Standing In the Way Of God's Grace

Introduction

Good morning and welcome back!

This morning if you will, start turning in your Bibles to the Old Testament, to the book of Proverbs.

In jut a few moments we will be reading from a passage from and we will be discussing one of the main things that stands in our way of experiencing God’s grace in our lives.

And just to let the cat out of the bag a little, that one thing is nothing other than pride.

Last week we talked a great deal about fear preventing us from experiencing the fullness of God’s grace.

And we also talked about our own complacency, our unwillingness to recognize that God desires to change us as He matures us.

He wants us to “grow up in Christ” as we navigate through our Christian walk.

However, sometimes the problem is we think we are grown up when we really are not.

We get “too big for our breeches” as they used to say.

We reach the place were we think we have it all figured out and we can start telling other people how they should be living.

We become prideful.

We get all puffed up and proud about how good we are doing and how “holy” we are which is not of God.

In fact our Bible tells us in Proverb 3:33-35 . . . .

Proverbs 3:33–35 NIV - Anglicised

33 The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous. 34 He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble. 35 The wise inherit honour, but fools he holds up to shame.

Proverbs 3:33-

And then James tells us that . . .

James 4:6–10 NIV - Anglicised

6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

James 4:6-

And then finally, Peter . . .

1 Peter 5:5–10 NIV - Anglicised

5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

1 Peter 5:5-

Now all three of these passages have something in common....Humility.

In Proverbs it says that God “gives grace to the humble.”

In James “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

In 1 Peter the same thing, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Which is no mistake because James and Peter are both loosely quoting Proverbs.

But the point is for us to experience God’s grace, we must be a humble people.

Peter goes on to say for us to “humble [ourselves] therefore under God’s mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time.”

Humility get’s God’s attention.

But our society doesn’t get that.

We have adopted the ideas such as:

“the victor gets the spoils”

“knowledge is power”

“second place is the first loser”

And our lives become a pursuit of this image that we think we have to project on the world and on others and that hardens our hearts and our souls.

One of the commentators I read wrote this about pride:

Pride is always a masquerade. We enter the hall wearing a mask. We receive the praise of men, knowing all along that we look nothing like the costume we wear. Pride leads to the kind hypocrisy in which we keenly discern the flaws of others because we are haunted by our own. It makes us seem bigger than we are, and deflates those around us. Because we detest the lies we tell ourselves, we try to expose the same lies in others. We hide the very flaws he is willing to love.

Pride leads us to pray, “I thank you that I am not like other men.” Pride cannot see beyond itself. Pride whispers that if we must accept grace, then we should have it all. Pride is a miser that hoards the grace of God. Pride hoards the grace of God, as if our sin were so great we could consume heaven’s full supply of grace, when in fact our sins are common to all mankind. Pride causes us to see grace as a zero-sum game, as if God’s kindness to others means less grace for us.

In short pride destroys us and destroys any hope of experiencing the grace of God.

Pride cannot see beyond itself. Pride whispers that if we must accept grace, then we should have it all. Pride is a miser that hoards the grace of God. Pride hoards the grace of God, as if our sin were so great we could consume heaven’s full supply of grace, when in fact our sins are common to all mankind. Pride causes us to see grace as a zero-sum game, as if God’s kindness to others means less grace for us.

Which is what tells us.

Read with me . . .

Scripture Focus

Proverbs 16:16–33 NIV - Anglicised

16 How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver! 17 The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life. 18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. 20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. 21 The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction. 22 Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it, but folly brings punishment to fools. 23 A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction. 24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. 25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. 26 The labourer’s appetite works for him; his hunger drives him on. 27 A scoundrel plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. 28 A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends. 29 A violent man entices his neighbour and leads him down a path that is not good. 30 He who winks with his eye is plotting perversity; he who purses his lips is bent on evil. 31 Grey hair is a crown of splendour; it is attained by a righteous life. 32 Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city. 33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

Pride Goes Before Destruction

Point 1

Okay, so starting out we find a couple of things in this passage that are very familiar to us, with the “haughty spirit leading to a great fall” and “pride going before destruction,” but we are used to cherry picking nice sounding phrases out of a passage and going with those, we forget the passage as a whole.

And this entire passage is dealing with the central issue of humility and being humble.

And this passage offers a comparison and contrasting of the different ways of life.

However, when it all shakes out, what does it look like to be humble?

We talk about it a lot, but I think part of the problem is we don’t really know what humility or humbleness mean.

For instance, there was a certain school that used to give out rewards every year to their students.

We know what they are, things like “most improved,” “most ‘A’s,’ “most athletic,” etc..

But they also had a reward they gave out for the “most humble student” of the year award.

