The Problem of Pride

Tim Raymond, pastor from Indiana, tells an interesting story about working on a sermon, then reading through it on a Saturday evening and thinking, "This may be the best sermon ever written. It is possibly THE perfect sermon." He envisioned the masses coming to the altar in tears, famous preachers sitting in the audience in awe, and even invitations to be a speaker at the top Christian conferences. 

Then came Sunday morning and he eagerly found his place in the pulpit, ready to deliver with the greatest eloquence, the sermon that would "guide the blind, be a light for those in darkness, an instructor to the foolish, a teacher for the children."

Ten minutes into the sermon he notices people falling asleep. Fifteen minutes into the sermon he is thinking, "This really isn't going well and I hardly understand what I am talking about." By the end of the sermon he was thinking about moving back home to mom's house, because he just knew the parsonage would soon be empty. That sermon which he thought would bring "thunder from the heavens had keeled over like a dead duck."

Are you a preacher that has experienced something similar? Do you sing in the choir or on a praise team that has fallen flat on its face?  Have been an usher and fumbled some task associated with your duties? We have all probably been involved in various areas pertaining to our spiritual gift, only to find that our work in that area ended up in failure. Tim Raymond found the cause, and it wasn't something he was happy about. He confesses the problem was his own pride. 

In reading Tim's article today, I see the picture of this man, gifted to study, prepare sermons, and deliver them. Tim learned quickly that his gift to preach does not mean he is "God's gift" to the world. How about our activities and work? Do we swell with pride as if we have accomplished great things for God and now God owes us a blue ribbon?  Look at Tim's suggestions for the ways we can deal with pride.

1. Prayerfully examine your heart daily for pride and repent quickly.

2. Cultivate distrust for your own evaluations of your sermons (or whatever your work may be.)

3. Grow in your realization that your sermon (or your work)  is entirely dependent upon God’s sovereign grace.

4. Pray desperately for an outpouring of God’s Spirit.

5. Exercise faith in the truth that God’s normal means of salvation and sanctification is the ordinary sermon (or your work of serving God.)

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

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