Pride is a weed, kills off the flowers. Let's talk about it on this edition of KeeLite. Hi, that was Steve Brown and I'm Mike Keller. You're listening to KeeLite, practical Bible principles for daily living. Here with Bible in hand is Steve. Thanks Mike, if you have your Bible opening to the book of Obadiah, a man with a funny name and a short sermon, only 21 verses in this book and we've been spending some time with my friend Obadiah. We don't know much about him and we have suggested that that's a good thing. We don't know much about anybody who accomplishes big things for God but God knows and that's what is important. We looked at some exegetical notes concerning the book of Obadiah that I spent a considerable period of time talking about the history of the edamites and this book deals primarily with the edamites and with God's covenant people. We saw how the worst thing you can say to somebody who's an Old Testament believer that they're an edamite. I mean, that's like saying you're a Glee and your mother dressed you funny and we look at a lot of different scripture that has to do with the edamites and some of the bad things they did right up to the coming of Titus in 70 AD. We drew a number of conclusions from that by looking at other scripture and talking about that and if you were listening yesterday, we talked about the Bible being true and I pointed out that Jeremiah 49 and Obadiah are almost the same thing. Now, if you believe that little guy's copy of big guys, you believe that Obadiah copied Jeremiah. If you believe that sometimes it's the other way around, you believe that Obadiah copied Jeremiah or the Jeremiah copied Obadiah. But let me give you an alternative to those two possibilities and the alternative is they were both worshiping the same God who never changes his mind. One of the incredible things we saw yesterday about the Bible is the internal, unbelievable mind-blowing consistency from Genesis to Revelation written over a period of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, 66 books multitude of authors and yet they're all speaking with one voice about one God in a similar way and so it hangs together with an internal consistency that is nothing less than incredible. Now, if you're a pagan and you were just flipping across the dial and you heard that, I would suggest that you check it out. It's one of the things that will help you in understanding the Bible. You may not like what it says, but it speaks with a consistent voice. You may hope that what it says isn't true because it would mess up your life and your fun, but it speaks with a consistent voice. You may wish that you could read another book that would be this consistent, but you can't because the Bible speaks with a consistent voice and if that doesn't make you think, I'm not your mother. I mean, I was going to say something worse than that, but then I'll get letters and I don't need that. I already got a bunch of letters like that. Now let's turn to the text of Obadiah. Look at the first four verses of Obadiah. Now, this is Obadiah 1-1-4, but there is no Obadiah 2-1-4 because there's only one chapter, so it's Obadiah 1-4. And this is the text. The vision of Obadiah, but says the Lord God concerning Eden. We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations saying, arise. Let us rise up against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you. You who dwell in the cless of the rock whose habitation is high, you who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground, though you exalt yourself as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars. From there I will bring you down, says the Lord. You probably memorize Proverbs 16-18 when you were in Sunday school. I did. I know it in my head. It's just hard to make it work in my heart. What goes before destruction? What do you find just before a fall? You remember pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. One time Dodge and he came in and saw Plato sitting in a room of his house, and he had this magnificent carpet and Dodge and he wiped his foot on the carpet. And he said, thus do I tremble on the pride of the great Plato, Plato without looking up, said, yes, but you did it with a greater pride. There's something about arrogance and pride that really can mess you up as a Christian. It's very, very dangerous. And that's why it's the center motivational sin. It's why one of the, why it's one of the monastic seven deadly sins pride is a pretty scary thing. And I'm pretty proud of the fact that I just told you that. You know this is a dangerous job. It really is. And you need to pray for me. You need to pray for anybody who's in front of other people and ministering to them in the name of a God who calls them to be humble. I've got this wonderful voice whenever I visit some of you guys. There's an audible sigh like, oh no, he couldn't possibly look that bad. Not with a voice like that, but trust me. I can't help it. I mean, I can't do anything about the voice. When I can't do anything about my looks, it's just God was sort of God's