Sermon Central
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Cast Away The Pride
Contributed by David Hutton on Jul 17, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: The greatest hindrance in accepting a gift if pride.
Introduction
A baby girl was born into the world, abandoned by her father, and viewed by her mother as a hindrance to her social life and prospects of remarriage. The mother was eventually arrested for offering shoppers at a store her precious child. The little girl was passed through the various child agencies and foster homes.
Needless to say, this little girl carried with her deep feelings of loneliness and rejection.
One day she was brought to a party at a swimming pool.
She had never been around a pool before, couldn’t swim....
As fate would have it, she slipped into the water.
As she floundered and gasped for air in the water, a man jumped into the water himself, and she felt the grasp of his arms pulling her out of the water. She mentioned later that that was the first time she’d ever felt loved.
In the next two months she repeatedly jumped into water, anticipating that feeling of love to come to her rescue.
She had found a secret that worked for her. She was willing to submit to whatever it took to bring about that euphoric feeling of love and kindness being shown to her.
Finally, she jumped once again into a pool, but her cries for help couldn’t be heard over the noise of the party....
I. EVERYBODY TODAY IS HUNGRY FOR LOVE
A. People are diving into pools everywhere:
1. Drugs
2. Immoral lifestyles (pre-marital sex, homosexuality, etc.)
3. Climbing the ladder to social success.
4. Any pool, trying to find someone who cares.
B. The world has tried throughout the years to detect and then fill man’s basic needs.
1. The psychiatrist offers therapy.
2. The medical world offers a stronger prescription.
3. The government offers social programs.
4. The banking industry offers financing.
C. But they continually overlook man’s greatest need, salvation!
1. Inside that human body there is something that is crying out for contact with it’s creator!
2. They are looking for something to save them from the things that are out of their control.
3. The answer is so simple:
a. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephes. 2:8).
b. It’s grace that saves us! (The One who has it all has it to give!)
c. You may be looking for something to purchase, but it’s free!
II. THE GREATEST HINDRANCE IN ACCEPTEING A GIFT, PRIDE
A. We believe we can do it on our own.... “I don’t need a gift!”
1. Some try to bargain with God.
2. Some try to buy it.
B. People today are so full of themselves.
1. There are some who have accomplished some great feats.
2. Then there are those who think they’ve accomplished....
3. “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner”
a. The first sounded like a recommendation to “Who’s Who.”
b. The second was a prayer void of pride, but willing to do whatever.
c. “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (Text).
d. “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other:” (Luke 18:14).
III. WE NEED TO CAST AWAY THE PRIDE
A. The little girl was willing to jump into any pool!
B. People of the world make literal fools of themselves!
1. Drugs, alcohol, nicotine, a wild life lead to nothing but misery.
2. Climbing the job ladder often leaves families a wreck.
3. Desperate social gestures must endure the embarrassment.
4. People do it every day, without thinking about it.
C. You must adapt that same attitude!
1. Repentance might be embarrassing, but it’s essential!
2. Baptism is taught by some to be an extra, but without it there is no remission of sins.
3. Speaking in tongues is strange to some beliefs, but it always accompanied those that received the Holy Ghost in the Bible.
4. Worship is more than just coming to church three times a week, it’s an entire change of lifestyle.
5. Those that receive the Holy Ghost “receive power” to be “witnesses.” (It’s not optional!).
D. Biblical examples:
1. The ark of the covenant, and thus the Spirit of God, had been gone from Jerusalem for many years.
a. When it came back in, King David led the processional with a dance that took all his might.
