August 22nd, 2021 | Solomon's Paradox - Part V - Counterfeits of Grace | Pastor Adam Bower

[Music] [Music] welcome everyone and thank you for tuning in my name is jennifer ortiz i'm a children's leader here at praise community i am so glad you came to join us today we here at praise community church are so grateful for the opportunity to worship our god and to take part in the amazing things he's doing in and through our church and in our communities and we invite you to partner with us if you would like to know more about what's happening at praise please check out praiseyork.com there you'll find upcoming events ways to get plugged in and just what praise community church is all about if this is your first time watching we would love to get to know you you can fill out our connect card online or you can contact us at info praise york.com also be sure to like our facebook page and subscribe to our youtube channel to get updates and stay in the loop once again we're so glad to have you we are excited for what god has planned and we encourage you to join with us as we go into a time of worship [Music] uh good morning everybody welcome to praise good to see you we're gonna wake up a little bit this morning we're gonna sing a new song why don't we stand together let's have some fun [Music] [Music] every piece [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] there will be [Music] [Music] [Music] right [Applause] [Music] amen let's give him a hand this morning all right good morning how's everybody doing all right good um my name is pastor adam i'm glad to be with you guys this morning um i have a uh some testimonies from last week as a as a church i was sharing with the first service that we really believe that um god has a a lot for us and uh one of the things that he has for us the bible talks about is uh healing and he actually um he didn't just uh bleed for our sins he was broken for a healing according to the word and so like we really believe in healing at this house and we have a uh a prayer room back there and it was so neat this this this week somebody came in for counseling and they came in for because they had such bad pain in their knees and they were telling me this when i was giving them counsel at the end of counseling i actually laid hands on their knees and prayed and uh he had like a pain level and eight and i said to him i said how do your knees feel now and he goes he goes ah he goes it's a seven and i said i said can i pray again he goes no he goes let me just enjoy this and so i kept talking to him and eventually he let me like pray for him again and again and again and i i think sometimes excuse me as i say this that um maybe it's a bad example but i'll say it anyway is that faith sometimes is like a credit card we'll go to pay for something in prayer and the car gets declined and have you guys ever had that happen matt can you give me my water thank you and the card gets declined and you know that there's nothing wrong with the card so you say run it again then it gets declined again and you say run it again and you know that that card can work and so you do it again and then all of a sudden it works and i know that's kind of weird it's like well isn't god just going to do it it's like no like we're really involved the bible talks about faith and it talks about in a very real way and there are some people back there that um really believe like god wants to heal and i have a bunch of testimonies to share with you none of them are men because men never get hurt apparently but last week a woman with ulcers in the ankle received prayer excuse me and the burning she was experiencing left and the pain level went from a seven to a three a woman with level 10 shoulder pain who's been going back consistently every week finally got that pain down to a 1. amen a woman with vertigo received relief and more balance after prayer and a woman with muscle spasms and knee pain received prayer and the condition was greatly improved and we try to be really honest like i believe that to to be honest is actually humility so we don't exaggerate what happens back in that prayer room so there were some people who went back there and probably didn't get healed and when i look at the cards two out of three people who go back there get healed immediately one out of three don't and um i just say that just to have integrity and honesty because we never like to make stuff up or like try to exaggerate but two out of three ain't bad right amen and and like we're growing and it's not that it's not like god's will to heal is here and then it's not for this person it's like no like sometimes we get overwhelmed by the request sometimes we just have a hard time believing that god can do something about something and but we're growing so what i encourage you if there's anybody here including if you're a man and you want to go back there you can go back there and get prayer and um god's doing a lot of cool things but let me just read to you the the words of knowledge for today a word of knowledge is simply like we prayed for this service and this is what we believe god god is doing just to encourage you to go back there if someone's struggling with restlessness sinus pain dizziness muscle spasms if you have if you're doubting god is real attacks of fear preventing sleep unforgiveness towards relatives wanting to give the lord more time but you find yourself that you just can't do it a sore throat feeling sick or lacking in energy we would love to pray for you guys this morning if there's anything else that's going on we'd love to pray i need my throat to get