June has been labeled "Pride Month". To call it this is really us celebrating sin. Why would I say that? Because the Kingdom of Darkness was founded upon PRIDE. It is founded upon total selfishness, and we are seeing today, that selfishness is dominating our country unlike ever before. Selfies are rampant. There is a whole lot of talk today about "self". And this selfishness originated with satan.
Satan declared, "I will ascend...I will raise my throne....I will sit enthroned....I will make myself like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:12-14) He was selfish, and he has been trying to take people down that road, since the garden.
The Bible uses the words arrogance, boastful, pride, or a haughty spirit to describe this kind of selfishness. The word "pride" means "confidence in flesh and human ability". When we are like a sheep who have gone astray because we want our own way (Isaiah 53:6), we are in dangerous territory. Pride has brought down nations. Pride has broken families apart. Pride is not a good thing, beloved, and pride is certainly not something to boast about.
God has a lot to say about pride: not to slam the Scriptures down anyone's throat, but the Bible must be the Source for Truth since the world's "truth" changes all the time (wear a mask/masks don't work). God's Word is absolute Truth; it never changes; and when you know that Truth, deeply and personally, it will set you free!
Proverbs 11:2 "When PRIDE comes, then comes disgrace."
Proverbs 15:25 "The Lord tears down a proud man's house."
Proverbs 16:5 "The Lord detests all the proud of heart." (Why? Because it is the DNA of satan; it is an affront of His Son who died for them)
Proverbs 16: 18 "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
Pride is destructive, and it will destroy you.
Many have said that the Bible doesn't specifically say that certain things are wrong. This is a means to justify behavior, that inside, we know is wrong. Some sin of today might not be specifically named, because it falls under the category of PRIDE.
God gave us precepts or commands. But He also gives us principles within those commands. God says "Do not murder." But it doesn't say, "Do not take somebody into a shed and torture them, severing their limbs one by one, until they are almost dead." However, I think it would absolutely be implied. I don't think God would say "Do not murder", but be okay with the later.
The Bible does say this:
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:21-32
God does speak to homosexuality. It was never His plan. His plan was for a man and woman to marry and reproduce more God followers on the earth. Any deviation from the Creator's plan will not function but will eventually have mechanical errors. If you buy something, you read the manufacturer's manual because the manufacturer created this item and therefore knows how it will work properly and not break. God is the manufacturer and inventor of male and female and how they are to work together. Any deviation from the manufacturer's manual will break.
Oh, Beloved, if you are in a homosexual relationship, you need to know that God loves you and God has a better plan for you than what you are currently experiencing.
And Beloved, it is the desire of God that there be no PRIDE in our lives at all. Just think about this: every time you act in pride, you are living in the DNA of satan. No thank you.
Every time you act in pride, you are living in the DNA of satan.
Friends, if your pastor is not speaking to the current situations we are experiencing in our world and teaching you how to love well, encourage others, look at your own life in Light of God's Word, and respond in a way that reflects Christ, they are being cowardice, when you need it most. You may want to pray about finding a pastor who will tell you the Truth because he loves you enough to tell you the Truth, even if it is hard, and even if it hurts.
Christians, Followers of Jesus, pride has no place in our lives. Paul even said, " I have no confidence whatsoever in human ability." (Philippians 3) Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 1 that I don't boast in myself, "lest I rob the cross of its power", "for no one should boast", "for he who boasts must boast in the Lord."
Father God, thank You for loving us. We repent of our pride, and we ask You to help us see it and reject it, and make you Lord over it, so that we might walk in love-filled humility. In Jesus' name, amen.
I love you all so much.