Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 18. I will just mention that there are some handouts of quotes at the tables to try to prompt some discussion. We'll put different topics from time to time, but this particular topic is going to deal with the central theme of the sermon. And then there's enough packets, if you want homework, there's enough packets to go around one for each family. 2 Samuel 18 beginning to read at verse 9. Then Absalom met the servants of David. Absalom rode on a mule. The mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth tree, and his head caught in the terebinth, so he was left hanging between heaven and earth. And the mule which was under him went on. Now a certain man saw it and told Joab and said, I just saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth tree. So Joab said to the man who told him, you just saw him and why did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have given you 10 shekels of silver and a belt. But the man said to Joab, though I were to receive a thousand shekels of silver in my hand, I would not raise my hand against the king's son. For in our hearing, the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai saying, beware lest anyone touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise I would have dealt falsely against my own life. For there is nothing hidden from the king, and you yourself would have set yourself against me.' Then Joab said, I cannot linger with you. And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through Absalom's heart while he was still alive in the midst of the terebinth tree. And ten young men who bore Joab's armor surrounded Absalom and struck and killed him. So Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel, for Joab held the people back. And they took Absalom and cast him into a large pit in the woods and laid a very large heap of stones over him. Then all Israel fled, everyone to his tent. Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King's Valley. For he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day, it is called Absalom's Monument. Father God, we thank you for your word, and it is our glory to seek to conform our lives to it, but we know apart from your Holy Spirit, this is impossible. And so we ask that your Holy Spirit would continue to be with us, continue to enable us to respond to your word as we ought, and that you would sanctify us through your truth. It's in Jesus' name that we pray this, amen. Well, when I titled this Head Trip, I wasn't trying to be cute because when you read through the commentators on this subject, they say that the central theme of arrogant pride in this section is tied symbolically with the head of Absalom. and the head trip of Joab. In other words, the pride of Joab led to his future death just as surely as the head trip of Absalom led to his death in this passage. And so commentators say that what this passage is teaching us is that theme that is spoken elsewhere in Scripture, that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And so whether you focus in on the ambition The arrogance, selfishness, self-righteousness, self-will, stubbornness, vainglory, or vanity that you can see in these characters, all those sins flow from pride. They are manifestations of pride. In fact, one of the dictionaries, a Hebrew dictionary I was looking at, gave every one of those terms I just outlined for you as synonyms of pride. I'm not sure I would call them synonyms, but they are definitely sins that flow from pride. Let's look first of all at the head trip of Absalom, and we do have a translation issue in verse 9. It says, then Absalom met the servants of David. Well, obviously he met them, but the Hebrew, the literal Hebrew is a lot more vivid. It shows how small this big man was when he was face to face with God's providence. And here's how the New American Commentary translates it. in the presence of God's men. And I've looked up the Hebrew word kara and that's its definition. It's to cry out. They must be following the Septuagint here or something, I'm not sure, but it's clearly crying out. So Absalom is totally startled when he is confronted suddenly with David's men. And he cries out. The idea here is he's startled by providence. He's frightened into crying out. The big man suddenly realizes how small he really is. As one person described Pride, a man wrapped up in himself makes a pretty small package. And down through history there have been a lot of big men, big tyrants, who have overnight melted into fear and into nothingness when they've been confronted with God's providences. They suddenly realize they aren't so powerful as they thought that they were. So obviously he flees. for his life on his mule. The verse goes on to say, Absalom rode on a mule. The mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth tree, and his head caught in the terebinth." Now, verse 8 had spoken, we saw last week, of God using even nature itself to be fighting against Absalom's men. And in this verse, he's picking out one of the trees of that woods and saying it's doing the same thing with Absalom. And so when you tie verses 8 and 9 together, again, it's highlighting the providence. God is at work. in this situation, working even nature against Absalom's purposes. But how did his head get caught in the tree? Well, based on the fact that the author has highlighted the long, long hair of Absalom in chapter 14, verse 26, most commentators believe that he was caught in the branches when his hair got tangled up in it, and so