better before service here so i'm glad to be here with you guys this morning it's it's a it's a joy and a privilege to walk with a body to be a body together it's so it's so needed and i think what we're all saying and being here is like yes we're worshiping the lord and he's worth worshiping and i think sometimes we forget so we're on a journey together and one of the the goals of this journey after we found the lord of sanctification and it's to become more like christ and is anybody on that journey trying to become more like christ and he has grace for those who humble themselves and that's another reason why i need the body is because i want to humble myself with a group of people and say you know what i'm not supposed to do this alone i don't want to do this alone i don't want to just have it be just me and jesus and no more i'm a part of a body and i want to be the body so that i can receive and so that i can give and so i'm glad to be on that journey with you guys but let's go ahead and pray and remember what it is that he's done for us if you're new we have communion baskets up here anytime during worship come on up and just grab one and return to your seats back there's the door for the prayer room so father i thank you so much for this this morning we praise you thank you for your sacrifice holy spirit thank you for leading and guiding us you're absolutely amazing thank you for your patience jesus thank you for dying on the cross thank you for making a way so that we could be with the father and know the father thank you for providing that place for us in heaven that we don't have to worry about where we're going after this life thank you for overcoming death for us thank you for taking the old man and giving us a new one you're amazing and we just praise you and honor you this morning in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] darkness [Music] to save us you conquered the grave [Music] [Music] like this [Music] [Applause] [Music] set free [Music] you rescued me and called me my name [Music] how can we ever hold it inside we're gonna [Music] [Music] is [Music] let's just declare this to him this morning every tribe every tongue every heart will sing every knee we will bow to the risen king lifting birth lifting up never gonna stop [Music] we will bowl never gonna stop singing [Music] [Music] come on [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] me thank you [Music] so so [Music] [Music] oh my god we'll [Music] victory [Music] victory [Music] there's power i'm not backing down [Music] you know [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm gonna see [Music] [Music] soon [Music] and you turned it for good you take what the enemy meant foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] and i'm gonna see [Music] [Music] victory [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so my wife and i back in january we had a miscarriage but we were believing we knew the promise was that god was going to give us another baby and we just kept believing for that victory and believing for that victory and trusting in god during that time that season [Music] and we're blessed enough to say in december we're going to be due with our baby praise god but i want to take that i just want to encourage you if you need victory this morning i believe i said this in the first service i believe there are people in this room who have been praying in their quiet times in their prayer closets and just praying for god to bring victory to a situation bring breakthrough to a situation and i want to tell you that breakthrough is going to come through surrender it's gonna come through giving everything to him and saying god you're gonna bring the breakthrough not by my striving but by me letting go by me surrendering and laying down my pride laying down what i have and just trusting that you're going to bring the breakthrough so i just want to encourage you this morning if you need that breakthrough this morning i'm going to challenge you to shift your mindset a little bit this morning and just believe this morning give that trust to him so i'm going gonna see that victory not because of my might but because of my surrender and your victory that you gave to us on the cross so we're just gonna sing that a couple more times we're gonna sing see a victory a few more times here together i just want to encourage you if that's you this morning let's just sing that together and sing it with your heart you don't have to be the greatest singer just sing from your heart let's just keep singing [Music] victory [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i [Music] victory [Music] victory i'm gonna see your [Music] battle victory to you [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] choose this day [Music] to be grateful i give you praise with i'm i'm waking me [Music] [Laughter] [Music] give you [Music] open praise [Music] i'm waking me [Music] [Music] my you thankfulness [Music] waking up today [Music] [Applause] wake it up [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] thank you thank thank you thank you [Music] oh [Music] trees [Music] so [Music] so [Music] thank you telling you thank you [Music] i just encourage you to take this time to think about ways that you can thank god things that he's done in the past week in the past year we always have a reason to be thankful there's always room to be thankful so i just encourage you to bring those things to him this morning just thank him if you came in feeling discouraged or depressed about something thankfulness is the best way to turn your mood around it's the