Pride is an ugly thing. We see it so often in other people but the reality is, we rarely if ever see it in ourselves. That’s not to say it’s not there – just that we don’t notice it. So – what is pride, what does it look like? What can we do about it?

This week on the program we're looking at pride and selfishness. Not someone else's pride and selfishness, easy to point the finger isn't it? He's proud, she's selfish. No, no, our own pride, our own selfishness, yours and mine.

The theme of the programs over this next few weeks is, ‘How To Get Over Yourself And Live A Life That Counts’. See, we all suffer from pride and selfishness to some degree. And those things are like shackles and chains that imprison us in our own lonely little castle. That's why God detests them. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 5. It says:

All of you must clothe yourselves in humility for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

So, the formula for having God oppose us 100% of the time is to be proud. And I don't know about you but pushing in the opposite direction to God, pushing against God instead of with Him, that's not a contest I want to be in for very long. It's got to be exhausting and there's no way to win.

Pride, arrogance, haughtiness, question is, what are they? What do they look like when I'm being proud, when you're being proud? What exactly is it that we're doing? That's what we're going to be talking about today on the program.

There's a fabulous story in the Old Testament in the Book of Isaiah. And for me, it explains pride better than any other. It's ostensibly about the king of Babylon. Now Babylon back then was the world power. A bit like the U.S. is today. The dominant power, the super power with a mighty army.

And Babylon had taken Gods people into captivity, that's what the Book of Isaiah is all about. But this same story in Isaiah chapter 14 is pretty much well accepted as the story of how satan tried to take on God. It explains why the devil is a fallen angel and it all has to do with pride.

Have a listen to it. Oh, by the way, I'm going to do something different, I don't often do this. I'm using the Message Translation because as a story it's so much easier to read from that translation. And when Isaiah talks about Jacob, that's the name he's using for Gods chosen people, the remnant of Israel.

And what Gods talking about to His people here is, even though they're in captivity, He's going to bring them home. Impossible though that may seem because of the power and the might of Babylon, God is going to restore the fortunes and the homes and the land of the blessing of Israel.

Anyhow, you have the background, now let's have a listen to what God has to say to the king of Babylon. This story which paints such a powerful picture of this thing we call pride. Beginning at Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12:

What a comedown this is O Babylon. Daystar, son of dawn. Flat on your face in the underworld mud. You famous for flattening nations. You said to yourself, 'I'll climb to heaven. I'll set my throne over the stars of God. I'll run the assembly of angels that meets on a sacred mountain. I'll climb to the top of the clouds. I'll take over as king of the universe.

But you didn't make it did you? Instead of climbing up, you came down. Down with the underground dead. Down into the abyss of the pit. People will stare and muse, 'can this be the one who terrorised the earth and it's kingdoms? Turned the earth into a moonscape. Wasted it's cities. Shut prisoners into a living death.

Other kings will get a decent burial, honoured with eulogies, placed in a tomb. But you, you're dumped in a ditch unburied like a stray dog or cat. Covered with rotting bodies and murdered corpses. Your dead body desecrated, mutilated, no state funeral for you. You've left your land in ruins, left a legacy of massacre. The progeny of your evil life will never be named. Oblivion!

What was the sin of Babylon’s king? Simple. He tried to set himself up above God and above everyone else. In all his pomp and power he forgot he was just a man and that God is God and that no one, no one can oppose God.

Babylon took Gods people into slavery. They were treated brutally, why? Because the king of Babylon had the power, because he could. It wasn't right. It wasn't loving. It wasn't compassion. It wasn't kind. None of those things. It was just that the king of Babylon had all the power, he lived like a king and he abused his slaves. Have another listen to this succinct portrayal of pride and arrogance:

You said to yourself, 'I'll climb to heaven. I'll set my throne over the stars of God. I'll run the assembly of angels. I'll climb to the top of the clouds. I'll take over as the king of the universe.

That says it all, doesn't it? That, my friend, is the anatomy of pride. To set ourselves above God. To set ourselves above other people. It's the exact opposite of what God calls us to. It's the root of all of our rebellion against God and can I tell you, I so relate to this. It's how I lived the first 36 years of my life.

I figured I didn't need God, what for? I was clever enough, I figured out how to make plenty of money with the skills I'd acquired along the way. And let me tell you, I was prepared to walk over the top of anyone and everyone to get to where I was going.

So, we don't have to be the king of Babylon to do this, to think that we can set ourselves above God and above other people. Just ordinary, every day little people like you and me are prone to this sin of pride as well. The arrogance of always thinking we're right and because other people don't see things quite our way, that they're wrong.

There's something, there's something inside us that wants to rise up and to win. To beat the other guy. To get our way. To make sure we're comfortable. And what that's about is setting ourselves, our needs, our wants, our opinions, our comfort above God and above others.

That, that is what pride and arrogance and selfishness are and I don't think that you or I need too much of an imagination to think through the circumstances and the situations in which we do that, day after day after day after day.

It started when we were children. I remember my mother would sometimes cut a cake in half, one half for my sister, the other half for me. And both of us would immediately set to work to determine if, by any chance, one piece of cake was a millimetre bigger than the other piece of cake.

And it wasn't just about getting the larger slice of cake, it was about making sure that my sister didn't get it. That she didn't win. That was the most important bit.

Will you notice with me please the results of the pride of the king of Babylon. Will you notice with me please how God reacts to this guy? Have another listen:

Other kings will get a decent burial, honoured with eulogies and placed in a tomb. But your body will dumped in a ditch, unburied. Like a stray dog or cat. Covered with rotting bodies and murdered corpses. Your dead body desecrated and mutilated. No state funeral for you. You've left your land in ruins. You've left a legacy of a massacre. The progeny of your evil life will never be named. Oblivion!

See, what does that tell you and what does that tell me about how God responds to our pride? It's not good news, is it? If we want God to appose us then be proud, be arrogant, be selfish. But if we want God on our side then there needs to be another way. And there is. Jesus said it like this, Matthew chapter 5, verse 5:

Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.