Title: Prayer to Forsake Pride
Contents
prayer to forsake pride
Proverbs 16:18
※ There is a man named Iacocca among the outstanding executives of the 20th century in America. Iacocca took over as managing director of DimChrysler Motors, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. Chrysler Motor Company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to his excellent management skills and aggressive sales strategy.
However, since then, Iacocca has appeared in more than 80 advertisements, and wherever she goes, she makes political statements such as 'You can understand the American economy in six months'.
As a result of having excellent management skills but being proud of their past achievements, Chrysler Motors lost about 31% of the market in just a few years. And Iacocca is under pressure from the directors to resign, and DimeChrysler is eventually merged with Mercedes-Benz. This is an example of how easily a person can sink if he is proud.
But the opposite is the case with Starbucks coffee owner Howard Schultz. Howard Schultz grew up dreaming of a childhood in the slums of New York. When he founded Starbucks and hired people, he always called them his business partners.
In addition, it is said that after six months of joining the company, stock options (preferential stock purchase rights) are given to increase employee morale.
It was the same manager, but one was a person who only revealed himself, and the other was a person who liked to expose everyone more than himself. In particular, I get a strong message from a person named Iacocca that if a person is arrogant, he can always fall.
The Bible always warns against pride. This means that pride is such a terrible sin.
People generally like to brag when they want something a little bit superior to someone else. Of course, pride itself may not be a sin. However, people do not stop at boasting, they ignore and despise others from the bottom of their hearts because of their superiority. And they try to show off and show that they are superior to others in any way.
This is where the problem starts. Pride, not just boasting, but ignoring others, especially this pride, is the root of bitterness that breaks the hearts of countless others. That is why the Bible always guards against this pride. And he pronounces a harsh judgment on that pride.
I would like to share the grace of this time, especially by examining today's text, by examining what pride is and why we should abandon it.
■ First, let's consider what pride is.
The word pride is the Hebrew word ‘gaa’ (????), which means, “Stand up. grow. rejoice over the victory.” The word pride in today’s text can be translated as “culture” when translated into the word ‘gaon’ (?????) derived from ‘gaa’.
In particular, when translating the Old Testament in the Septuagint, some words (Exodus 15:7, Isaiah 2:10, Job 37:4, Psalm 93:1, etc.) are not 'pride' (?βρι?) but 'glory' (δ? ξα). (Refer to the Old Testament Theological Dictionary)
These words have a deep meaning. Whether it is culture or standing up, it means that the Lord must not be lost at all times. Therefore, if ‘Gaa’ (????) is in the Lord, there is no problem, but if you take away God and focus on yourself, it turns into sin. In particular, after Proverbs 6:17, the writer of Proverbs lists seven sins that God hates and says that pride is the number one among them.
If you are centered on yourself without God's grace and God's love, that is pride, the root of sin. Therefore, this sin of pride is a sin that anyone can easily commit. To put it realistically, it can be said that the sin of pride is the root of all sins. It's like a cold in terms of illness. Although the common cold seems funny, it not only catches it easily, but it also kills the most people in the world, and it is said that there is still no definitive cure for the common cold.
When we give thanks to the Lord for all things in our lives, whether it be culture, pride, or victory, it is a glory to God. However, if God is missing and I have achieved victory because I did well, I have succeeded because I have done well, and I have been educated because of my efforts, it becomes a problem from then on.
Let's think about the word pride in today's text, 'gaon' (?????). When I translate this word, I said that it is correct in the meaning of the word to translate it as culture rather than pride. But why do we translate today's text as pride and not culture? The reason is as follows.
Generally speaking, culture is a virtue that a person should possess. However, sometimes, there are people who do not have the culture but tremble with it. They pretend to be educated even though they are not educated.
Among the old comedies, there is a comedy called “Greeting to a gentleman”. Two people who have earned money but have no education or knowledge meet to make their children marry. However, none of these two people are educated at all. So we call in educated people and get them trained. However, can the personnel practices obtained through training work with each other? It's about how they both stick to each other's own greetings, and each other's embarrassment.
This is pride. It is disguising itself as culture. An uneducated person does everything he can to show that he is superior to others that this is a sin.
When an uneducated person pretends to be educated, this is the spearhead of destruction and the leading cause of falling. Do you understand?