best way to put things in perspective [Music] and [Music] [Music] i'm telling you [Music] scott we just thank you for your presence this morning we thank you for your goodness for all the ways that you've showed up in our lives for the ways you've provided for us everything you've done for us god we just give you thanks we give you the glory you the honor for everything that you've done we just thank you for the restless service god you your presence would just be with us that would be aware of it we just love you so much pray all this in jesus name amen good morning praise family everybody that's here everybody that's watching um online i'm diane i'm the connections director here at praise i just wanted to extend an invitation to all of you we are hosting prayer for york this tuesday the 24th at 7. this is multiple churches coming together praying for the kingdom of god to be brought down on earth to heal brokenness and just whatever is going on in people's lives to heal it in york county in the city to let them know the love of jesus so please come on out at 7 we have refreshments afterwards and i welcome you to be a part of just praying god's kingdom here on earth just through that song of being thankful i think we're all aware of what's going on all around our world and i hope that each and every one of you realize um what the blessing is that we have of freely worshiping our god and um you know we can i was just talking to somebody who's was visiting and just the beauty of going to whatever church we want to go to and we just can never take that freedom for granted and especially in this season that we see what's going on around with persecution in this world so if you are visiting please come see us at the welcome center we'd love to give you a small gift and just some information about praise i i don't want to miss the opportunity to meet you there is like a meet and greet with pastor adam up here in the corner after this service if you want to say hi introduce yourself we have a feeding room for moms right next to the women's bathroom and we have a family room so i encourage you if you need that to go to that also there's like prayer cards in your front pocket of your seat if you have any prayer needs or any way that our pastoral care team can help you with meals prayers whatever it could be please fill that out and put it in some of the black pail sitting around you'll see it says welcome and prayer cards we're going to pray for the offering there's baskets you can put your offering in there's a little box on the wall and you can text the amount to that number up there so let's just pray lord dear jesus we just thank you for this day we thank you for everyone here we thank you that um that we live in the united states of america and we just pray that that your will is done in this kingdom in this land we just thank you that we can raise our prayers to you and that you hear our prayers and that you have the victory we just thank you so much that we can bless so many ministries with the giving hearts of this praise people and we just just can't thank you enough lord and all this we pray amen good morning praise family it's joe and diane with your weekly video announcements it's been a tradition of ours to help our friends at great reward ministries with their annual we are one community outreach event this year the event will take place on saturday september 11th if you'd like to help out in any way reach out to lisa smith or find great rewards ministries on facebook next sunday we're glad to invite jeremiah group of lion of judah ministries back to lead us in worship jeremiah and band will join us for both services so don't miss this great opportunity to press into god in worship several of our small groups have been consistently meeting but another few are set to renew their meetings within the next two weeks to browse available small groups you can visit the church center app under the groups icon or visit our webpage at praiseyork.com small groups here's a look at some more things coming up at praise [Music] [Music] do [Music] all right good morning i i want us to uh if you were to do you guys know who ravi zacharias is i i don't bring up his name to drag his his name through the mud or anything i just um i think i think we can learn uh from people certainly i typed his name into google and um the first the first thing that came up ravi zacharias was a famous apologetic uh who went around and and uh fought for the faith and it stood against a lot and the first article that comes up when you put in his name this isn't what it used to be this is what it is now it says ravi zacharias hid hundreds of pictures of women and abuse during massages and it was kind of a whole big mess right that came out after he died and the next article is by christianity today it says rzim that's ravi zacharia's international ministry will no longer do apologetics and um you know i like i think what the way my mind used to work was i i said man like how could this have happened to a mature person like ravi and have you guys ever had a person who you viewed as mature who lets you down in a big way has that ever happened and it didn't make sense according to their maturity well i wanted i want to just kind of put this out there because i believe that we can all learn from this [Music] and and i think it's something that we all need to be careful of as you like do you remember when like you were younger and your age used to invite counsel like everybody just saw you as just young and naive and some people were like let me just tell you what you should do right when