Ezekiel | Week 5 | Daniel Goulding | Full Service

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Overview

73 min

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Oct 26, 2022 · 5 min read · 73 min listen

Quoting the message: You and I have to learn to deal with pride, or eventually pride will deal with us, end quote..

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Scripture in this message

Big Idea

God has an incredible plan for each of us, far better than what pride convinces us to settle for. Pride is a universal, subtle sin that always attaches to other sins, but the consequences of confessing it and bringing it into the light are always less than the consequences of hiding it.

Key points

1
1Egypt and Pharaoh became God's enemy by claiming credit for what God provided
Pastor Daniel walks through Ezekiel 29, where God confronts Pharaoh for claiming he made the Nile River, the very resource God gave Egypt to prosper. Because of this pride, God says He will drag Pharaoh out with hooks and leave Egypt desolate for forty years so that Egypt will know that He is the Lord.
2
2Pride is dangerous because it is nearly impossible to detect on its own
Pastor Daniel explains that pride hides behind success on one end and insecurity on the other, and even some anxiety is rooted in self-worship. He cites Proverbs and C.S. Lewis to show that pride is the root sin behind all others, the very sin that turned the devil into the devil.
3
3The 'I'm better than you' pride quietly ranks us above others
Using the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18, Pastor Daniel shows how the Pharisee's self-righteous prayer left him unjustified while the humble tax collector went home made right with God. He admits his own version of this pride toward friends who left ministry.
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4The 'I can handle it' pride refuses to admit our need for God
Pastor Daniel retells Jesus' encounter with the rich young man who had kept the commandments but couldn't give up his possessions to follow Jesus, and Jesus' teaching that it's easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich person to enter the kingdom. He applies this to how we can start believing our provision, savings, or success is something we built ourselves rather than something God gave.
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5Pride never stays alone; it leads to sin, shame, and hiding, just like Adam and Eve
Pastor Daniel traces the pattern from the Garden of Eden: Satan convinced Adam and Eve God was withholding from them, pride led to sin, sin led to shame, and shame led them to hide from God instead of confessing. He says this same cycle traps us today when we cover up instead of bringing things into the light.
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6The 'that doesn't apply to me' pride convinced David the rules didn't apply to him
Pastor Daniel retells David's story, noting his self-serving motives before fighting Goliath and then his refusal to go to war as he should have, which put him on the balcony where he saw Bathsheba, sinned, and covered it up by having her husband killed. He points out that David's unaddressed pride brought devastation to his family line.
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7The antidote to pride is dressing ourselves daily in humility by putting on Jesus
Pastor Daniel unpacks 1 Peter 5's call to clothe ourselves in humility and Romans' language of putting on the presence of Jesus, arguing we can't just white-knuckle sin away but must replace pride with Jesus' presence. He then walks through Philippians 2, showing how Jesus modeled humility by giving up His privileges, taking the form of a servant, and being exalted only after humbling Himself.

Application

Pastor Daniel's charge is to raise your hand and bring your pride into the light rather than let God bring it to a head for you.

Ask someone close to you where you struggle with pride
Since pride hides even from ourselves, ask a spouse or close friend to name where they see it in you, as Pastor Daniel did with his own wife this week.
Name your specific type of pride
Search your heart for which pattern fits you: feeling better than others, believing you can handle life without help, or thinking the rules don't apply to you.
Bring hidden sin into the light instead of covering it up
Rather than rationalizing or hiding a mistake like Adam and Eve or David did, confess it now, trusting that the consequences of confession are always less than concealment.
Dress yourself in humility every morning
Deliberately put on the presence of Jesus each day rather than just white-knuckling temptation, letting His Spirit fill you so sin loses its grip.
Take interest in and serve people who can give you nothing back
Follow Philippians 2 by putting others' interests ahead of your own, especially people who disagree with or differ from you, as a direct fight against pride.

