Is This the Most Accepted Sin? [Part 2]

So remember the three elements of pride, making yours anything that's God, and so pride always exalts the self, and so pride always pits you against God.

So let's look at the first element.

Uh, pride is making yours anything that is God's.

Now, that's what Nebuchadnezzar did at a few levels there, uh, but I want to take it out of Nebuchadnezzar's world and bring it into our world and give some thoughts on ways in which we culturally fall into this trap.

And I think the most basic way in which people fall into this trap of making theirs something that is God's is in relation, first of all, to their own life.

Very simple, the act of taking your life into your own hands.

And you see a lot of this.

You know, uh, several times in my life I've been asked to write, like, a five-year plan, a 10-year plan.

I always say to people, "I did that once." And, uh, well, it derailed pretty fast, and I haven't done it since.

And, uh, this is what people do though.

They plan out their destiny.

They imagine their futures to a level of detail where they bring it into their own efforts or, you know, you hear a lot about building a legacy these days, and they say, "Well, I want to build my legacy." Well, God will give you a legacy if He so desires, right? And you begin to take control of things, and you need to do things because you want something out of your life.

Or people who simply live on their own terms, right? They simply live on their own terms.

Um, that's what the people of Babel did.

"Come, let us make a name for ourselves," right? They're saying, "Let us take authority over ourselves.

Let us make ourselves great in our own strength." And we see this everywhere today.

Uh, we see it politically.

Uh, the prevailing political philosophy, uh, is, um, very closely related to this, and I saw it very powerfully when I went to...

I don't know, you probably haven't heard of, of this, um, not being in the political world, but there is a very famous conservative political conference called ARC, A-R-C, uh, and it's held in London, and it started a few years ago, I think 2023.

Uh, and I was invited to go, uh, and I did, and it's sort of established by Jordan Peterson, and then there's a who's who of senators, and politicians, and influencers from all Western countries, basically.

But it was interesting how that, [sighs] you know, uh, Peterson got up at the start, uh, and he kinda set the tone for the whole event where he, he talked about Abraham.

And he gets up, and he starts to say, um, you know, "I've been reading about Abraham." And I thought, "Oh, this is a nice start." And he said, "And I've been reading about the fact that Abraham had faith." I thought, "Oh, this is an even better start." And then he goes, "But what is faith?" he says.

He says, "Faith is casting our vision of the future upon the waters of the future and then taking responsibility to make it happen." I was like- [laughs] "No?" [laughs] I think that's the opposite- [laughs] ...

of faith, right? Like, isn't faith...

Like, Abraham didn't even know where he was going.