you get older nobody does it anymore because then you get all wrinkly and people just assume you know what you're doing right and your wrinkles just you know repel counsel but the bible doesn't say that wrinkles bring wisdom it says that white hair does but i when i when i think about uh i've listened to hours of ravi have you guys ever listened to him and i mean his wisdom and the things that he would say i mean they were absolutely amazing but i think what ends up happening if you're not careful is if you don't in the same way that your age used to invite invite counsel if you don't go and seek it that's an issue at some point people stop giving it you've got to go get it from people and i can imagine being in rzim ministries can you imagine somebody saying to ravi i have some counsel for you and this is the man who's ran everything who had thousands of employees who traveled the world and spoke about jesus could you imagine going up to him and saying i have some advice or wisdom for you and it's like and he's producing so much out of his life right and so what i what i think ends up happening if we're not careful and especially um when you start doing really well in life is that people really stop giving you counsel then and people really stop holding you accountable then because you're getting the results you must be doing everything right but i want to say this that it doesn't the results don't bring grace humility brings grace so a lot of times people think well um you know in the future when this happens then the grace will be there and it's like no an event doesn't bring grace or when i get out of this season well then i'll finally experience god's grace more at the end of a season doesn't really bring grace the bible says that humility brings it and i wish i would have um went over this the first thing i wish this would have been the first sermon i gave about solomon's paradox but i didn't ask anybody if i should have said in james 4 6 through 8 i've maybe quoted this verse every other sunday for a long time it says but it gives a greater grace and that word grace means karis and i grew up in the methodist church and in the methodist church they had this little saying it says mercy is uh not getting what you deserve and grace is getting what you don't deserve and that's an aspect of grace but it's not the entire word grace is a really big word in the bible so a lot of times people see grace as unmerited favor but grace is also merited favor but people don't they see grace as one word so every time you see the word grace in the bible you think it means getting what you don't deserve but when i read this verse god is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble humble is the condition on receiving this certain kind of grace i'm not talking about salvation i'm not i'm not talking about about the gift of salvation i'm talking about all the other grace that it takes to walk through this life so there's there's a grace how many of you guys know that this word says a lot obviously and to a degree you don't under you you you understand some of it and you're actually living some of it by his grace to the degree that you've humbled yourself and you're walking with him you're living the gospel by his grace but not because of your maturity i'm a lot more interested in his grace than i am in my own maturity and this is kind of like this might turn things on your head a little bit but just please follow me for a second i can be a christian for a long time and then all of a sudden i can stop sowing humility and then a grace lifts off my life and i think that's what happened to ravi i don't think his whole life was garbage i don't think his whole life is trash i don't think he was insincere and i don't think that um he was dishonest this whole time and he was just playing games i think towards the end of his life there was less humility and i think because there was less humility there was less grace and things that weren't a temptation for him his whole life became a temptation because of the lack of humility that was present that's what i think happened and i think that can happen to anybody does any does everybody in this room have the potential to be prideful and and if you're prideful you know the pride comes before the fall well why is the fall come because the grace lifts and so a lot of people in this room you see yourself in a certain way you see yourself well i would never do that well because his grace is here you would never do that not because you would never do that but because his grace is upon you so that that's not a temptation but if his grace was to lift that very much could become a temptation again in your life does that make sense so things are a little bit more fragile than i think we realize and that's how people end up in trouble that's how that's why some people aren't careful they're not sober around certain things and they don't they they say well that would never be me and it's like well that doesn't have to be you as long as humility's here but do not think for one second because you see yourself as a mature believer that you wouldn't do something the only reason you want to do something is by his grace so you want to do everything that you possibly can in your life to not just maintain the grace that's in your life but to get as much of it as possible and i want to just define grace so that we're on the same page uh grace in the greek is the word chris have you guys ever heard of the charismatic church karis also means power like as in the gifts it also means gift so it can mean lovely graceful gratitude liberality