Nobody thinks they're the proud one. And that's the hardest thing about pride, is it's the easiest sin to have, but the hardest one to see. So in today's episode, I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about pride, what scripture says, and why we should avoid it. You see, pride, whether conscious or not, it's a decision to put your place in the self of God, rather than God being your shepherd. Look at the fruit of your life right now. If you're someone who thinks that your decisions matter the best, that you have your best interests at heart, and nobody should, you shouldn't listen to anybody else, but yourself. Look at the fruit of your life. The fruit of my life, when I live for myself, was decay, destruction, hopelessness, depression, anxiety, you name it, and not enough self-help books could have dug myself out of that hole, I just dug myself. And so the fruit of your life, when living for yourself, is death and decay. And I don't know if you hear this, but like in church, we always talk about, oh, like pride was birthed in the garden, and the first time we ever see pride in scripture, was in Genesis chapter three, no, no, no, no. Pride happened before the garden. Look at Isaiah chapter 14. When we look at the story of Lucifer, who was an angel created by God in glory, he said, yeah, I wanna be my own God, I think I can be better than you. Pride happened before the fall. And so that's why we have to be able to recognize what pride is, because whether you're consciously or subconsciously making the decision, pride is so nasty, because you're putting yourself in the place of God and thinking that you can lead your life rather than letting the one who created you lead your life. Is that crazy? That we think we have our own best interest at heart? Thinking that, oh yeah, I know what's best for my life, because I've lived, I'm 22 years old, Bryce knows what's best for his life, or let me go back, I'm 15, I know what's best for my life. No, no, no, no, no, no. There's something beautiful about leaning on the creator to show us that we need him. And you know, pride doesn't just happen by being loud, it can happen intrusively, by reaffirming beliefs that you have about yourself, by reaffirming beliefs you have about other people, by reaffirming beliefs that you have about situations. I mean, look at people you want to apologize to because you think you're right. Look at relationships that are broken because you're like, yeah, I'm not meant in it, I'm in the right. Look at people that you've hurt, because you want to sit on a high horse, because you're not humble enough to be wrong. You're not humble enough to receive correction, whereas the Bible would say God corrects those whom he loves, and you aren't willing to be corrected because you think true love is being right all the time. James chapter four, verse six says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I don't think you understand that your breath right now, if you're living in pride, whether you see it or not, is God's grace for your life. And God doesn't want you to sit in pride. He wants you to lean on him. The Bible says you can't have one or the other. You can't be your own God and have God. You can't serve two masters, you're gonna have a house divided against itself, and that house is your heart. This body that you have is a temple of the Holy Spirit, a Holy Spirit ain't split and rent with how you feel in your ego. Holy Spirit ain't split and rent with your ego. Most guys don't even think twice about what they're putting on their body every single day. You'll think about what you eat, you'll think about how you train, but then you go to the shower and you use whatever random shampoo or body wash that's been sitting there for years, and you never question it. I was the same way. I ended up switching to base body works, and honestly, it's been one of the simplest upgrades I've ever made. I've been using their shampoo and conditioner, it's called the shower duo, and the difference is immediate. The peppermint hits your scalp and it actually feels clean. Like genuinely clean, not stripped, and your hair just feels healthier, thicker, not dried out like most of the stuff out there, and once I started seeing the difference, it made me think a little bit more about the products I'd been using before. A lot of the stuff guys use daily have ingredients linked to hormone disruption things, getting absorbed through your scalp every single day without even realizing it. That doesn't even sit right with me. So knowing this is a clean, no sulfates, no parabens, none of that stuff, it just makes it an easy choice. And I like that it's actually simple. I'm not doing some 10 step routine. I swapped what I was already using for something better. So if you're serious about taking care of yourself, not just what goes into your body, but what goes onto it, it's worth looking into. Go to basebodyworks.com, use code BRICE for 20% off, and they'll throw in a free toiletry bag when you grab a set, because at the end of the day, confidence shouldn't come at the cost of your health. So you can either humble yourself before God or let your sin humble you. And you don't want your sin to humble you. You know why? Because pride protects itself, but it really costs you