CS Lewis felt that sexual immorality, anger, greed, drunkenness..were just fleabites in comparison to pride. He taught that the sin of pride precedes every other sin and called pride “a complete anti-God state of mind.”

Proverbs 8:13 says that God hates pride…

Proverbs 16:5 says if you have pride you are an abomination to God.

PRIDE is the chief vice of humanity, gospel-centered humility is the great virtue. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, NOT glorify self and enjoy self forever.

The more pride we have, the more we dislike it in others. The prideful person hates the person at the party who gets all the attention, because THEY want all the attention.

Pride is unquenchable thirst, because it doesn’t just want something, it wants to have more of something than everyone else has. Pride doesn’t just want possessions it wants more possessions than everyone else. It doesn’t want power, it wants more power than everyone else. Pride drives us, not to make a comfortable living, but to make such an extravagant living that it makes others feel uncomfortable.

Pride thwarts real generosity because the only reason a prideful person gives is to make them feel superior, not to truly help anyone. Pride will isolate you from having any real friends bc people represent competition. Pride causes us to use people to promote us. Pride is the great community killer.

Pride will not only hurt you personally and socially, the worst part about pride or the absence of humility are the implications on how we relate to God. The proud person won’t submit to God.

Bc the ONLY way to relate to God is in humility.

The world praises pride is disdains humility. If you don’t believe me watch what happens when someone witnesses you responding to criticism with humility, what do they usually say??? Something like, “I wouldn’t let them talk to me like that…are you going ot let them talk to you like that???” now you have a new bout with pride, right?

I’m still praying a prayer that I shared with our church ac couple of weeks ago. God has been faithful to answer this prayer. It’s based on Psalm 139:23-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! 

The prayer goes like this:

Search me, God, know my heart and thoughts. Reveal to me any grievous way of PRIDE in me…and to lead me in the way of humility, the way of faith in Christ, the way of life everlasting??

I’ve got a lot of glorious work to, rather God has a lot of glorious work to do, in my prideful heart. You?