the second thing it can mean is god's favor and god's power and the third thing it means is a gift a god's undeserved favor right example justification so [Music] i'm going to read this other verse and if we believe this first then we're going to do what this verse says but i think sometimes we still don't believe this verse so we don't do what it says and i think sometimes we still think we're the smartest person in the room you know and and that we don't sometimes want to ask people for help because we don't need them thinking that they know more than us but i just want to read this verse without counsel plans go awry without counsel plans go awry has anybody in this room ever had plans fail has that ever happened to you i got good news there's a second part of the verse but in the multitude of counselors they are established what if every single person in this room walked out with that verse it's proverbs 15 22 and for the rest of your life you established your plans because you went and had multitude of counselors i'm not talking about what you're eating for dinner i'm talking about like you're gonna spend a lot of money you're gonna make a big life decision you own your own business so you're constantly getting counsel from people because structures aren't established yet because you're still young in your business like what if what if before you made a decision on your marriage you went and got counsel on your marriage how many of you guys would like more grace and parenting well what if you went and got counsel in parenting and it doesn't say it's not this it's not this thing that's in the natural it's not like well are you saying like if i get the right advice from a person that's not what i'm saying what i'm saying is it doesn't say um but in the right advice from counselors it says in the multitude of counselors so what if in the multitude of counselors it's a sign of humility and because of your humility grace comes like i had somebody come to me for a service and they said my job is forcing me to get the coveted shot and i i don't really know what to do and i really am just trying to get counsel he goes what would you do i'd say i do i'm doing i would do exactly what you're doing i would go around to different people and get counsel and regardless of the decision grace is going to come because of your humility not because maybe you made the right or wrong decision but grace comes because you showed humility but we don't think like that we think that we have to make the right decision and it's like well whatever what what if it's not about making the right decision what about it's attracting god's grace to the plan because of humility is that a different way of thinking you know we have values at the chur this church that are based based on humility like giving is one of our values uh generosity excuse me and because generosity is one of our values how many of you would like god's grace on your finances generosity is a form of humility i don't have time to talk about the extension of that but like i don't need it proven to me anymore i just watch it happen all the time training and not being done and not seeing ourselves as uh mature but always knowing that we could get better there's more to believe there's there's there's more to grow in is a form of humility serving is a form of humility and let me just say this about serving i this isn't this isn't to make anybody feel guilty this is just an observation okay i look at people's faces who serve and they're different than the people's faces who don't and i get to know these people who serve and they are happier and there is a grace on their life that is not on the grace of people who don't serve and when i watch somebody who was serving and then doesn't serve and this isn't to lock you in for life please tell me like that but i watch a grace lift because there's a grace that comes from serving devotion like do you have enough humility to understand that you still need god did you know by not starting your day in prayer you're saying to god i don't need you and there's there's there's the fruits of the spirit there's there's there's these things i know that if i don't pray it'd be because of pride it just would be and i know that there's a there's an understanding i have there's certain understandings i don't understand it all not even close but there's some there's some verses in here that i believe and there's a grace on my life to see it hear it and actually walk it out some i tend not to take things personal but it's not because i'm mature it's because of his grace i tend not to be in need of something from people but it's not because of me it's because of his grace that stuff could be gone tomorrow and all of a sudden i could find myself in need again well why because i forfeited the humility that brought the grace in the first place and prayer in the morning is a form of humility that says to god i need you but just because i'm walking in that today just because i have that revelation today doesn't mean that i'll have it tomorrow there's a reason why and i want to read it to you and this is stupendous i haven't heard that word in a while in lamentations 3 22-23 it says listen to this the lord's loving-kindness indeed never ceases for his compassions never fail they are new every morning great is thy faithfulness did you know that every morning you have the opportunity to sow something new that's incredible incredible amount of mercy every morning you get to redo what it is that you want to sow in your life you can wake up and sow humility or you don't have to but every morning