Overcoming Pride: Trusting in God's Justice and Grace

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

1. "The prideful heart is destructive. When you are driven by a sense of pride, a sense of safety, security, a sense of superiority, it becomes destructive. It becomes destructive to you, and it becomes destructive to the people around you. Pride is us saying, I'm really God. We may not verbalize it that way. We may not say I'm God, but we show that we think that when we say, I should be in charge. I know best. I'm going my own way. I'm not going to submit." [36:15] (39 seconds) ( | | )

2. "No one can escape God's justice. This is tough, because we see people who today, tomorrow, six months from now, five years from now, seem as though they are getting away with it, in spite of the hurt that they've caused, in spite of the pain, abuse, the injustice. It seems like they're getting away with it. God, why aren't you doing something? You're a God of justice, why aren't you handling it? And there will be times that God handles it in the here and now. He handles it right away." [44:31] (36 seconds) ( | | )

3. "God does not forget his people. God is not unaware of what is going on to the ancient people of Israel. It's not like God is somewhere else and not paying attention. In our lives, it's the same way. God is always there. God is always watching. God always pays attention to what is going on. Even if he seems distant, God is there. He is active. He does not forget his people. He does not ignore you." [49:45] (32 seconds) ( | | )

4. "We have areas in our lives where we find security in someone or something other than God. It could be our job. It could be our savings. It could be our home. All of these things leading us to feel secure. It could be our parents. It could be our spouses. All of these things leading us to feel secure. So that even though we wouldn't say, I don't need God, even though we wouldn't say, I'm okay on my own, we start to believe that we're untouchable, that we're all right, that we don't have things to be worried about like other folks." [41:07] (41 seconds) ( | | )

5. "We need to repeat the gospel to ourselves each and every day, multiple times a day, if you can. We need to pray, preach that message to ourselves. We need to hear that message over and over again. I'm a sinner who needs a Savior, but Jesus is my Savior. He's transformed me. He's given me a new identity. He's done the same for you if you are following Jesus. You're now a daughter or son of the living God, no longer a slave to sin, no longer stuck in your pride. You are now a part of God's family forevermore." [59:18] (40 seconds) ( | | )

6. "We need to take that message and we need to hear it every single day. We need to hear it in order to push us away from sin. We need to hear it every single day. We need to hear it every single day. We need to tell that to ourselves every single day. I deserve what Edom got, but Jesus saves. I should be destroyed just like Edom, but Jesus saves. God's justice was worked out on Jesus on the cross and because of that, His death in my place and His resurrection, I'm alive forevermore. Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins." [01:00:54] (28 seconds) ( | | )

7. "The truth of the gospel is we are sinners, each and every one of us, and we need saving. We cannot do it on our own, no matter how secure or superior we feel, no matter how much pride we have that tells us we don't need God. We are sinners who need saving, and Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection is the only one who saves. That message is so vital, but also, we need to do it on our own. We need to do it on our own. We need to do it on our own." [57:38] (30 seconds) ( | | )

8. "We work to make sure it happens now, sure, but we don't in any way lose hope that God is going to make sure that justice is served. We work to make sure that justice is served. We don't assume that God doesn't care, because he does. All the hurt, all the pain, all the mistreatment, all the injustice, God will make sure it is ultimately made right. He says this to the people of Israel about Edom while reminding them, not only will his justice be served, not only will no one escape his justice, but he wants to remind them that he's saying this, and it's true, because he doesn't forget his people." [48:05] (44 seconds) ( | | )

9. "We don't stop with the sin. We don't just wallow in that. Oh, I mess up in so many ways, and I do, and you do. We don't stop there. We don't just get stuck. Instead, we acknowledge our sin, we acknowledge our neediness, and then we move right to the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, praising him for what he's done for us, for the transformation that he has made. He's made these dead people alive. And if we don't preach that to ourselves every day, if we're not regularly reminding ourselves of that, we'll get stuck on that false security, that false superiority." [01:01:46] (42 seconds) ( | | )

10. "The kingdom shall be the Lord's. God's justice will be served. He does not forget His people, and we can count on it because ultimately God's kingdom reigns. He is in charge. He is on the throne, and we can confidently trust His promises because of that. If we had a God who was lukewarm, if we had a God who was limited in some way, then we wouldn't be able to have the confidence that His justice will be served, and that He knows what's going on every moment of every day. There would be no confidence that He is in control, but because He's on the throne, because He's running the universe, because He's in charge, we can confidently trust, even in moments of pain and sadness and brokenness and dysfunction, that God is going to work all of this out." [55:51] (54 seconds) ( | | )

Ask a question about this sermon