that his scalp wouldn't completely rip off, he's hanging on to the branch calling out for help. But the head is mentioned because the author is wanting to emphasize the pride that was there. Now the first century historian Josephus apparently had historical documents in his day that we don't have access to, but he said, yeah, that's exactly what happened. His hair got caught in the tree. Now if that is the case, then The sign of Absalom's pride became his undoing. In chapter 14 we saw that he was pretending to be a Nazirite. He was pretending to be holy and have a humble vow of perpetual submission to God while at the very same time overturning God's law order. His head was giving the illusion of humble submission while his actions were showing ambition. arrogance, selfishness, self-righteousness, self-will, stubbornness, vainglory, and vanity. all of which we've already seen spring from pride. And God uses the very thing that he is so proud of, his beauty and his hair, to be his undoing. And so you really can see Providence is working here together to humble him in an ironic way. The next phrase says, so he was left hanging between heaven and earth. Now earlier he had been incredibly arrogant and very, very confident, but now he's hanging here helplessly And yet the commentators point out there is a theological point that is being made by the way that this is phrased here because he is neither on earth nor in heaven and he is fit for neither. And I love the comment that Bill Arnold gave in his commentary. He said his rebellion has left him without the ground under his feet beneath his feet, unable to fulfill his life as a prince or king and incapable of serving in the kingdom of heaven. And so there is some marvelous imagery that is being used by the author to help us to interpret what's going on in this story. Absalom is fit neither for the kingdom of earth nor the kingdom of heaven. And then the next phrase reinforces that. It says, and the mule which was under him went on. Now, any Bible dictionary that you open up and look mule up or any commentary that comments on this or any other passage of the Old Testament related to mules will tell you that a mule is a symbol of kingship. And so that's why one author said this, as Absalom has lost his mule from under him, so he has also lost his royal seat. So again, the symbolism that God is drawing together in terms of His providence is incredibly rich. The last theological statement being made by the author is that Absalom is under God's curse, verse 10. Now a certain man saw it and told Joab and said, I just saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth tree. And commentators point out that the Hebrew word that's used for hanging, talu, is only used one other time in the Bible. It's used in Deuteronomy 21, verse 23, which states that anyone hanging on a tree is under God's curse. Anyone who has talu on a tree is under God's curse. And the language here is so deliberate that one commentator spent a long, long paragraph just describing this word talu and how it clearly is pointing to a curse. I'm just going to read his summarizing sentence. or two sentences, he says, God himself had sent a curse against him that simultaneously caught and punished the rebel. The fearful judgments of the Torah had proven credible. The Lord had upheld his law. Now this is going to be significant for upcoming sermons. If God's curse is resting upon Absalom, which I believe the text clearly indicates that it is, then this paragraph is important for interpreting the two upcoming sections, both of which shows that David should not have been soft on Absalom. Absalom was under God's curse, and David should not be blessing what God was cursing. I think that's the point, and we're going to get to that on another Sunday, but I want you to at least be anticipating where we're going to be going with this. But what application can we take home from this first point? Well, I think the most obvious application is that all pride is under God's curse. We don't tend to think of pride as being as heinous of a sin as God sees it as being, but it really is. In our age, it's one of those respectable sins that people kind of overlook. They see it, but it doesn't bother them too much. But in Proverbs 8, verse 13, it says that God hates pride, not just that he's, you know, is bothered by it, he hates it. In Amos 6 verse 8 God says, I abhor the pride of Jacob. Now that's pretty strong language to be using of a sin in a justified saint, you know, in the children of God. But He says, I abhor the pride of Jacob. Our pride is an offense to God. In Leviticus 26 verse 19 God says that when people are not quick to repent of their sins because pride is holding them back. And how many times does pride make us not confess our sins? But He says when that happens God says this of you, I will break the pride of your power. And then He goes on to show how He's going to break the pride of our power. He's going to make All of creation do the exact opposite of Romans 8.28. It's going to work together for our bad until finally we buckle in, our pride is humbled and we begin to confess our sins. In Proverbs 16 verse 18 he promises, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. So really we need to learn to hate the pride that is in our heart. Psalm 31 verse 23 says that God fully repays the proud person. Now he may be able to get away with it for a while, but eventually it's going to come back and it's going to bite him. Psalm 140 verse 5 says that he cannot be in close fellowship with any