seven deadly sins sermon 4 anger and kindness

Special thanks to Dan Croy who gave us an incredible model and teaching on anger, which i have liberally used in this sermon. Dan you are the best. thanks for allowing us to use it.

Scripture Ephesians 4:26-32
Is it possible to be angry and not sin?
· One out of every five Americans has an anger management problem.· Anger related violence is the reason stated for 22% of the divorces in middle-class marriages.· According to FBI statistics, 28% of the homicides in the US were brought on by arguments that occurred in the home. Gang related killings accounted for only 7.6%.You have 4 times the chance of being killed by your own family than you do by gangs, all because of anger… That’s comforting to know!Everybody gets angry – Even God got angry we are created in His image. Get angry about what God gets angry about.
Anger is expressed in some manner in regards to personality.
What is source of anger?
People think events happen and then anger. Events anger

ANGER MODEL

The cause of anger is when expectations and reality don’t match up.
Expectations: needs and desires, want people to like us and accept us, early messages, plans, theological perceptions, way life should be
Reality: experience and maturity, meet people who are unlikable and find out some people won’t like us, transformations and learning, interruptions to plans, theological revelations, the way life is.

This is the moment of truth! When expectations and reality crash into each other!

The crashing of the moment of truth leads to our experiencing primary emotions. The three main ones that lead to anger are: Fear, Hurt, Frustration.

When we experience these emotions we make a Behavior Choice.
That behavior choice is either a healthy and responsible choice or an unhealthy and irresponsible choice.
Unhealthy
Express and Explode
Deny or Suppress ***Christian thing we do***Unresolved anger turns into bitterness. Bitterness is an ugly plant that will take root in your heart if you allow it. Eventually this anger gets expressed. Almost always it is expressed not towards the person who initially caused it but is expressed towards someone who we feel safe with or feel we are more powerful than. We thrash people over something stupid and little. ((Pastors, kids, church members, teachers, employees, spouses, friends, people in cars around us…))
Place Blame
Healthy
Aware and Think through it
Aware and Express the primary emotions involved.
Aware and change: reality is often different than expectations, accept it and change to match reality.
A train was filled with tired people. Most of them had spent the day traveling through the hot dusty plains and at last evening had come and they all tried to settle down to a sound sleep. However, at one end of the car a man was holding a tiny baby and as night came on the baby became restless and cried more and more. Unable to take it any longer, a big brawny man spoke for the rest of the group. "Why don’t you take that baby to its mother?" There was a moment’s pause and then came the reply. "I’m sorry. I’m doin’ my best. The baby’s mother is in her casket in the baggage car ahead." Again there was an awful silence for a moment. Then the big man who asked the cruel question was out of his seat and moved toward the man with the motherless child. He apologized for his impatience and unkind remark. He took the tiny baby in his own arms and told the tired father to get some sleep. Then in loving patience he cared for the little child all through the night.
What do you do when you realize you are angry?
((Time with shrink in Caldwell)) I am angry and miserable and until I give my life and this to Jesus I will remain so! Then why don’t you give your life to Jesus? Because I don’t want to yet!
((Fear of being powerless, fear of having to deal with the fact that life hurts and I had been one of its victims.))
What do you do? You confess the primary emotion to God and ask for His healing. You confess that you have held that pain, fear, or frustration to your own detriment. Confess… Turn it over to JESUS!
God’s Holy Spirit will meet you at the point of your greatest fear, pain, and frustration. You can be healed and made healthy! It happens at the point of surrender and asking God for healing.
God desires to transform your life making you healthy so that your behavior decisions can be healthy and free from sin. Be angry and do not sin. The result of being healthy is that Kindness/compassion/ and forgiveness begin to be our life style. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” It is a Jesus life-style.
Want to know if you are angry? Want to know if you are walking around with unresolved pains, fears, and frustrations? Ask yourself some questions:
When offended what is your initial response? Are you quick to forgive or quick to blame, attack, accuse? How do you treat people who are lower on the pecking order than you?
God is waiting to meet you to change that.