joke. I remember speaking at a college when I used to be on the lecture circuit of college is all over the place. Somebody wrote in the head the lead story in the college newspaper. I couldn't believe that much would come out of a guy who looks that way. I can't help it, but some of you just know my voice. You think I'm the Marble Man. And you know that I've spent a lot of time studying the scripture. And you know that I know a lot that I teach you the theological seminary that I write books. And I know it too. That's very dangerous. It's dangerous for your pastor to be put to six feet above everybody else. Have a spotlight shine down. I'm giving him a microphone where his voice is tripled in its volume. And then they say now pastor be humble. That's hard to do. So you've got to pray for your pastor. You've got to pray for those of us who do media ministry because God hates the kind of pride that's endemic and pandemic to what we do. And I know what the Bible says. The Bible says that God cuts the legs off the pride. The Bible says that pride goes before destruction and a holly spirit before a fall. The Bible says let me take them. I went down. I don't know if I've told you this before. But I spoke and I got to be careful here that I don't get too specific. But I spoke for a conference. Some of the richest, most powerful people in America. And when they asked me to speak I was so pleased that they had been so wise. I mean I thought you know they need a man of God who will speak clearly God's word to them. When it's over they'll rise up and call me blessed. When it's over I will be one of the truly greats in America. And you know I know you're laughing but I wouldn't laugh when I said that. I was serious. So I went to this very large city to speak to this very large conference. A very rich and very powerful people. And you know what happened. I made a fool of myself. That's what happened. I mean it was one of those things when you ride in the elevator and they're people at the conference you want to kind of get over in a corner and pretend you're not there. I mean they don't want to say you know that was horrible. I mean civility requires that you not say that. So they just don't say anything. Or they say interesting that's what the interesting thing interesting speech. And you know that you just died. That you couldn't talk and it wouldn't come out. When I got back to the room God told me it was him and it was time for it to happen. You know that was the best thing that ever happened to me but let me tell you something that kind of irritates me. That gave me one of those coffee coasters with the insignia of that organization. And it sits on my study desk at home. And God told me I have to keep it there. I don't yeah it's awful. I mean the reason I make coffee so quick is so I can get a coffee mug on top of that thing. Don't have to look at it. Isn't that awful? No no no that's good. What is it in your life right now that humbles you? Maybe don't have education. Maybe you gave your testimony. You blew it big time. Maybe maybe you've gone through a really difficult relational time and you thought oh man I messed it up again. Maybe it's your besetting sin you can't get rid of it. What is it in your life that really brings you down? You know what God's doing? Listen up I'm going to tell you because I'm an expert. I may not be an expert in a lot of things that I say but I'm an expert in this. God is bringing you to the end of yourself. And you know why he's bringing you to the end of yourself? Maybe it's a maybe it's a physical matter. Maybe you've been through a divorce and you're so ashamed. Maybe he can't sleep at nine. You've been going without sleep because you're afraid people are going to find out your seat. I don't know what it is. Whatever makes you humble is a gift from God because God is bringing you to the end of yourself. You say well that sounds like a child abuser to me. I don't believe God would do that. Yeah he will. You know why he does that so that you can laugh and sing and be free in the presence of God. So so you don't have stuff to protect anymore so you don't have to pretend anymore so so he can love you and show you his grace. It's hard it's hard for me but find out whatever it is because of Obadaya one through four and thank him for it because when you're down that's where you find him. He's great. You think about that. I'm in. Hey listen if you're not a part of our key light tape CD family and you need to specify the format when you write I'd love for you to be a part of it. Now these are free. They come out every seven or eight weeks. They're not the broadcast date. You can subscribe to those and if you ask us we'll tell you how this is some of my Bible teaching at the seminary at the Billy Graham Training Center at a Bible conference or a mission conference and we send those dates or CDs as you specify out to our family and they keep coming one every seven or eight weeks and they keep coming till Jesus comes back or you don't want them. 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