Sovereign Grace Church Scott HathawayActs: The Spirit-Empowered Life 7/9/2006Acts 12:18-25“The Danger of Pride”Introduction All sin can be boiled down into one ultimate sin, the sin of pride. All forms of sin begin with a throwing off of Gods order and rule and a replacing of that order with our own actions, thoughts, desires, and attitudes. Pride is also the defining mark of our American culture. We are a proud people. We take pride in our independence. We take pride in our constitution, laws, and governmental structure. We take pride in being a superpower, in our military prowess, in our technology, in our inventions, in our wealth, and in our sports. How quick we are to forget why our country is great. As Alexis de Tocqueville said, “America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good, she will also cease from being great.” It is Gods pleasure that has raised up our country to fund the Gospel around the world. He raised her up for His pleasure and can as easily remove her from her high position. Here are some quotes that exemplify this prideful attitude that is fostered in America:Keith Bulluck, professional football player “I want it all, and I want it as quickly as I can get it.”Muhammad Ali, professional boxer “Its hard to be humble, when youre as great as I am.“Russell Crowe, actor “People accuse me of being arrogant all the time. Im not arrogant, Im focused.“Bram Cohen, writer “I can come off as pretty arrogant, but its because I know Im right.“About pride, someone has said, “Pride is a disease that makes everyone else sick except the one who has it.” It is certainly not fun to be around prideful, arrogant people.I read a story about a prideful man named Zeke. He could hardly admit when he was wrong. One day, Zeke went into the local blacksmith shop near his home and the blacksmith saw him reach over and pick up a horseshoe that was sitting in some sawdust. The blacksmith had just finished making the horseshoe and it was cooling off. Zeke picked up the horseshoe and immediately dropped it again. “Kinda hot, aint it,” said the blacksmith. “Naw,” said Zeke, “just doesnt take me long to look at a horseshoe.” Now that is a proud man.www.sgrbc.org1 Of 4The Danger of PrideSovereign Grace Church Scott HathawayActs: The Spirit-Empowered Life 7/9/2006About this sin of pride, I read a story about a priest who had a young lady come to him to confess what she thought was a sin of vanity. She said that every morning when she looked at herself in the mirror she thought, “how beautiful I am.” The priest assured her that her sin was not vanity, but self-deception. Isnt that true for all of us? We are not nearly as beautiful, or smart, or funny, or you fill in the blank as we would like to think! As we are going to see from this passage in Acts and from other Scriptures, no one can afford to be arrogant and proud. The cost is simply too high. We are going to look at what pride is, why pride is so bad, what are the consequences for pride, and how to weaken pride and cultivate humility.I. What is Pride? In looking for a definition of pride, I think it is wiser to define pride by some categories of pride. There may be things that do not fit into these categories, so I am not claiming that they are comprehensive. In fact, if you think of some category that is missing or a situation that does not fit into one of these categories, I would like to know so that I can update this list.Categories of Pride: 1.Pride is stealing or wanting to steal the credit or honor that rightly belongs to God. 2.Pride is usurping or wanting to usurp the status or position that rightly belongs to God. 3.Pride is thinking and/or acting independent of God. 4. Pride is thinking and/or acting as if we are better than others. 5.Pride is believing that we deserve better treatment than we receive.All sin can be traced back to pride. Lets look at some examples. Example #1: Anger If someone cuts me off in traffic and I get angry, whether I show that anger to others or not, I am full of pride. I did not get my will and way that I wanted at that moment, so I have violated categories #2 1 Pet. 5:5) 4. In the list of the seven things God hates, pride is number one (Prov. 6:16-17; 8:13) 5.Pride is an abomination (detestable, loathsome, dangerous) (Prov. 16:5) 6.Pride always ends in destruction (Prov. 16:18) 7.It is specially opposed to the two great commandments of loving God and loving others. 3. What are the Consequences of Pride? 1.We are resisted by God and He sets Himself actively against us. 2.Ultimate consequences are death, as seen in our story here in Acts. 3.Other consequences are that we cannot worship God, we cannot fulfill the great commandments, and we will be useless for the task of evangelism. 4. It will seriously impact our ability to enjoy God, fellowship with God, and enjoy the blessings of obedience. 5.It will hinder Christian fello