real peace, real relationships, real comfort, and all of these things because you aren't willing to apologize, you aren't willing to mend this relationship, you aren't willing to take correction. And so while you think pride is protecting you, it's really hurting you, Holy Spirit ain't splintin' rent with your heart. That's why I love the story of King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel chapter 40. You see, King Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man in the world. He built this in massive kingdom of Babylon. He was super powerful, and he has this dream, and he calls his boy Daniel up, it's like, yo, Daniel, will you come in here and like interpret this dream for me? He's like, all right, bet. Daniel interprets it, and he's like, yo, Nebuchadnezzar, you better humble yourself before God, or God's gonna humble you. And Nebuchadnezzar was like, what? Get out of here, sucker. So he kicks Daniel out, and then he gets prideful. God destroys him and his kingdom, and for seven years, King Nebuchadnezzar lived in the wilderness, and it literally says in Daniel chapter four that he grew nasty toenails like an animal, and grew feathers like a bird, like hair. And it wasn't until he looked to heaven that both he and his kingdom was restored. And King Nebuchadnezzar, in his own words, was like, hey, if you are living in pride, he will humble you. So if you keep reading in James in verse 10, it says humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. We don't humble ourselves because we wanna be first. We humble ourselves because we are trusting that his way is better. And in humility, we receive the blessing of the Lord. We receive the correct exaltation, not exaltation that will crush you, but exaltation from the Lord. It's like we battle with pride and we battle with humility so much, but the scriptures say that Jesus didn't come to be served, but he came to serve. And so, look at what Paul writes in Philippians chapter two. He says, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Consider other people when you make decisions before you say something, before you act on something, before you move here, before you do this. And then he says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross. Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, who limited himself in power and in glory by entering into time and space in flesh, who had the authority to call legions of angels at the tip of his fingers when he's on the cross, decided not to for the sake of your soul. And you won't listen to your best friend, and he's like, yo, bro, I wouldn't do that. God isn't calling you to do something impossible. Humility isn't impossible. If the king of all kings, if the Alpha and the Omega himself was able to humble himself, why can't you? If the Alpha and the Omega who had no flaw in him was able to be spit on for crimes he didn't commit, why can't you own up to your own mistakes? It is the grace of God and his love that fuels us to humility. Your life and your decisions ain't getting you anywhere. Lean on the good shepherd. He has your best interest in heart. He has everything that he wants best for your life on the forefront of his mind. You are the apple of his eye. Listen to him. Pride is so nasty, and it will deceive you. And pride isn't thinking less of yourself in an emotional state, it's just realizing that you don't matter most. Pride is a glorified and the greatest form of idolatry by thinking you are the pinnacle, point, and apple of everything. Let me tell you something, newsflash, you're not. I'm not important, you're not important. The one who matters most is Jesus himself. And so I wanna pray for you. If you know you're struggling with pride that you receive freedom and if you don't, God will reveal it in your heart. But remember, this isn't a head issue. Pride is not a head issue, it's a heart issue. I can have a sheet of 100 reasons why you're prideful, and if you're prideful, you ain't gonna listen. Cause you're prideful, you think you're the best. But that's why we need to pray for God to soften our heart. God revealed to us the areas of our life that are causing us to fall into pride. Show us where we are in God. Would you give us the humility and strength to not be prideful? Because if we can understand that pride, arguably, is the one sin that leads to every other sin, if we can get a grip on humility, then we'll trust in Jesus more. We'll see real fruit in our lives and we'll experience real freedom. Lord Jesus, we thank you. Lord, we understand that pride is so nasty, and we understand that from the get go, from being born, that we've been so prideful. God, would you show us freedom? Would you show us love? Would you show us truth? God, would you give us humility in our hearts, soften our hearts to receive correction from you, from wise counsel, from friends? And Lord, would your love overflow us in the areas where we've been wrong, where we can experience your grace and feel freedom and know that even though we've made mistakes, even though we've been prideful, even though we've tried to sit on the throne of our own heart, God, that you are the way, that you have our best interests at heart. God, we love you, we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name, amen.
