"The Perennial Problem"

• Sermon, Dr. Rayburn


• text: 3Jn


• Pride is the first of the medieval seven "deadly sins."


• Pride is by its nature competitive. Pride gains no joy by having something, but in having more than someone else. It is the comparison that makes one proud—the joy in being over others.


• Egotism is no longer considered vulgar in our age.
  
  
  
  • We must be therefore the more on guard against damnable pride.
  
  
  
  


• Humility is the foundation grace—it lies at the root of all the virtues. Without humility, all the other virtues are turned to vice.


• The Christian virtue of humility is put on in two ways:
  
  
  
  1. an honest recognition of and repentance for our pride
     
     
     
     • it's very easy to be blind to the motivations of our own heart
     
     
     • look to yourself—are you seeking to advance your cause in order to gain preeminence? Are you acting for Christ's sake, or your own?
     
     
     
     
  
  
  2. To defeat any vice, such as pride, you must cultivate the opposite virtue.
     
     
     
     • If you would defeat pride, involve yourself in the life of others—look to the good and benefit of others over yourself.
     
     
     • A life devoted to others is the surest death of pride—it is to live as Christ did Himself.
     
     
     
     
  
  
  
  


• Story-->"If you had gone up like you came down, you might have gone down like you came up."