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“opening them up to Ezekiel chapter 29. Ezekiel 29 is where we're gonna be. We got a lot to cover, so I'm gonna pray and we'll jump right in”
From the transcript
“Here's what we're gonna see in Ezekiel chapter 29. It says on January 7, verse one, during the tenth year of King Jehoiakim's captivity, this message came to me from the Lord”
From the transcript
“In verse three he says, give them this message from the sovereign Lord. I am your enemy, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt, you great monster lurking in the streams of the Nile”
From the transcript
“Here's why, verse nine is massively important. Why is God doing this? Why is God bringing and allowing destruction to come to Egypt? He says, because the land of Egypt is going to become a desolate wasteland so that all the Egyptians in there will know that I am the Lord”
From the transcript
“It's why the book of Proverbs tells us this is God's heart towards pride. Proverbs 16 says that the Lord detests the proud. God hates the proud. They will surely be punished”
From the transcript
“Jesus turns to his disciples and he tells them in Luke chapter 18, here is the lesson of this parable, the story that Jesus uses. He says, I tell you, it's this sinner, it's not the Pharisee that returned home justified”
From the transcript
“He says this in First Peter chapter five. He says, all of us, all of you, all of us in this room, we have to learn to dress ourselves in humility. As we relate to one another, for God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble”
From the transcript
“Paul in the book of Colossians in chapter two says that you and I have to learn to teach ourselves to put on humility. It's almost like this visual language of getting up in the morning, looking at our day, looking at our calendar”
From the transcript
“Philippians chapter two, Paul records what Jesus did, how he lived and he gives us some keys of how to walk in humility, how to fight against sin. He says this in Philippians two and here he says, don't be selfish, guys”
From the transcript
“And then he says in verse four, don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too”
From the transcript
“Look at how Paul wraps this up in Philippians two talking about the life of Jesus. This is where this thing gets good. He says, you and I must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Day 1

Pastor Daniel opened with a word that's easy to hear and hard to receive: pride isn't someone else's problem. It's yours. It's mine. Proverbs 16:5 says, 'The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.' That's a serious statement, and it's worth sitting with before you rush past it. The verse doesn't say pride is inconvenient or counterproductive. It says God detests it. That's the language of real opposition — the kind where what you're doing is actively working against what God is doing. The reason pride is so dangerous isn't just its consequences; it's how invisible it is to the person carrying it. Pastor Daniel made the point that leaving pride undetected is what makes it destructive. A wound you can't see is a wound you won't treat. So today isn't about feeling bad. It's about getting honest — asking the Spirit to show you what you can't see on your own. That's not condemnation; it's actually the beginning of freedom. The invitation today is simply to open your hands, slow down, and ask God to make you aware of what He already sees. That kind of honesty, however uncomfortable, is where the cycle starts to break.

For reflection

Where in your life might pride be operating so quietly that you've stopped noticing it?

Pray

Pray for the courage to let God show you what your own blind spots around pride look like right now.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Pride is one of those things that's easy to spot in someone else and almost invisible in ourselves — this message takes an honest look at why that is, and what God offers us instead.

Discussion questions

1
In Ezekiel 29, Pharaoh declares that the Nile is his — that he made it himself. What do you think drives a person to that kind of thinking, and where do we see that same logic show up in modern life?
2
In Luke 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. What does the Pharisee's prayer reveal about how pride can disguise itself as faithfulness?
3
Pastor Daniel described a cycle where pride leads to sin, sin leads to shame, and shame leads to concealment. Looking at King David's story as an example, how does that cycle tend to deepen the original problem rather than protect us from it?
4
Pastor Daniel pointed out that thinking 'this message isn't really for me' can itself be a form of pride. What makes that posture so hard to recognize in ourselves, and why might it be one of the more dangerous forms pride takes?
5
Philippians 2 describes Jesus setting aside divine privilege to serve and ultimately be lifted up by God. What does that picture suggest about the connection between humility and lasting impact?
6
Pastor Daniel challenged us to 'put on' humility each morning the way you'd put on work clothes — choosing to think of others as more important, taking genuine interest in people around us, and filling our souls with Jesus rather than muscling through on our own. What might that kind of daily rhythm look like for a group of people trying to live it out together?

Pray together

Asking God to show us where pride is quietly at work in us, and for the grace to reach for His humility before the cycle starts

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

Ezekiel | Week 5 | Daniel Goulding | Full Service

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

We Need a Little Christmas | Week 4 | Pat McCalla

Love Defined | Week 7

Weekday Warrior | Week 3

Weekday Warrior | Week 2

Never Enough x YTH Takeover | Week 6

Basics | Week 4 | Message

Ezekiel | Week 5 | Daniel Goulding | Full Service

The big idea

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

We Need a Little Christmas | Week 4 | Pat McCalla

Love Defined | Week 7

Weekday Warrior | Week 3

Weekday Warrior | Week 2

Never Enough x YTH Takeover | Week 6

Basics | Week 4 | Message