Jail Break - Elevated by Pride

 

 

Objective - Students will learn how pride brings about an unstable life, and will be challenged to live a humble life.

Key Scripture - Daniel 5:20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.

Summary - Today’s lesson was the second lesson in a four-part series called Jail Break: Set Free From Sin. This series focuses on the doctrinal truth of sin. A simple definition of sin is this: anything we think, say, or do that disobeys God.

This lesson specifically focused on the universal sin of pride. In various places, the Bible uses the imagery of being “lifted up” when it refers to pride. The higher someone lifts themselves up, the more unstable their life becomes. Pride leads to destruction (Proverbs 16:18). But we also highlighted that pride is stealing honor or credit from God.

We used the lives of two Old Testament kings, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, as examples of how pride leads to destruction. It would be wise for you to read the fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Daniel to help you understand what your student learned through this lesson. It would also be helpful for you to read Proverbs 16:18 and 1 Peter 5:6.

At the end of the lesson, students were challenged to choose one of the following ideas as a way to practice humility this week.

Write out a prayer of praise to God for things they normally take credit for.

Openly thank God for the authority figures in their life. (They could post it to social media, send them a text, a card, or a letter, or thank them verbally face-to-face.)

Ask a friend to keep them accountable when they hear them speak or see them act in a prideful way.

There is no doubt that choosing to live in humility is not a “once-and-done” decision. Being humble comes one decision at a time. If we are going to be humble, we have to make decisions that a humble person would make. When making a choice this week, your student was challenged to ask themselves, “What would a humble person do in this scenario?” and was encouraged to then choose to do that.