proud person. It says he knows the proud from afar. It's almost as if God just can't stand to be around a person who is prideful. James 4, 6 promises God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And so God gives the story of Absalom to make it very, very clear to us that pride characterizes the non-elect who are under God's judgment. But he juxtaposes that story with the arrogant pride of Joab to indicate, hey, the same pride that Absalom displayed can be present in believers as well. And Joab, even though he's headed to heaven, it does not lessen God's hatred for pride, nor did it stop the evil consequences of pride. Evil is evil wherever it is manifested. So let's take a look next at the head trip for Joab, verse 11. So Joab said to the man who told him, you just saw him. And why did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have given you 10 shekels of silver and a belt. Robert Bergen in his commentary says this. Through Joab's own words, the narrator also reveals that David's nephew general himself was a rebel against the king. Although David had ordered his commanders to be gentle with Absalom, verse 5, Joab had promised a reward of 10 shekels of silver and a warrior's belt to anyone who killed the king's son, a reward that could only have come from one determined to disobey the king in this matter. Apparently, Joab had decided that the only way to end the civil war was to kill Absalom. Now, we can understand Joab's reasoning as to why this would be best, but his counter orders to David's order clearly reveal self-will and prideful rebellion. Now, earlier in his life, Joab had shown such promise because he was very loyal to David. He feared the Lord. believed the Lord, he was a fearless fighter, he had so many good characteristics in his life, but those two sins of pride and of bitterness just ruined and spoiled, destroyed the work that was of any value and left him a rebel. And to me this highlights why it is so important that we knit pride in the bud as soon as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. It is a monster that will grow if it is not starved and killed. Now Joab's own rebellion stands in stark contrast with the humility of the unnamed soldier of verse 12. But the man said to Joab, Though I were to receive a thousand shekels of silver in my hand, I would not raise my hand against the king's son. For in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware lest anyone touch the young man Absalom. Not only is the soldier humble, but he is loyal to David and pretty savvy about how rebellion works. Joab had stepped out from under the chain of command, out from under David's authority, and so he had no authority to be telling this man to do what he's just commanded him to do. You have no authority unless you are under authority. And if Joab is willing to rebel against David, he is not to be trusted any further than he can be thrown. And you can see this in verse 13. The man says, otherwise I would have dealt falsely against my own life. For there was nothing hidden from the king, and you yourself would have set yourself against me. In other words, he's saying, hey, I'm not stupid. I'm not going to risk my life for your lousy reward. Now, you can go do that dirty work yourself. I am not going to be doing your dirty work for you. In fact, he is pleading with Joab. You know what David has said. You should not be doing this. So it's an appeal. Now, he does it a bit more politely than what I have said there, but those are bold words for a soldier to say to his commander. They are definitely not designed to be winning brownie points with Joab. But the soldier is so offended by this obvious rebellion against David that he does not hide his contempt for it and in effect he asks Joab not to do this. What's the application? The application is that humility does not mean you were not bold. Humility does not mean you can't get offended over something or Jesus would not have been a humble man. He was offended quite a number of times in the Gospels. Humility does not mean you cannot bring correction to those who are over you, not at all. Doing the truly humble thing means you're going to have backbone and you're going to go against the grain at times from what is expected. Now, Joab is obviously frustrated. He brushes him aside. Then Joab said, I cannot linger with you. Rarely does pride give in to rebuke, especially if it comes from an underling. When we are slow to be willing to be corrected, it is an evidence of pride. And it's so important that even leaders be willing to be corrected. It was actually a correction from one of you that caused the elders to even restudy this whole issue on voting and vows sometime last year, mid-last year, and to bring ourselves, make us realize, wow, we're not even under the chain of command that we should be. But it was a willingness to listen that caused us to restudy that. And what I would encourage you, fathers and husbands, be willing to listen to correction from those who are under you. I think we are stupid beyond all belief. if we have the attitude that because we're in charge, we don't need to listen to those who maybe have disagreements with us, who are under us. In fact, I just heard this two weeks ago. There was somebody who was reporting on what he heard a prominent leader, and I'm not going to tell you the name of the leader, but said this person said that a wife, let me see if I can, I wrote it down here, said that a wife may never disagree with her husband, even if her husband is calling her to sin. I mean, I