it's never too late there was this man named manasseh and he was a king and he was you know one of the worst kings in the old testament and he did some really terrible things i he he he set up idols and he sacrificed children to them and he was a jew in second kings 21-11 verse 11 and 12 it says because manessa king of judah had done these abominations having done wickedly more than all the amorites did who were before him and has also made judah sin with his idols therefore thus says the lord the god of israel behold i am bringing such calamity on jerusalem and judah that whoever hears of it both ears shall tingle that's some pretty serious stuff so he sewed something and now they're about to re reap something and if you were to ask me how do i think about that i think god's grace is lifting off israel and the surrounding armies are going to come in and absolutely crush them because he chose to walk in pride not humility in second chronicles 33 11-13 it says therefore the lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of syria against them and they captured manessa with hooks you know sometimes in history they would take a uh a ring and put it in your nose and then lead you by a hook out of your own kingdom that's pretty humiliating they bound him with bronze chains and took them to babylon and when listen to this the guy who was killing babies right and when he was in distress he entreated the lord his god and humbled himself greatly before the god of his fathers when he prayed to him he was moved by his entreaty and hurt his supplications and brought him again to jerusalem to his kingdom then manessa knew that the lord was god is that amazing don't talk about sewing one thing and then sewing something else the next day god really responds to it i don't think it was about vanessa's maturity i think it's about pride and humility i actually think everything is if we're being honest i think pride repels god and i think grace attracts him well let me say this humility attracts him and he brings grace i believe that there's a counterfeit grace i believe that counterfeit grace is anything outside of humility so like in our own minds like oftentimes what will happen is uh we desire a safe future and and solomon did too i mean when i look at the solomon story there are so many things that you think solomon did and was that he could kind of just sit back and just relax and say i'm good i don't have to worry about anything anymore so we try to protect ourselves but the only true protection in our lives is humility solomon felt safe but he let his guard down solomon was made king of israel and they believe he was 28. you think that would be a safe place right being king you think you'd finally kind of have to like you know not have too many worries or or a need for the lord at that point he kills his competition he becomes the wisest man that ever lived you think he'd be safe then right you think everything would be okay you won't have to be careful anymore he becomes the richest man that ever lived he becomes the most famous man on the earth you think in fame and riches and wisdom would be a good place to be then he goes ahead and does one of the greatest things anybody's ever done for god and he builds the most beautiful temple for the lord you think that'd probably be a safe place you think you'd have god's favor then then he builds his own house it's the most magnificent house and then he builds the entire infrastructure of israel and kings and queens are coming to see how he runs his kingdom because it's the most fabulous thing that's ever been on the earth as far as kingdoms go and pride comes and then he falls and i think sometimes we fall into this trap where we think how many of you are in a hard season you go ahead raise your hand okay we think that well when this hard season's over well then grace the grace will be here and it's like well no humility needs to come like right now and his mercy is new every day to be able to do that or or sometimes we think well in the future when this moment happens not that you're in a hard season but when i hit this moment do you guys remember me saying that like about diapers i said the peace of god was gonna roll over me whenever i have to stop changing diapers it's not in the word it's not in there anywhere well when i retire then and it's like well no it's like if you retire into humility i bet things will be pretty nice oh when i get this promotion then that's not what the bible says or when i get the right relationship then that's not what the bible says humility is the only safe place and my life's mission is trying to figure out how to humble myself more it's not easy it's not like oh it's just really easy no it's it's very hard to do because it's you know when matthew talks about that log in your eyes sometimes it's very hard to see how else you could humble yourself but i bet you people could help you people could tell you how you could probably have more grace in certain places like if you went up to somebody and said to them um i i just want to make sure that i'm doing everything i can to possibly be more humble is there an area of my life where you don't see god's grace i bet you they'd be able to say something whether it's your finances whether it's relationships whether it's your relationship with god whether it's your your marriage whether it's we we have the we have the potential us right to get counsel from one another and he said that he would establish our plans if we did that that seems like a really easy thing to do but it's something that we often don't do because we've grown up