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Intro: Kickboxing Video. My Carpet Ball victory dance story.
Need: We all struggle with pride! I struggle with pride. I have no business preaching this message. I’m a prideful man. Here’s how you know if you struggle with pride… Are you a prideful person? If you say yes, you admit it. If you say no, then you’re prideful about your humility!
Truth: Everyone on earth struggles with the sickest sin of all: PRIDE.
OT: Obadiah 1:1. Who are the characters in this historical drama?
Obadiah is God’s prophet to God’s people to deliver God’s message. Edom is the nation of Esau. Israel is the nation from Jacob. Jacob and Esau were two sons of Isaac who’s descendants were forever in conflict because Jacob (the younger brother) deceived his dad and took Esau’s (the older brother) birthright. Jacob and his line got the covenant blessing. Could you imagine this happening to you? How would you handle it? You’d be ticked! God chose Jacob out of His grace. Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Why not Esau? It wasn’t because Esau would have done a horrible job with the covenant position, but God was showing us what grace was all about. Esau should have accepted God’s grace in Jacob’s life rather than fight against him. Esau showed pride. Jacob showed pride. Everyone messed up! My own family brotherhood hatred.
Obadiah 1:2-4. God explains that pride is the reason He’ll judge Edom.
2 – God is obviously ticked because He’s ready to wipe out Edom.
3 – What have they done? Their sin is pride! Pride is a deceiver. Pride comes from The Deceiver. Satan is the ultimate prideful being! 1 Timothy 3 says that Satan’s original sin was pride. What happened? The Bible doesn’t tell us a whole lot about it, but here’s what I think. Satan knew that God was going to give all the glory to Jesus, His Son. Satan wanted to steal that glory, so he deceived Adam and Eve with PRIDE. God then casted Satan out. Satan’s main weapon of warfare on us toward God is our pride!
Video: Ping Pong. Our pride is absolutely hilarious and meaningless to God!
So what is pride? Pride is when you put yourself before God. Pride is not just being cocky, arrogant, or conceited. Biblical pride is focusing on yourself rather than God. What is humility? Humility is not feeling sorry for yourself or feeling pity for yourself. Humility isn’t a focus on yourself at all. Humility is a focus on Jesus because He is everything and we are nothing!
3 – 4 Edom had a secure dwelling. They were safe and seemed untouchable. They had nothing to fear. Nothing could bring them down. Nothing could stop them. They felt like they were just soaring through life. They were like an eagle who nested in the stars. But God is saying that from the stars will they be brought down. The higher you are, the harder you will fall! Pride comes before the fall (Proverbs 16:18). God is saying that He will judge them. They may feel impenetrable now, but He will bring them down when their time comes. They should not be deceived. They are not untouchable.
What about you? Are you prideful? That is a trick question! If you answer no, then you are very deceived, and you are more prideful than everyone else. If you answer yes, then you admit it…and that’s good.
Pride can come in many forms. Pride can be cocky, arrogant, bragging, and conceited people. Pride can be when you think you are awesome, better than everyone else around. Pride can be insecurity. You try to make yourself seem better to everyone else because you’re afraid that everyone else doesn’t see it in you. Pride can come in ways of shyness, quietness, depressiveness, and feeling so meaningless and worthless. The problem is, that is still a focus on yourself rather than on God Himself.
How can you spot if you are prideful? You are prideful if you rarely pray. Like Edom, you’re saying you can make it on your own and you don’t need God. You’re prideful if you spend little time in God’s Word. You’re smart enough, you’re getting better counsel elsewhere, and you don’t need God telling you what to do. You’re prideful if you talk about yourself a lot, if you look down on others, if you’re bragging about your accomplishments, if you hate it when other people brag because it makes you look bad, if you’re not happy when something good happens to others, if you have enemies, if you have people that you hate, if you think about how worthless and horrible you are, if you want to be the center of attention, if you don’t laugh at other people’s jokes, if you won’t let others talk, if you have to be the funniest, if you have to be the smartest, if you’re not kind to EVERYONE around you, if you put others down, if you take care of all your needs rather than take care of others. We are all incredibly self-centered and prideful people who need to be focused on God and not us! Do you confess your sin to God on a regular basis? Do you confess your sin to others and when you’re wrong and ask for forgiveness? Can you laugh at yourself when you make a mistake or do something dumb…when everyone else is laughing? Do you take yourself to seriously? Are you constantly fighting for your honor and respect from others?