was just totally shocked. I couldn't believe that this, especially this guy, if you knew who it was, would say something like this, and it deserves to be talked to. But all authority is limited authority. All authority is limited authority, and humility in leaders is willing to listen. And so we elders and deacons, we've got to examine our hearts, make sure that we are listening. But verses 11 through 14 as a whole demonstrate yet another indicator of pride, and that is irritation with the chain of command that is over us if we happen to disagree with what those who are over us are commanding. It's clear that Joab is irritated with David. He plans to undermine David behind his back. Now contrast that with the soldier. Joab or this young man doesn't do anything behind Joab's back, okay? He speaks straight to Joab. It's clear that the soldier was in complete submission to David, even though he probably didn't agree with what David was commanding any more than Joab did. I mean, when you look at it, it's really a stupid command that David gives, that you go soft on the person who's trying to kill him. It really doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And in fact, we're going to be seeing later that all the soldiers are offended by what David has done, it's hurtful to them. It makes them feel real bad. But anyway, I think it illustrates so strongly that since this soldier was not being asked to sin himself, even though it was an uncomfortable thing he was being asked to do, just as uncomfortable as it was for Joab, he has a sweet submission to David. Okay? He doesn't need to have sweet submission to Joab because Joab stepped out from under the chain of command, but he is in total submission to David. So, it's not just leaders who can be prideful when it comes to listening. Followers can be prideful too. And I think pride is endemic to every human heart, almost every human heart. It's just we many times do not recognize that. And by the way, if you want homework, again, take that packet with you. It's gonna be distributed later on. But it'll be the first step of many homeworks I've given to myself since 1994 because I've got pride in my heart. And this has been one of the things I've been on a war path against for years. And yet as many times as you think you've buried it and killed it, that pride will pop its head back up again. But I think the homework will be helpful. As recently as this past week, I've had to ask two people in the church for forgiveness for having, I thought, offended them at the congregational meeting with my testiness. And one of them said, well, I didn't think you were testy at all, but I felt it. And pride can make leaders feel testy, and pride can make followers feel testy, and we've got to recognize whatever the symptoms are, and even if others don't recognize it, immediately go to that process of killing your pride. It is an enemy that we've got to be fighting against with all of our might. So pray for us leaders just as we pray for you that Satan would not gain any access to our hearts through unconfessed pride. Verse 14, then Joab said, I cannot linger with you. And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through Absalom's heart while he was still alive in the midst of the terebinth tree. Now there were other ways that Joab could have handled this crisis situation without rebelling against David, without causing others to rebel against David. He could have immediately brought charges in court against Absalom as soon as Absalom was caught and there would be nothing that David would have been able to do to save Absalom's hide. Because you bring him to court, you bring witnesses, the evidence is clear. He would have had to have judged Absalom and he would have been executed for his crimes. But that would have been a humble and a submissive way of going against the problem rather than the way of pride and rebellion. By disobeying David's orders and killing Absalom this way, he revealed a motive of prideful, stubborn, self-willed rebellion. So here is the point. Just because your rebellion is because you think you're doing something that is right, and even if it is right, does not excuse your rebellion. Rebellion is never excusable, okay? And let me make a brief comment on why I constantly make applications of every point when I am preaching. If the only thing that we are doing is instead of asking God's Holy Spirit, Lord, reveal if there's any sin in me, if instead of that, the only thing we're doing is we're seeing the sin of other people like Joab and Absalom, we say, oh yeah, boy, I agree with you, God, that was incredibly prideful. then we are demonstrating pride ourselves. Pride can camouflage itself by coming into agreement with God's Word and saying, I agree, that's awful, that's a horrible thing that is there. In contrast, humility is going to say, boy, the pride of Absalom and Joab are awful affront. I agree with God's Word and it grieves me that my own heart has the same kind of pride. Please, Lord, rescue me from my pride. Now, of course, prideful rebellion is like a virus. It rubs off on others. It certainly rubbed off on those who were closest to Joab. Verse 15, 10 young men who bore Joab's armor surrounded Absalom, struck, and killed him. Sin that is not dealt with seems to expand into the lives of others. So it shouldn't surprise us that pride in us can produce pride in others. Now having said all of that, it's clear that the way that this was written, God by His providence overruled the sin of Joab and used his actions for