Conclusion:
The wife of a Zulu chief happened to attend a meeting of Christians & heard for the very first time in her life about Jesus. The message of a God who loves us & forgives our sins was something new & wonderful for her to consider. She had never heard of such a God before. And it wasn’t long until she became a Christian, too. When her husband learned of this he angrily forbade her, on pain of death, ever to attend a Christian meeting again. However, eager to hear more about Jesus, she dared to go, & when her husband found out what she had done he met her on the trail & beat her so savagely that he left her for dead. But it wasn’t long until curiosity got the better of him & he went back to look for her. She was not on the trail where he had left her. But he did see broken twigs & other signs to indicate where she had crawled away. Following them he finally found her lying under a bush. Cruelly, he asked, “And just what is your Jesus Christ doing for you now?” She opened her eyes, & looking at him, said gently, “He is helping me to forgive you!”

seven deadly sins sermon three envy and love

Envy: dictionary defines envy as a painful resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with the desire to possess the same advantage.
Scripture: Mark 7:20-23
Greek word for envy has two words: opthalmos and porneros. It literally means eye pornography or evil eye. If you have secretly or not so secretly enjoyed it when something bad happens to someone, you know what envy is. If you resent someone because they have things or enjoy experiences or relationships that you don’t have or enjoy—you know what envy is. If you have felt loss over someone else’s joy you know what envy is. If you have little to no gratitude for your possessions, experiences, relationships, and abilities because others have one you don’t then you know what envy is. If you struggle to be thankful when others get then you know what envy is.
The nasty thing about envy is it robs us of gratitude for the things we do possess, the experiences we do enjoy and the abilities we have. Most of the other deadly sins, at least initially provide some kind of pleasure. For a moment, the proud feel happy about their supposed superiority. The angry can feel righteous in their indignation. The gluttonous certainly derive pleasure from food as do the lustful from their lust. But the envious person feels no pleasure he only feels a sense of deprivation, of loss, of nothingness, of self-torment, of being imprisoned by his own apparently pitiful life.
Envy says, “It is not enough to want what you have, but I must despise/hate/and wish for bad things to come to you for having something I don’t have.” Envy is a feeling in the heart that says you’re terrible you have something I don’t have or may not ever have. It turns into an emotion of despise, which changes into the sin of hate and then a desire for you to suffer loss of what you have, whether I will ever get it doesn’t matter. Since you have it and I don’t you’re to be hated and in turn I must wish for something bad to come to you.
One man said envy is the sin no one confesses. Any doubt why
Os Guiness says envy has several common characteristics:
Envy is the vice of proximity.
Envy is highly subjective. (It is the subjective perception that causes us problems.)
Envy doesn’t lessen with age. It gets worse, as we run into more people of happiness and success, offering more fodder for envy.
Envy is often petty but always insatiable and all consuming. No matter how small the occasion that gives rise to envy, envy becomes central to the envier’s whole being. Envy begins with pride and plunges the person into hatred.
Envy is always self-destructive. The envier’s motto is “if not me, then no one.” What the envier cannot enjoy then no one should enjoy, and thus the envier loses every enjoyment.
Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Envy if continued in our lives will lead us to be damned. If you practice such things you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Not my words, His. Practice: Habitual practice not lapses. Have someone you wish bad things happen to? Have a person that you despise because their life seems far more charmed than yours? Missing thankfulness for what you have, experienced, can do or are? If you continue to practice such things…
It is not a pretty sight. But there is hope.
Titus 3:3-7 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
The opposite of envy is love. This is what Titus is telling us is that you can live in love because of who God is and what God has done.
This is the love God gives. We possess no quality attractive to God and have nothing to give that God requires, including our worship. The vain and silly notion is sometimes put forward that God has need of our worship and praise, but this makes no sense if we take God to be the Creator of all and utterly complete in Himself. God loves us because we exist, and we exist because He loves us. This is not a circular argument: it is not an argument at all. God is love, and so He created us so we might be loved. He gave us free will so we could love others in the way He does. It is nothing less than astonishing that we can love as God loves; it is equally astonishing that we have consistently refused to do so.
To love as God loves is to love without reason, without thought of return, without bound. It is to desire the best for others, but not to decide what is best for them. It is to desire happiness for others without necessarily knowing what will make them happy. It means helping others reach their potential, but not running their lives. It means being involved in others' lives while keeping our own self interest out of it, being willing to suffer great loss rather than use the other person for our own benefit.
Jesus gave us the perfect example, saving a world he could not live in for long. He did not seek his own private happiness in this life, but gave everything he had for our benefit, taking nothing from us during his life and dying utterly abandoned.
Quite possibly there is no greater danger to love than the pretenders of romance, affection, infatuation, lust or duty. Love is made to excuse many sins, and ignoble motives are often buried under protestations of love. To love perfectly is to be a bit colder in some respects, not relying on emotion but on resolution. Love is not a feeling, it is a decision. In deciding to love, we have the full power of God's Grace in us, for He always supports love and gives us the ability to channel it. In fact, it is never we who love, but rather we become channels of God's love, floodgates of love from Heaven, letting God love through us. This is the highest calling possible, and completely possible for every human being.
Galatians 5:16, 22, 23

