Tootin

Don't toot your own horn! Pride drowns out the sounds of God.

One thing that I've learned over the years is that when a person says "I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything"…. is that they usually do. There are a lot of people who we deal with on a daily basis who just love to tell us how great they are; yet with somewhat false humility.

I'm sure you've heard of the term. Toot your own horn; which means to brag about yourself, your talents or your accomplishments.

We've all run into those people…and tonight I hope that IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE that you might begin to recognize it. Do you toot your own horn, pat yourself on the back, or sing your own praises? When we do these things… there is one thing in common and that is that it's all about me! You speak to them and all they have to say is…"I did this." "I went there'; 'I bought that.' I can do that. I – I - I …….It's truly not a surprise that we can find I right smack dab in the middle of the word PRIDE. People that talk about themselves all the time have a problem with pride. Pride is defined as an inordinate amount of self esteem. Pride is described sometimes as stiff necked, puffed up or stuck up.  We would naturally think that a person who's prideful would only be loud mouthed and obnoxious but in reality there are a lot of very prideful people who are quite mild mannered, cool, calm and collected. Sometimes you have to look a bit closer to notice pride in a person; because some are better at hiding it than others. Pride is something though that God despises.  When we begin to think more about ourselves than we do everything and everyone else around us - it will eventually trip us up. The bible tells us …

Proverbs 16:18 The Message: First pride, then the crash; the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

And it's not IF but WHEN the fall will come.

God will eventually get around to showing a prideful person that He's in charge if they haven't noticed it already.  He states in Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things the Lord hates, no, seven things He detests… haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Proverbs 8:13 All who fear the Lord will hate evil. That is why I hate pride, arrogance, corruption and perverted speech. God hates pride – He describes it as evil.

I think He hates it so much because it seems to be the root cause of so many other sins that we commit.  It was the root cause of Satan's sin –listen to Isaiah 14:13-14 when he speaks of Satan…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 sacred Mount Zaphon, I'll climb to the top of the clouds, and I'll take over as King of the Universe. See where his emphasis is … I, I, I. Satan's plan was to be just like God… and it was also the root cause in Adam and Eve when he promised them that they too could be just like God when he promised that they would see things clearer just like God does when they ate from the tree of knowledge. God hates pride so much because he knows that it has the capacity of destroying our lives so easily.  

Pride causes people to do things that they never thought they would do, takes them places that they never thought they would go, and makes them hurt people they never thought they would hurt. And it's sneaky… We don't usually recognize it at first when it begins to take hold.  A lot of times we begin to think that we've arrived in our faith and that is when we are in the most trouble. Look at Luke 18:9-13 Jesus told this to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people. Two men went up to the Temple to pray – one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this…Oh, God I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, crooks, adulterers, or heaven forbid this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income. Pride blinded him to not even see things as they really were. But the tax man prayed like this…he slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, and said, God – give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.  God desires for us to be humble because that is how His son acted and we are to emulate him. Pride though is the way that Satan acted and God desires us to flee from him in all things.  But like I said – it can happen rather sneaky like – you may not have even realized that you are getting somewhat prideful…How do we then notice when pride begins to creep into our lives?

·         When we have a poor prayer life. When we don't rely on God on a daily basis and we begin to put ourselves in front of His will. When we try to do things without His help, we begin to grow prideful.

·         When we become exhausted.  When we try to accomplish more than God intended for us to accomplish we can become really weary doing good. We are to work selflessly but according to His plan and not our own. If we are utterly exhausted then we are relying on our own strength and not His.

·         When we become more and more angry. When we don't let God control things and people and we focus more on other people's faults instead of our own we will just become more angry and dissatisfied with our lives.

·         When we become critical of everyone else around us. When we begin to make others feel bad in order to feel better about ourselves it can point to a prideful spirit taking root.

·         When we get defensive when we are corrected or criticized. If you CANNOT laugh at your own mistakes you may be taking yourself a bit too seriously; and if you cannot be corrected by anyone, you will never become who God intended you to be.

·         When we think that everything's going good because we're doing it. When you begin to take responsibility for all the good that is going on and think that you're the only one doing anything; it may mean that you've lost sight of God's grace and underserved provision.

·         When we become impatient with everyone and everything. When you don't have the time to wait, to listen, to serve or be led by someone else – you've obviously lost sight of God and have your eyes on self too much.

·         When we look at people and judge their worthiness of our time. You have lost Jesus' perspective; no one person has more worth in His eyes. When we play favorites with people thinking that they are more important – we have fallen into pride.

We have to remember to lose the I in our lives. There is no I in selflessness; but there is however one in selfishness.

To get rid of pride:

·         we need to recognize it's there

·         and then change….repent of it

·         And then FIGHT IT off EVERYDAY TILL THE VERY END.

It's important to fight our pride or it will be our undoing. We need to quit tooting our own horn – so that it doesn't drown out the sound of the final trumpet horn that will be played when Jesus calls His true followers home.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.