The Sin Nobody Talks About

Pride is one of the most dangerous sins in Scripture—and one of the least talked about.

In Episode 4 of Season 2 of Keepers of the Light, Dylan Burcham takes an honest look at how pride can quietly affect our relationship with God, our spiritual growth, our ability to receive correction, and even our willingness to repent.

From the fall of Lucifer to the warnings of Jesus, this episode explores how pride often hides behind success, self-reliance, offense, insecurity, and religious performance—and why humility remains one of the greatest strengths a believer can possess.

Through powerful biblical teaching, practical application, and thought-provoking illustrations, listeners are challenged to examine their hearts and make room for God to work more deeply in their lives.

🔥 Featured Scriptures include:

• Proverbs 16:18
• James 4:6
• Matthew 23:12
• 2 Chronicles 7:14
• Psalm 51:10

Whether you're a longtime believer or simply seeking a deeper walk with God, this episode is a reminder that spiritual strength begins with humility.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Praise the Lord, everybody, and welcome back to Keepers of the Light, the official podcast of Gospel Lighthouse Pentecostal Church. As always, my name is Dylan Bircham. I'm your host, and I am so excited about today's episode. I am excited, but at the same time, I'm a little nervous because today we're going into uncomfortable territory. And I know last week I gave you something uncomfortable, and we're going to follow that up with an uncomfortable episode today. So, amen. It's going to be exciting. But not because these episodes that are uncomfortable. Let me just say, it's not because we're trying to condemn anybody, um, and it's not because we're trying to shame people, uh, but there are certain things that are destroying people spiritually, and while there's almost nobody talking about these things from an honest perspective anymore, it's important that we talk about some things. And so today we're going to talk about the sin that nobody talks about. Are you still here? Great. Uh, I was gonna pause there and just let you escape for a minute, but now that you're still here, you're locked in. The sin that nobody talks about is not the obvious sins that people usually preach about. Today we're gonna talk about something more subtle, uh something more accepted, something more dangerous because it hides so easily in our lives. And so the sin that nobody talks about that we are going to talk about today is pride. Before there was drunkenness, before there was immorality, before there was corruption on the earth, there was this five-letter word called pride. In Proverbs 16 and verse 18, the Bible says, Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Pride was the sin that caused Lucifer to fall. The enemy's downfall started with I. I will ascend. I will exalt myself. Because pride always shifts focus from God to self. And the terrifying thing about pride is this the fact that it can live inside religious people while looking spiritual externally. Pride doesn't always look loud, though. Most people imagine pride as arrogance, but pride wears many faces. Sometimes pride is superiority, but sometimes it's stubbornness, sometimes pride is refusing correction, and sometimes pride hides behind insecurity. Because pride is not just thinking highly of yourself, pride is becoming consumed with yourself. In James chapter 4 and verse 6, the Bible says, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. That verse alone should shake us. God resists the proud. He doesn't resist the broken, he doesn't re resist the struggling, he doesn't resist the ones that have issues and problems and a broken spirit, but he resists the proud. If you've ever been waiting in an elevator lobby, you've more than likely hit the button at least once in your life, more than the first time. But I'm here to tell you today, pushing it again does nothing, but sometimes it helps our feelings. But this man is standing there pressing the up button over and over, but the elevator won't move. And finally, someone pointed out the problem. He was standing in the wrong elevator. That elevator was designed to only go down. And that's what pride does spiritually. People keep trying to elevate themselves while living in something designed to bring them lower. Because self-exaltation always ends up in collapse eventually. Because pride blocks growth. You cannot grow if you think you already know everything. Pride hates correction. Pride gets offended easily. Pride refuses accountability. Pride always needs to be right. But wisdom, wisdom listens. Proverbs thirteen and ten says, only by pride cometh contention. Think about how many broken relationships, broken churches, broken families started because nobody wanted to humble themselves first. Pride can definitely destroy what talent built. And sometimes we see that in something that people call the Pharisee spirit. Jesus reserved some of his strongest words for religious pride. See the Pharisees throughout Scripture, they looked holy publicly, but inwardly, pride consumed them. In Matthew 15 and 8, the Bible says, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And we talked about that last week, and I wanted to bring it back up today because he's talking about the Pharisees. They loved titles, they loved recognition, they loved status, but they had no humility. And if we're not careful, modern Christianity can fall into that same trap. We want platforms more than we want prayer, we want attention more than we want anointing, and we want influence more than we want intimacy with God. So imagine it like this: imagine holding a cup upside down under water, and the cup appears empty, but it's full of air. And until the air leaves, water cannot enter. That is pride spiritually. Some people keep asking God to fill them, but they're already too full of themselves. And I know that's kind of that's kind of rude, and I didn't mean that to be rude, but humility makes room for God to move. And if I have no humility and I'm full of pride, he physically cannot feel what I want to allow to empty. See, the world sees humility as weakness, but the kingdom of God sees humility as power. Jesus, the King of Kings, God robed in the flesh, he himself washed feet. In Matthew 23 and 12, the Bible says, Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Real humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it is thinking of yourself less. It's understanding that without God, I have nothing. But pride so many times keeps people from repentance. One reason pride is so dangerous is because it keeps people from admitting the fact that they need help. Pride says, I'm fine, I don't need accountability, I I can handle this all myself, but healing, again, I know I'm repeating myself the last few episodes, but this is important. Healing begins with honesty. Revival begins with repentance, and repentance requires humility. Second Chronicles 7 and 14 says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, notice that humility comes first, the very first thing. So it's important to remember to have humility and this is comical, but stay low. One of the safest places you can be spiritually is in the low place of humility. Because humble people, humble people remain teachable, they remain grateful, they remain dependent on God. And the higher God takes you, the lower you should stay when it comes to your humble spirit, because pride can destroy in moments what it took years to build. And so if you're listening to my voice today, and I haven't ran you off already with these past couple episodes that are pretty serious topics, if you're listening to me today, if you're hearing this right now and you struggle with pride, I'm going to challenge you right now, get that fixed. Get your pride under control, get that out of the way so that God can make you what He wants you to be. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for today and all that you've done in it. Lord, I thank you for every person listening to the sound of my voice right now, the ones that stuck around to hear today's episode. Lord, I just ask that you bless them greatly, wherever they are and whatever their circumstance may be. But Lord, I ask you to search our hearts today. Remove every hidden spot of pride in our life. Remove every stubborn spirit. Remove every selfish ambition. Remove everything that makes it to where we are unteachable and uncorrectable. Lord, I just ask that you remove those things from our life. Teach us humility. Help us to stay in your spirit, to stay teachable, to stay surrendered, to stay dependent on you. And Lord, protect us from becoming more concerned with appearances and ourselves than we are concerned with obedience to you and your word. Lord, I ask you to help us to let our lives reflect your humility. Because, Lord, you came to this world and was an humble servant while you were here. And you did the work of a servant when you washed feet. You did an act of humility, and I ask that you help us to reflect that humility in our daily lives. Help us to remove pride and to boost that humble spirit in our lives. In Jesus' name I thank you and I praise you. Amen. I want to say yet again, thank you so much for joining me for another episode of Keepers of the Light. If this episode challenged you, I want you to let it. I want you to let it challenge you. Because conviction is not meant to destroy you. These lessons are not meant to hurt you. It's meant to transform us into being the keepers of the light that we are called to be. So I want to encourage you today to share this episode with someone who needs the reminder. And always remember, the strongest people spiritually, they're not the ones that seem like they have it all going on. But oftentimes the strongest people spiritually are the humblest. Again, my name's Dylan Bircham, and until next time, keep the light burning.