If you want to overcome the sin of envy and enjoy the freedom
of God turn your life over to the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit offers to us is a life of freedom to be all God wants and the power to do it.
If you struggle with envy or any other sin in your life, God wants to pour out the Holy Spirit on you richly that you may live in His grace, love with His love and be all God desires. The problem is not a change and control of your attitude. The problem is a spiritual problem and requires a spiritual solution. Why not allow the Holy Spirit to make the difference in your life so you can be changed?

seven deadly sins sermon two greed and generosity

1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19
Greed = an overwhelming desire to have more of something than is actually needed. (Fax)
Greed is the problem everyone else we know struggles with.
1 Tim 6:9-10, Greed causes our life boat to sink.
Why?
Greed is our statement to God that He is not enough and has not blessed us enough. We’re saying God You don’t know what we need, when we need it or how we will need it. In other words God I believe you are either, incapable or unwilling to care for me.
Greed is a blatant affront to God.
Scripture says we can fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge us into ruin and destruction. The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil
And some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Greed attacks faith, it makes God into something He is not.
But does greed have to be solely for money?
Obviously we all know someone and have experienced greed in our own lives for money and stuff.
It is what has caused the gambling industry to flourish. (Pastor visiting the Elko church)
Kid was hooked, $1 can turn into $500 instantly.
Can you be greedy with your time? Relationships? Power/Influence?
What would it look like?
Greedy with our time = no time for service, no time to help. (Other people’s needs are intrusions into our lives.)
Greedy with relationship: we have seen it the person who can’t let the other out of their sight. They have to be together all the time. If the other person has a chance to do something without the other it crushes them. The friend can’t be all God’s called them to be because they have to spend all of their time with the greedy one.
Greed of Power/Influence = use of power/influence for our own good. Work the crowd and others so we can get our way! (Emotional Terrorist is the one who goes around and builds a case against you with others behind your back using influence for their benefit and when they are confronted they use their new gained influence through the lies, innuendos, divisive speech and the like in an attempt to beat you down.)
Greed itself is not the motivator.
Fear is the motivator of Greed: Fear says if you acquire enough then you will be safe from want. There is no amount that is enough. Fear says you have to get all you can because you can’t trust God.
Fear says you don’t give up your time because once you give some you’ll be asked for more people are never satisfied especially pastors.
Fear says you can’t let the other person become all God wants or do what they need they may outgrow you or find someone or something else that’s better.
Fear says you have to maintain your power/influence you could become helpless and lose control of the situation. If you don’t hold all the cards then something you don’t want to happen could!
Result of greed is this:
Slavery!
Anything we allow greed to drive us towards owns us. Interesting how the owner changes. You’re owned by what you desire. What you most want controls you. ($, Time, Relationships, Power) You will do whatever it takes to get and keep these. They own you.
Makes you wonder if you ever really are the owner. Maybe we are the managers and the owner is God or stuff? (Matthew 6:24 2 masters)
What do you do? How do you deal with it?
1st Confess the problem!
2nd Repent of greed and replace it with trust in God.
Repenting means you change directions. It requires real actions.
What is the real action that changes the direction of Greed?
Generosity is the real statement of trust in God. Generosity says God You’ve provided all of it I am your manager use it how You want.
Greed holds everything this way.
Generosity holds everything this way.
Generosity with $ (Some teenage girls who loved God started a do without club in order to raise money for missions. They would go without something they enjoyed to fund missions. All were from rich families and found ways to contribute easily. One poor little girl Margie found it difficult. One day she knelt by her bed and asked the Lord to show here something she could do without. As she prayed, her pet spaniel licked her face. She remembered that the neighbor had offered to buy him. The tears came as she exclaimed, “Oh bright, I can’t think of parting with you!” then she thought of the words, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.” I’ll do it she said. Going next door she sold the dog for $50. Even though she missed her pet she was still happy because she had been able to put all the money into the mission fund. The neighbor was pleased with the dog, but he wondered if a pressing need had caused the girl to part with him, so he went over. When he heard her story, he went home deep in thought. In his life of abundance he had never denied himself anything. The next morning Margie found the dog scratching at the door. This note was fastened to his collar: Your practical Christianity has done more for me than any sermon I’ve ever heard. Last night I offered what’s left of my wasted life to God. I’d like to join your club, and begin by doing without Bright.)
Generosity with Time (Miguel DelGado / She didn’t give up)
Generosity with Relationships: (Places and keeps Jesus in the center of the relationship. He is the focus of the relationship and His desire for the other person is now our desire for them as well.)
Generosity with Power/Influence: We are generous with our power and influence when we stop trying to control everything and everyone. We’re generous as we grant power to others and are submissive, and avoid jobs that are a temptation to power grab and as we share credit with others and claim our fair share of responsibility for failures.
Conclusion:
A.W. Tozer said: As base a thing as money often is, it yet can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor; it can keep a missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality!
Let’s make this all practical now. Ushers are going to come forward. Been struggling with greed? Time to break it’s hold on your life by confession and the resulting action of generosity. (Alabaster offering as well.)
Generosity with time, relationships and influence (1 of a 1000). Service opportunities.