Let's think about soccer, which Koreans like the most, and a player scores a goal at the decisive moment. But how disgraceful would it be if this player could only tell you how calm he was in that situation and how accurately he kicked it? There must be another teammate who passed and assisted until the goal was scored, but to say that only you did well and scored would be arrogant.
Pride starts with the mindset that you have succeeded in everything you have done, ignoring all other circumstances. Therefore, pride is an act of ignoring God, and it is an evil heart that breaks human relationships that ignore others and breaks relationships with God.
■ Second, let's look at the consequences of this pride.
※ As World War II drew to a close, German General Rommel, who was guarding a front in France, inspects his troops. All the members of the unit had a high morale due to the victories. There was a thick fog over the area. Coincidentally, that day was my wife's birthday.
Rommel decides that the enemy cannot attack due to bad weather. Moreover, convinced that we will always win if the enemy does, he leaves the front line with his men and flies to Germany to enjoy a birthday party with his wife. However, on that day, the Allies were preparing for a massive counterattack, and in the battle fought without a general, the Germans suffered a devastating defeat. It was the devastating result of pride.
Today's text tells us: “Pride is the forerunner of destruction, and arrogance is the forerunner of stumbling.”
The Bible speaks of the consequences of pride in two ways.
? The first is to say that you are defeated. When Israel led the battle of Jericho to victory and looked to the next goal, it was a very small city called Ai. We destroyed the great city of Jericho, but it is about Ai, and Israel is not doing its best.
So what was the result? It was Israel's defeat. They had forgotten that the battle of Jericho had been won by God. In fact, in the battle of Jericho, Israel did only two things. One was the roundabouts of Jericho. The second is all I screamed after running seven laps on the last day. Still, they were proud, thinking that they had won because they did well. The result was defeat.
Do you know why Korean football sometimes gets caught up in weak teams? That is pride. Remember. If you are arrogant, you will be defeated. It fails. It's ruined.
? Second, it says that pride makes you fall. In Matthew 16, we see the conversation between Jesus and his disciples. The content of the question Jesus asked is, 'Who am I?' At this point, Peter gives a wonderful answer. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Hearing this answer, Jesus rejoiced greatly and said: “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).
How glad Peter must have been when he heard this. I was praised for saying things that the other disciples did not even think of.
But the Lord said, “I must be crucified.” At this point, Peter speaks again. ‘Lord, don’t do that’
Peter, who was praised for his good words, speaks wonderfully again this time. expecting compliments. Ah! But what comes back is the cold rebuke of the Lord.
“Jesus, turning around, said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block to me, for you do not consider the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23).
Peter must have had a lot of thoughts, but he was proud of what he had been praised for a while ago, and said, ‘Hey! Peter had the pride of saying, ‘I said something you didn’t even think of.
But what is returned is reproof. That's why the Bible says, "A haughty heart is the prey of a fall." If pride makes us fall and fall in our lives, surely we will have to let go of it.
■ The third is, then, ‘how to throw away pride’.
? First, we must remember the grace of God in order to cast away our proud heart.
The Bible describes our state before we were saved by God's grace. “He raised you, who were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you then walked, following the course of this world, and following the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-2). )
Our Lord saved me, who died in my sins like this, who followed the evil devil. Therefore, we should always think about the grace of God who saved us. Because those who think they have received grace can abandon their pride.
Paul is a prime example of that. Before receiving grace, he was proud of his origin, background, and education. But after receiving grace, he confessed: “And I count all things as loss, because of the exaltation of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for for his sake I lose all things, and count as dung I gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).
When Paul believed in Jesus, he confessed that everything he knew and boasted about in the past was like excrement. Knowing God's grace, there is nothing to boast about, and nothing more to be proud of. Thank you always.
When we realize what kind of existence we are before God and what kind of grace we have received to reach this point, we can cast away our pride.
? Second, I can let go of pride when I think that I am in the favor of others.
Among Korean mountaineers, there is a man named Um Hong-gil. This is the man who conquered 14 peaks over 8,000 meters in the world. It is truly unprecedented in the world. But in a lecture, he said that the reason he was able to climb such a high peak was because of the lives of about 10 people who were sacrificed at the bottom of the mountain to get me up. And he says, ‘I’ve tried 28 times and only succeeded 14 times.’
Always he speaks of the sacrifices of others. He says that what I am is not because of me alone, but because of the sacrifices of others.
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