You can be prideful about your intellect, your education, your family, your home, your car, your money and stuff, your humor, your personality, your spirituality, your holiness, your legalism, your independence, your looks, your attraction, your way with the ladies, your way with the fellas, your abundance of friends, and so on.
Story: My own pride about leading my first business meeting…with my fly down!
Obadiah 1:5-9. If you live your life by pride, people do not really love you and God will ultimately destroy you. This had not happened yet, but God is talking about it as though it is a done deal. Do you think you are wise and understanding apart from God? Do you think you’re smart and that you have life by the horns? Do you think you can make it and live life to the fullest? Do you think you’re mighty, strong, powerful, and good enough? God will humble you! Just pray that He does it before its too late! God says that He will have mercy on those who mourn. Those who come to Him humbly. If you’re prideful, people or God won’t be there for you in your time of need.
Story: Little girl who hits tetherball and it smacks her in the back of the head.
Obadiah 1:10-14. Pride is when take care of yourself and not others.
Edom took advantage of Israel’s misfortune rather than taking care of them. You might ask, “But wasn’t God the one who was judging them? Why would He care if they pillaged Israel in this time of their judgment?” God says, “Vengeance is mine. I will repay.” God has the right to judge, we don’t! We need to take care of our brothers and sisters. We need to make sure that we provide for each other’s needs. This is what being the church is all about. We give to each other. We sacrifice for each other. We help each other out! We must be this kind of student ministry! This is why we have small groups. This is why we have mission trips. This is why we do mission afternoons during DNOW. This is why we do SMT’s. Its not about us. Its about Jesus!
Obadiah 1:15-18. When God will humble everyone on earth!
The Day of the Lord is the day that God will humble Edom. God will repay. You may feel safe now. You may not feel like God is against you now. But that day is coming. Jesus is coming back. Revelation 19 says that He’s coming back with eyes flaming with fire, with fiery angels, with crowns representing His ruling power, with a robe dipped in blood, with tatts saying He’s the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He will judge the prideful and He will deliver the humble. Jesus (the Israelite) will burn up His enemies.
Obadiah 1:19-21. The humble will rule in God’s Kingdom forever.
We will be glorified. We will rule and reign with Jesus. We will inherit and possess the entire universe. It is our inheritance. We will be lifted up and exalted in high positions. But we will not be prideful. We will do all this in humility because we will be perfected, and all of our glory, our worship, our honor, and our service will go to Jesus!
PWR: Jesus is our example of humility as a human being. Jesus was humbly obedient to His Father all the way to the cross for us. Talk about humility! He died for His enemies!
NT: Philippians 2. Put Jesus before yourself.
Jesus put us before Himself. Jesus put His Father before Himself.
Don’t ever brag on yourself. Brag on God!
Challenge: Humble yourself before God by putting Jesus first, others second, and you last.
Life: Ways to humble yourself before God:
Be with God’s people…the church. You need a Christian community!
Confess your sin, failures, mistakes, and weaknesses to God. Be humble!
Listen to God in Word. Grow in His wisdom, His understanding, His power.
Confess your sin, failures, mistakes, and offenses to others. Say you’re wrong
Laugh when others tell a joke…even if its not funny.
Listen to others, and don’t just talk.
Don’t be the center of attention, but let others talk.
Be kind and serve others. Truly sacrifice for them.
Befriend people who are not like you, so that you can love others.
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