good. Used his actions to fulfill the judgments that God's law said should have come against David. Okay, God was judging against Absalom, not David. God was judging Absalom for his His adultery, his incest, his attempted patricide, and his attempted regicide. There were he and his sins. And as one scripture words it, God can use even the wrath of man to praise him. So just because God uses what Joab has done for good does not justify Joab's actions. That's the only thing that I'm wanting you to see here. Now later on we're going to be seeing that this very point here is where Joab starts to totally spin out of control and it's going to come back to haunt him. But let's end by considering the additional judgments in verses 16 through 18. There are two monuments to Absalom's pride and God's judgment. The first was Absalom's burial place. He was unceremoniously thrown into a deep pit and piled high, everybody throwing stones onto that body, a huge, huge pile of stones. And then the second was the monument that Absalom built to his own glory. And let's consider the burial first. Verses 16 and 17, so Joab blew the trumpet and the people returned from pursuing Israel. For Joab held back the people and they took Absalom and cast him into a large pit in the woods and laid a very large heap of stones over him. Then all Israel fled, everyone to his tent. And this burial was such an appropriate symbol of God's judgment in five ways. First, he was excluded from his family tomb. He got a shameful burial, not a good burial, so he's not able to enter into the glory of the marble tomb that he had built for himself. Second, he was buried east of the Jordan River, which is technically outside the promised land, even though there were two tribes that were there. As one commentator worded it, The act was also laden with symbolic value. First, it caused Absalom to be excluded from the promised land since the burial site was east of the Jordan River. Absalom's rebellion had caused King David to remain outside the promised land for a time. Now the rebellion would cause King Absalom to remain outside the promised land forever. So symbolically, it speaks of an eternal curse, not just a temporary curse. Third, commentators point out that this massive burial would remind readers of the similar fate that, in the book of Joshua, Achan, as well as the king of Ai faced, where they were stoned, covered with this huge heap of stones. Fourth, it was a fulfillment of Deuteronomy 21-21. where a rebel's son would be stoned by all Israel, which again would be a huge mound of stones. And then fifth, though this huge pile of stones was a monument of what happens to rebels, the stone itself, I think is a fitting symbol for the sterility of his kingship. And indeed it ended the rebellion as verse 17 says. Now Absalom's monument was no better. Verse 18 speaks of a glorious monument that he had built years earlier. Apparently a tomb, but especially a pillar that would show the greatness of his kingship was probably his intention. But even though it was built years earlier, it's introduced here in the story because here it fits in with the whole subject, the theme of pride. It's illustrating the futility of Absalom's pride. Verse 18, now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself which is in the king's valley. For he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. He called the pillar after his own name and to this day it is called Absalom's monument. He wanted to be remembered well. And just as a by the way, this is not in any way in contradiction, as liberals say, with chapter 14. I mean, the same author is not going to be so stupid as to contradict himself within a few chapters here. In chapter 14, it says he had three sons and a daughter. And yet in that passage the daughter is named, but the three sons have no names. Commentators indicate that they must have died much, much earlier. So by the time we get here that he makes this tomb, he has no sons to carry on his name. I think that's the point that Absalom is making. And just like the former pile of stones, this stone pillar, even though it's beautiful, speaks of the sterility of his leadership. Secondly, it speaks of the sterility of his prideful desire for fame and perpetual glory. He wanted to be admired. But God turned that very memorial into a perpetual reminder of his shame. In fact, making a stone monument to be remembered by seems so shallow when you compare it with what God wants us to be remembered by. I mean, if the only thing that is your desire to be remembered by is what other people think of you, that's really not enough. What should drive us is God's statement at the end of history, well done, you good and faithful servant. Any other tribute that pride longs for is as empty as this empty memorial tomb. Benjamin Witchcote once said, none are so empty as those who are full of themselves. And I think that was true of Absalom. He left no meaningful legacy. And pride is always that way. It leaves us empty. It leaves others feeling empty as well. Now I want to end with an illustration. King Louis XIV was the king of France, I think maybe the longest reigning king in Europe. But he called himself the Sun King. He was the epitome of pride. He had managed to get rid of all of the checks and balances of feudalism, to centralize power in himself. He engaged in incredible building projects, showing his greatness like the palace at Versailles. He had paintings portraying himself and portraying each of his family members as gods. And it's just amazing. This is a