebodyworks.com, use code Bryce for 20% off and they'll throw in a free toilet shoe bag when you grab a set because at the end of the day confidence shouldn't come at the cost of your health. So you can either humble yourself before God or let your sin humble you. And you don't want your sin to humble you. You know why? Because pride protects itself but it really costs you real peace, real relationships, real comfort and all of these things because you aren't willing to apologize, you aren't willing to mend this relationship, you aren't willing to take correction. And so while you think pride is protecting you, it's really hurting you. Holy Spirit ain't split and rent with your heart. That's why I love the story of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel, chapter four. You see King Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man in the world. He built this in massive kingdom of Babylon. He was super powerful and he has this dream and he calls his boy Daniel. I was like, "Yo Daniel, will you come in here and like interpret this stream for me?" He's like, "All right, bet." Daniel interprets and he's like, "Yo Nebuchadnezzar, you're gonna, you better humble yourself before God or God's gonna humble you." And Nebuchadnezzar was like, "What? Get out of here, sucka." So he kicks Daniel out and then he gets prideful. God destroys him and his kingdom. And for seven years, King Nebuchadnezzar lived in the wilderness and it literally says in Daniel, chapter four, that he grew nasty toenails like an animal and grew feathers like a bird, like hair. And it wasn't until he looked to heaven that both he and his kingdom was restored. And King Nebuchadnezzar in his own words was like, "Hey, if you are living in pride, he will humble you." So if you keep reading in James and verse 10, it says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you." We don't humble ourselves because we want to be first. We humble ourselves because we are trusting that his way is better. And in humility, we receive the blessing of the Lord. We receive the correct exaltation, not exaltation that will crush you, but exaltation from the Lord. It's like we battle with pride and we battle with humility so much, but the scriptures say that Jesus didn't come to be served, but he came to serve. Look at what Paul writes in Philippians chapter two. He says, "Let each of you look, not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Consider other people when you make decisions before you say something, before you act on something, before you move here, before you do this. And he says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself 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 death on a cross. Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, who limited himself in power and in glory by entering into time and space in flesh, who had the authority to call legions of angels at the tip of his fingers when he's on the cross, decided not to for the sake of your soul, and you won't listen to your best friend, and he's like, "Yo, bro, I wouldn't do that." God isn't calling you to do something impossible. Humility isn't impossible. If the King of all kings, if the Alphanee Omega himself was able to humble himself, why can't you? If the Alphanee Omega, who had no flaw in him, was able to be spit on for crimes he didn't commit, why can't you own up to your own mistakes? It is the grace of God in his love that fuels us to humility. Your life and your decisions ain't getting you anywhere. Lean on the good shepherd. He has your best interest in heart. He has everything that he wants best for your life on the forefront of his mind. You are the apple of his eye. Listen to him. Pride is so nasty, and it will deceive you, and pride isn't thinking less of yourself than a emotional state. It's just realizing that you don't matter most. Pride is a glorified and the greatest form of idolatry by thinking you are the pinnacle, point, and apple of everything. Let me tell you something, newsflash, you're not. I'm not important. You're not important. The one who matters most is Jesus himself. And so I want to pray for you. If you know you're struggling with pride that you receive freedom, and if you don't, God will reveal it in your heart. But remember, this isn't a head issue. Pride is not a head issue. It's a hard issue. I can have a sheet of 100 reasons why you're prideful. And if you're prideful, you ain't go listen. 'Cause you're prideful. You think you're the best. But that's why we need to pray for God to soften our heart. God revealed to us the areas of our life that are causing us to fall into pride. Show us where we are and God, would you give us a humility and strength to not be prideful? Because if we can understand that pride arguably is the one sin that leads to every other sin, if we can get a grip on humility, then we'll trust in Jesus more. We'll see real fruit in our lives and we'll experience real freedom. Lord Jesus, we thank you. Lord, we understand that pride is so nasty. We understand that from the get-go, from being born, that we've been so prideful. God, would you show us freedom? Would you show us love? Would you show us truth? God, would you give us humility in our hearts? Soften our hearts to receive correction from you, from wise counsel, from friends. And Lord, would you love overflows in the areas where we've been wrong, where we can experience your grace [BLANK_AUDIO] freedom and know that even though we've made mistakes, even though we've been prideful, even though we've tried to sit on the throne of our own heart. God, that you are the way, that you have our best interest in our heart. God, we love you. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.