Loving a Snapping Turtle - Parts 1 & 2

Dr. Micheal Richardson - Isa. 2:17

Part I—Pride

A. Before I discuss snapping turtle pride, I want to qualify some points
B. I am not talking about a parent who is rightly proud of a wonderful son or daughter
C. I am not talking about when a person takes pride in their work. My father always said, ‘Son, a job
     is not worth doing unless you do it well.”
D. I am not discussing being proud of your nation, your family or church

E. I am discussing the negative aspects of human snapping turtle pride
F. The great Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, said of pride that it is the essential vice. That      it is the utmost evil. That pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. 
G. Today, our society would define pride as “positive self-regard”
H. Self-esteem and social movements are attempts to justify the agendas of gay pride or Black Lives
     Matter
​I. Arrogant pride is what causes people to refuse help or rebel against authority
J. Dr. Charles Stanley makes 8 interesting points about pride. 
     
Part II- 4 Symptoms of Pride

A. Fault Finding

• Pride people tend to filter out the sins in their own lives
• Jesus talks about this issue in Matt. 7:3-5 when he spoke about people who complain about mote in his brother’s eyes but cannot see the beam in his own eye.
• Jesus gave another example in Luke 18:11with the prayers of the Pharisee and the P

         Publican. The Pharisee said that the was “thankful that he was not as other men

• Faulting finding in others shows snapping turtle pride in that person’s life

B. A Harsh Spirit

• Accompanying fault finding is having a prideful harsh spirit
• A prideful person finds it easy to cast aspersions on people who are struggling
• They tend to have no compassion or empathy for people
• This attitude comes from a place of arrogance in their soul
• They can never comprehend the statement, “There but by the Grace of God go I.”
• There is no “real” love for people in the hearts of snapper turtle Christians

C. Prideful people have a superficial heart

• When people are dominated by a prideful spirit that are only concern about how things look externally.
• They are very concerned about how people perceive them to be
• But God is not concerned about how many religious bumper stickers you have on your car or how large the Bible is you bring to church.
• Prideful people play a role but hide their secret sins and are not right in their relationship with God

D. Prideful people are very defensive

• They do not place themselves on the Righteousness of Christ
• Thus, they are often knocked off balance from their pretend roles
• When this happens, they become very defensive
• They may even be like King Lear’s wife when Shakespeare wrote, “Me thinks she doth protest too much.”
• Jonathan Edwards, the great preacher who preached the sermon entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an angry God” wrote, “For the humble Christians the more the world is against him, the more silent and still he will be until he is in his prayer closet and there he will not be still.”