seven deadly sins sermon two greed and generosity

1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19
Greed = an overwhelming desire to have more of something than is actually needed. (Fax)
Greed is the problem everyone else we know struggles with.
1 Tim 6:9-10, Greed causes our life boat to sink.
Why?
Greed is our statement to God that He is not enough and has not blessed us enough. We’re saying God You don’t know what we need, when we need it or how we will need it. In other words God I believe you are either, incapable or unwilling to care for me.
Greed is a blatant affront to God.
Scripture says we can fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge us into ruin and destruction. The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil
And some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Greed attacks faith, it makes God into something He is not.
But does greed have to be solely for money?
Obviously we all know someone and have experienced greed in our own lives for money and stuff.
It is what has caused the gambling industry to flourish. (Pastor visiting the Elko church)
Kid was hooked, $1 can turn into $500 instantly.
Can you be greedy with your time? Relationships? Power/Influence?
What would it look like?
Greedy with our time = no time for service, no time to help. (Other people’s needs are intrusions into our lives.)
Greedy with relationship: we have seen it the person who can’t let the other out of their sight. They have to be together all the time. If the other person has a chance to do something without the other it crushes them. The friend can’t be all God’s called them to be because they have to spend all of their time with the greedy one.
Greed of Power/Influence = use of power/influence for our own good. Work the crowd and others so we can get our way! (Emotional Terrorist is the one who goes around and builds a case against you with others behind your back using influence for their benefit and when they are confronted they use their new gained influence through the lies, innuendos, divisive speech and the like in an attempt to beat you down.)
Greed itself is not the motivator.
Fear is the motivator of Greed: Fear says if you acquire enough then you will be safe from want. There is no amount that is enough. Fear says you have to get all you can because you can’t trust God.
Fear says you don’t give up your time because once you give some you’ll be asked for more people are never satisfied especially pastors.
Fear says you can’t let the other person become all God wants or do what they need they may outgrow you or find someone or something else that’s better.
Fear says you have to maintain your power/influence you could become helpless and lose control of the situation. If you don’t hold all the cards then something you don’t want to happen could!
Result of greed is this:
Slavery!
Anything we allow greed to drive us towards owns us. Interesting how the owner changes. You’re owned by what you desire. What you most want controls you. ($, Time, Relationships, Power) You will do whatever it takes to get and keep these. They own you.
Makes you wonder if you ever really are the owner. Maybe we are the managers and the owner is God or stuff? (Matthew 6:24 2 masters)
What do you do? How do you deal with it?
1st Confess the problem!
2nd Repent of greed and replace it with trust in God.
Repenting means you change directions. It requires real actions.
What is the real action that changes the direction of Greed?
Generosity is the real statement of trust in God. Generosity says God You’ve provided all of it I am your manager use it how You want.
Greed holds everything this way.
Generosity holds everything this way.
Generosity with $ (Some teenage girls who loved God started a do without club in order to raise money for missions. They would go without something they enjoyed to fund missions. All were from rich families and found ways to contribute easily. One poor little girl Margie found it difficult. One day she knelt by her bed and asked the Lord to show here something she could do without. As she prayed, her pet spaniel licked her face. She remembered that the neighbor had offered to buy him. The tears came as she exclaimed, “Oh bright, I can’t think of parting with you!” then she thought of the words, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.” I’ll do it she said. Going next door she sold the dog for $50. Even though she missed her pet she was still happy because she had been able to put all the money into the mission fund. The neighbor was pleased with the dog, but he wondered if a pressing need had caused the girl to part with him, so he went over. When he heard her story, he went home deep in thought. In his life of abundance he had never denied himself anything. The next morning Margie found the dog scratching at the door. This note was fastened to his collar: Your practical Christianity has done more for me than any sermon I’ve ever heard. Last night I offered what’s left of my wasted life to God. I’d like to join your club, and begin by doing without Bright.)
Generosity with Time (Miguel DelGado / She didn’t give up)
Generosity with Relationships: (Places and keeps Jesus in the center of the relationship. He is the focus of the relationship and His desire for the other person is now our desire for them as well.)
Generosity with Power/Influence: We are generous with our power and influence when we stop trying to control everything and everyone. We’re generous as we grant power to others and are submissive, and avoid jobs that are a temptation to power grab and as we share credit with others and claim our fair share of responsibility for failures.
Conclusion:
A.W. Tozer said: As base a thing as money often is, it yet can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor; it can keep a missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality!
Let’s make this all practical now. Ushers are going to come forward. Been struggling with greed? Time to break it’s hold on your life by confession and the resulting action of generosity. (Alabaster offering as well.)
Generosity with time, relationships and influence (1 of a 1000). Service opportunities.