And there was a student that won the award one year and he, of course was very happy to accept the award.

But immediately after accepting the award, the school administration took it away from him!

Why though? Why would they give an award and then take it away for no reason?

Well, by him accepting the award and thus showing it off to his friends, he moved from a place of humility to a place of pride, and he moved there very quickly.

The biggest difference between a humble life and and prideful one is not the person who is out here strutting around like a peacock or the one who is constantly bragging about all of their achievements.

Everyone sees through that attitude.

The real danger to the Christian when falling into this trap is adopting an entitled or elitist attitude.

And what I mean by that is we start out doing well, living for God, being obedient to God, but when we start to gain some measure of success we tend to adopt this “better than” attitude.

We think that because God has blessed us and that God is using us, we are more special to God than other people.

And instead of being the humble servant who serves God out of simply a genuine love for God, we turn into this servant who is always comparing ourselves to how well others are doing.

We want to make sure we are one step ahead of everyone else.

We want to have the biggest church buildings with the fanciest shows every week.

We start to measure our success in terms of how much better we are doing than someone else rather than how obedient to God we are.

We are like the two men Jesus teaches about in , who go to God in prayer . . .

Luke 18:9–14 NIV - Anglicised

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We are more like the Pharisee when we should be like the tax collector.

We pray, “God thank you for saving me, I am so glad I’m not like that poor soul who hasn’t found you yet,” when we should be saying, “Lord I am a sinner, thank you for saving me, teach me how to better serve you.”

See the difference?

And this isn’t just those that occupy the pews either.

It is very prevalent in the pulpits and church leadership as well.

Why do you think we keep such a close track on the attendance and have to report it to the District every month?

They want to make sure we are “doing good” so they keep track of us.

Which has it’s good and bad, it does serve some purpose, but every year at District Assembly they hand out the books that have the statistics for every church on the district.

They track what our attendance, giving, salvation, and baptism trends and the book has the current year and I think the last one or two years for comparison.

And the first, I mean the first thing people do is flip over to that section and start looking at the church stats and start comparing how well their church did against other churches.

And churches who’s numbers are either flat or maybe declined a little, the attitude is “wonder what’s going in their church?”

That is a prideful and elitist attitude and we need to get over it.

Instead of that “I wonder what’s going on in their church” attitude, maybe we should be saying, “Thank God that all of these churches are still open and serving Jesus, Lord what I can do to help!”

If we can do that and get away from the “it’s all about us” attitude and realize that this is not a competition but rather a mission we are all on together, regardless of congregation or denomination, then we can really do some work for the kingdom.

And when God is using us and blessing us, stop bragging about it.

I see people say, .

“Oh, I am so blessed. The Lord used me to pray for 15 people last week”

“The Lord blessed me and used me to baptize 25 last month,”

“Oh, I am so overflowing with how God has poured himself out on me, 15 people were saved last week.”

I don’t know if it’s a real word or not, but I call that the “humble-brag.”

You phrase things in such a way that you sound like you are being humble but in reality you are just bragging about yourself.

If we are doing that we need to just stop it.

Listen to what else Jesus says about humility . . .

Matthew 6:2–4 NIV - Anglicised

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:

Just do what God has called you to do and move on.

No need to keep track of it or announce it to the world.

Just serve God.

Because we need to remember . . .

Proverbs 16:18 NIV - Anglicised

18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

And . .

Proverbs 16:25 NIV - Anglicised

25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Proverbs 16:25

Man’s Way Is A Destructive Way (vs 21-25)

Patience Is Better Than Warriors (vs 26-33)

Altar Call

Now, if you recall, when we started the sermon it was all about the things that are standing in the way of God’s grace working in our lives.

Last week we talked about fear and complacency.

This week we talked about pride.

I wonder this morning, if any of these things fit anyone here today?

Is fear standing in the way of God’s grace in your life being poured out?

And I am talking about His saving grace, His sustaining grace, and His empowering grace.

Does fear keep you from following God completely?

If not fear, is is complacency?

The “God loves me just the way I am and I don’t have to change a thing” attitude.

Is that it?

If it is, I can tell you it leads to this prideful attitude.

This need to compare your relationship with God to other people instead of the standards and expectations that God has set.

Does that sound familiar?

All of this stands in the way of God’s grace really working in our lives.

But the good news is, there is something that can be done about it.

You can come to this altar and be courageous in the face of fear.

You can come to the altar and break free from the chains of complacency.

You can come the altar and lay everything there and humble yourself before God.

You can do all of that and remove the barriers, but the question remains, will you?

Will you come to the altar?

Will you pray?

Will you let God in?

It all boils down to what we are willing to do.

The altar is open, will you come?