guy on a head trip, a guy who thought a great deal of himself. And in order to dramatize his greatness, he ordered that at his funeral, the cathedral had to be dimly lit with only one candle burning above his coffin. And I guess the symbolism is that there is no light except for the Sun King. Even in his death, he wanted to be the center of attention. But when the Bishop Massillon began to speak at the funeral, he reached down, snuffed out that candle, and made these famous words, only God is great. Now that was a pretty bold statement for him to be making, but he obviously thought that this arrogant pride of the king was utterly blasphemous. And if we are prone to pride, which I think all of us tend to be prone to pride, We need to constantly remind ourselves of this fact. When pride comes up in our hearts, because somebody's offended us or whatever, we need to remind ourselves, hey, only God is great. And when inverted pride comes along through stage fright and through feeling absolutely mortified, like how can I live any longer because people now realize how poor we are, we need to remind ourselves you've got no reason to be mortified. Only God is great. Don't be ashamed that people don't think you're great anymore. You aren't great Only God is great. We've got to constantly remind ourselves of this fact shame is frequently a mortified pride that can't stand to be seen poorly and We must trample on those feelings and say I want no part in you pride. I crucify you I welcome this shame and because only God is great. Now let me speak of what might seem like an irony to many people, it really does fit together, but even though God is great, he is incredibly humble. And people think, well, that's just not the case because God wants to be worshiped, he wants, no. It's God the Son who wants you to worship God the Father and it's God the Father who says to the Son, says about him, this is my beloved Son. hear Him, listen to Him, okay? And so you've got God the Father exalting and lifting up, God the Son and God the Spirit, and you've got God the Spirit lifting up and exalting each other, and here is the point that pinches. When God exalts and lifts you up, which is an amazing concept in itself, but when He does that and you respond to His goodness with pride, you can see why it is an incredible offense to God. It makes Him feel bad. He cannot stand it. It's an abomination to Him. I want to close by having you compare yourself to the humility of Jesus. Philippians 2 says that even though Jesus was great, even though He was equal with the Father, He humbled Himself and became obedient even unto death, became a servant to all. And He's the greatest example of both greatness and humility. So I'm going to go through a number of contrasts right now between prideful men and Jesus. And as we go through these, I want you to ask yourself and ask the Holy Spirit, Does this statement at all characterize me? And if it does, Lord, please crucify the pride that is within me. First, men often take pride in their birth and in their rank, but Jesus was willing to be called a carpenter's son. Now think about that because he could have been incarnated in anybody that he chose to. He could have been incarnated in a great You know, queen over a majestic kingdom, he chose to be incarnate in Mary. Second, we often take pride in our respectability, but it was said of Jesus, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? He deliberately cloaked his respectability and let people think what they would. We take pride in our personal appearance, our beauty, our good looks, our muscles, whatever it might be. But it said of Jesus, he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Isaiah 53 verse 2. Now he could have made himself an incredibly handsome man. But see, there was nothing, no pride in Jesus that would have even been tempted. That form of pride was just totally absent from him. Lucifer had that, not Jesus. We take pride in our reputation, and we get offended when people slander us, but Jesus took in stride the slurs that were made about him, such as implying that he was born of fornication, or when they said, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, Luke 7, verse 34. Humility did not make him grasp for reputation or want to be well thought of. We take pride in the important friends that we have, but Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and sinners. I knew one person, this is a totally different kind of pride, I knew one person who would never let anybody buy him anything, give him a gift, treat him. I've many times tried to treat him with a Coke. No, no, no. He wouldn't do that. He'd buy you a Coke. He would treat you. He would serve you. But he would never let anybody serve him. And I asked him about that once. He says, it's just too humiliating to be beholden to anybody. So it was an inverted sense of pride. Now contrast that with Jesus who, excuse me, who allowed himself to be the receiver of an incredible gift of that alabaster, you know, that precious ointment. Allowed women to serve him, to wash his feet, let a Samaritan woman draw well water for him. He allows us to give our all to him. We sometimes take pride in our degrees and in our learning. But Jesus never went to college. People said of Him, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? He'd never gone to seminary. I'm going through all of these illustrations because one or two of them might stick in your heart and reveal pride. And that's my hope, where you can see, yes, pride exists within me and I want to