7 deadly sins and 7 life giving virtues series: 1st sermon pride and humility

One of the big problems with pride is that it is so evident in others and hardly at all in ourselves. It is fun to watch when some arrogant jerk gets his.
David: Toby Gaper
David was a guy in college who liked to talk big about his bike riding abilities. He bragged about being able to ride his bike more than 50 miles in under an hour. Professional bike racers don't even do that. We knew he was full of it, but he continued to talk. All of us on the bike team wanted to finally shut this guys mouth. He would never take a ride with us. Until one day after much badgering we were able to get him to join us. The reason we called him a toby gaper is that toby gaper was our term for a guy who thought he could ride well and couldn't. David showed up that day with floppy shoes (bike shoes have a stiff sole) hairy legs (we all shaved our legs for the purpose of when you fall it peels the first layers of skin off rather than grabbing and tearing the flesh deeply. Or so was our theory.) He told us he was ready to ride with us. We always took the first few miles at a leisurely pace to warm up and laugh and joke. When we reached the lake about 5 miles away we would start to be more aggressive in our riding. This day was different. I was sick and tired of Toby gaper doing his big mouthed talking. So right from the start I was pushing the pace. I rode hard all the way to the lake. A couple of the guys rode near me saying slow down man your killing us and you are going to drop him meaning leave him in the dust. When we arrived at the lake David was huffing and puffing. We all had a good sweat, but were ready for a big ride. David at this point says, "Hey guys I already rode 50 miles today so I am going to turn back." At that he left huffing and puffing all the way back to school. Liar!!! I was mad. I wanted to get him on the back side of the lake and drop him at about 15 miles out.
I thought now he will shut his mouth and be humbled. Actually he told a couple of friends that he didn't ride with us because we were too slow for him.
The rest of us explained how he couldn't keep up with us and was nearly dropped in the first couple of miles. With a group of witnesses we were able to shut his mouth. It felt good.
Why did I enjoy it so much? Because the person with the pride problem was not so much David as it was me.
The best pride detector is this: how much am I bothered by the pride of others? If I feel attacked, in my response, “Others are worse?” A strong indicator of pride is competitiveness.
In almost every list pride is considered the original or most serious sin, and the ultimate source of all other sins. It is the desire to be more important or attractive to others, failing to give credit due to others, or excessive love of self. Dante’s definition is love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbor. Pride is the sin that says, I deserve this… or I don’t deserve that… anger, lust, envy, greed, gluttony, and laziness all come from pride.
The terrible thing about pride is that it is incredible deceptive. Jeremiah tells us that pride deceives the heart. The Bible also tells us that pride hardens the mind, brings contention, binds us in captivity like a chain, and brings destruction. A proud heart stirs up strife and is an abomination to the lord. A proud look God hates and those who engage in it will stumble and fall. Pride is the parent of discontent, ingratitude, presumption, passion, extravagance, and bigotry. There is hardly an evil committed without pride being connected in some sense. The early church fathers held that pride was the very essence of sin. Pride is always easier to see in others than it is in ourselves. Pride keeps the lights dim when we inspect our heart and shines brightly when we look at others.