give this over to the cross of Christ. Here's another one. We can easily take pride in position, or we can have an inverted pride which manifests itself in shame because we don't have a position. Yet Jesus said, I am among you as one who serves. We take pride in our possessions, yet Jesus gave up all. In fact, he said, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. We take pride in our success. But the gospel of John begins by affirming, his own did not receive him. So where is the success there? It ends that gospel by showing that Jesus lost almost all of his followers, and Isaiah said he is despised and rejected by men. And so it was not success that drove Jesus, it was delighting and doing the Father's will. And if success is the only driving force in your life, it may be that pride is the driving force in your life. We take pride in our self-reliance. Remember when our kids were younger, they would say, no, no, by myself, I can do it myself. Now there's a certain sense, which that's okay. You're wanting them to become mature, to be able to do things by themselves. But frequently, reliance flows from pride. Consider Jesus. In Luke 2, verse 51, it says that this creator of the universe was subject to his parents as a teenager. Wow. Subject to his parents as a teenager. He knew a whole lot more than his parents did, but he was subject to his parents as a teenager. Resisting our parents can be a manifestation of pride and not of humility. We take pride in our own abilities, and yet Jesus says, I can of myself do nothing. He gave credit to the Father and to the Spirit for all that he did, and his delight was in delighting the Father, not delighting himself. Some take pride in their own self-will. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. That's a manifestation of pride. Jesus said, I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. And near the end of his life, he told the Father, not my will, but yours be done. Can you see why Philippians 2 says that Jesus is the greatest human example that we could have of humility? We take pride in our intellect. But Jesus said, I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. In effect, he was saying, hey, there's nothing original with me. Everything he taught came from God the Father. Now, academics can often be so, so prideful. But if the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge didn't have a lick of pride, he gave all of the credit, every bit of this knowledge came from God the Father, who are we to be prideful in our academics? It's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous when you think about it. Pride can lead us to resentment and lack of forgiveness. But Jesus said to his crucifiers, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Many times it is pride that keeps us from forgiving. Churches can take pride in having solid members whose lives are not messed up. But you know what? Jesus was quite okay with people accusing him. This man received sinners and eats with them. Yeah, it's because he didn't have any pride that he associates with people like you and like me. In fact, that's what Hebrews 2 says. He was not ashamed to call us brothers. not ashamed. He would have been ashamed if he had had pride, but he was not ashamed to call us brothers. People in Scripture took pride that they were righteous and accepted in God, but it was said of Jesus, for He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Now as I was studying all of those contrasts this past week, it just made me realize what a maggot I am. It just made me realize how horrendous our pride really is. But it also made me worship and just adore the Holy Trinity for the fact that each person of the Trinity is so humble. All he could do, he pours forth. That's what agape love is all about. It's not self-seeking. It's always pouring forth for the benefit of others. And if the greatest man who has ever lived had not the slightest bit of pride, you can see why God is incredibly offended when sinners, maggots, saved by his grace alone, are prideful with each other and are prideful with him. It grieves him. It just grieves him. What do we have to be proud of? 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7 says, For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now, if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? Brethren and sisters, let the stories of Absalom and Joab rivet into your minds the exceeding sinfulness of pride. Let it rivet into your minds how much God hates pride, how much we need to hate pride. Let it convince you that pride always goes before destruction. And that God resists the proud, but he gives more grace to the humble. And ask God to keep you from head trips, and to make you humble like Jesus. Amen. Father God, we see our pride, but we probably don't even see how deep the roots of that pride really go. We pray that you would open the eyes of our understanding, and like you made Moses, the humblest man upon the face of the earth at that time, that you would make us as humble as it is possible for sinful people to be. Do a work of your grace in our lives, Father, where we realize the truth of your Christ's statement that without me you can do nothing. Father, may we be a humble people And as a result of being humble, a people filled with grace, filled with your power, able to accomplish great exploits, and willing to give you all the glory for those exploits. Bless us, Father, as we continue to discuss these things in the coming week. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.