It is why when we hear a sermon on pride we can think of hundreds of people who need to hear it, while missing the point this is about each of us. We need to hear it. Pride is about us. It would be great to keep our illusion of humility by pointing to others, saying: “But they are very proud. I really don’t think I am that great, but they do.” The best detector is how much are you bothered by the pride of others?
Scripture warns us that first Pride then the crash. Bike story at New Stine and Stockdale. One day while riding in Bakersfield I came up on a stoplight at one of the busiest intersections in town. My feet were clipped into my pedals and I didn't feel like unclipping them to stand and wait so I did what is called a track stand (Keeping your feet in the pedals holding the brakes and pushing on the pedals placing some tension and keeping your balance.) It looks pretty cool to see someone do that. I was thinking I was looking pretty cool doing that. In fact there were two cute girls in the car next to me watching. I was sure they were checking out my manliness as I did this track stand with impressive form. After waiting for a couple of minutes the light turned green. As I released the brake and was ready to push off and go I lost my balance and did the long slow fall to the gutter. It was not impressive. It was quite humiliating. The cute girls if not watching before were watching now and laughing.
The antithesis of pride is humility. Since God resists the proud we should learn to hate pride and clothe ourselves with humility.
But what is humility?
We know what it is when someone gets humbled.
Back door of church; thank for the sermon pastor, don’t thank me thank the Lord. I thought of that, but it wasn’t quite that good. That’s being humbled.
When we think of humility we usually think of people thinking less of themselves than they are. If not that then we think it is when we talk about our faults and shortcomings as compared with everyone else’s superiority and achievements. These are not humility.
Humility is a simple recognition of the truth about ourselves; and then most often, a forgetfulness of self that allows genuine concern for others and genuine worship of God.
Philippians 2:3-8
Jesus is a great example of humility.
How do people like us live like this? Our trouble is that we try to do before we ever be. We hear a sermon on pride and humility and we attempt to do humility while we attempt to stop being proud. Then we think we got it and we fail because we are proud of our humility. It is the dilemma humanity has lived with for centuries. How do I change?
Mark 7:20-23 warns us that the problem is the heart. Change who you are and what you do will be changed. You do what you be.
The issue is not so much the action as it is the heart that drives the action. If the heart is set straight then the doing will follow. The struggle of pride is not the struggle with doing as it is being proud. The problem is with the heart. Out of the heart proceed…pride. If you want to overcome the deadliest of the deadly sins start with the heart. Without a heart change you are doomed. Beg God for forgiveness for the sin of Pride. Ask God for a heart of humility and gratitude. Ask God to break your pride and replace it with a life of humility. Then when God changes your heart start doing what He makes you. Be grateful always. Treat even the things people are expected to do as great gifts. Be grateful for your food, your change at McDonalds, rain, life, your annoying neighbor… Be thankful and thank everyone.
It starts with the heart. Is your heart right?
The first requirement of pride is spiritual blindness. A glimpse of God reveals our frailty and sinfulness. When was the last time you looked at God and dealt with the reality of who you are in His presence? Change the heart and the rest will follow. Is your heart the heart God wants?