in an individualistic culture and you're supposed to be your own person and do your own thing and meanwhile plans are failing like crazy and so first kings 11 9-12 says this now the lord was angry with solomon because his heart was turned away from the lord the god of israel who had appeared to him twice that's kind of cool right you think if god appeared to you twice that'd be a pretty safe place to be god appeared dead just because you've encountered god doesn't mean that there's grace and you'd think towards the end of his life he'd be more mature than at the beginning but that's not the case and can i tell you this that's not the case for most people at some point we find false grace and we think you know what i don't have to do that anymore or be worried about that anymore and that's pride so when i look at somebody like ravi zacharias i don't say this i don't say i can't believe what he did this just doesn't make any sense you know what no according to that verse about humility and pride it makes perfect sense pride goes before the fall that's period and once you realize you have the same potential as the people that fallen to fall how many of you know that you probably humble yourself more and you're a little bit more careful he appeared to him twice and had commanded him this is solomon concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods he told him what he was going to do in those two encounters he said like how many if god appeared to you and said hey make sure you keep going to church on sunday wouldn't that scare you to death to like not attend church i'm not saying like i'm trying to scare you to death but i'm saying like if god came to me and said hey don't miss a sunday guess what i'm not going to do i'm probably not going to miss a sunday but everything he had going on blinded him to the fact that god had already commanded him what not to do god saw his fault came back to him twice and said hey whatever you do make sure that you obey the commands i've given you because if you don't this will be taken away and he said now ask anything you wish he said i want wisdom and he said you know what that kind of humility i'll give you everything because of the humility he had humility at the beginning of his life the second time he shows up he's dedicating the temple and and the presence of god shows up how many of you guys know that that's pretty cool you know presence of god shows up everybody falls down and everyone's on the floor you'd think that that'd be a pretty nice stamp of approval to be able to take it easy and not be too concerned or worried about something as silly as pride it wasn't enough commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods but he did not observe what the lord had commanded so the lord said to solomon because you have done this and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which i have commanded you i surely will tear the kingdom from you and will not will give it to your servant nevertheless i will not do it in your day in days for the sake of your father david but i will tear it out of the hands of your son his son gets a pretty raw deal but can i say this it's not that he just put up one idol he put up multiple idols it's not that he just went after foreign women a woman he went after foreign women and he married a whole slew of them and he set up a whole slew of idols and you might say like why not the quick response because god is so merciful that he gave him a lot of time to repent so how many of you guys know that in this in this life we're gonna have tribulation okay and have you ever gone through a season of tribulation like this is i'm convinced of this and i'm not trying to downplay anybody's life or or what's happened to you it doesn't matter how big the tribulation is it only it matters matters how much grace you have does this you guys follow me if there's a huge wave of tribulation that's coming this high at me i better have this much grace i'll cut right through that wave like it's not even there but if this wave is coming at me and i don't have the grace to handle it it's going to completely blow my life apart and so i don't care if you've been a christian for a week you can be as mature as someone who's been a christian their whole life if you have humility it's a humility issue it's not an age issue it's not that's what we're just dealing with humility god is today dealing with your level of humility what you've got going on in your life how things have been established or not established as an issue of humility and like there's no other really game that we're playing somebody might say well we're called to love people you're called to love people with god's love and you need as much god as possible which means you need as much grace as possible and like you i counsel a lot of people and sometimes i hear people talk about um they're okay in a season and then the next season they're not okay and it's not that things got harder it's that there's less grace because they began to make less they didn't demonstrate as much humility as they did in the last season are you guys following me because i don't think like i have a um um my cousin just lost his son and that's really hard his son he's my cousin's my second cousin but he's 22 years old and that's kind of young and and he just recently died and i am i agree for them that's a hard thing but can i tell you i know that they know the lord i know that they're in church i know that they volunteer i know that they have humility and i know that they're going to be walking right through this tribulation with a whole pile of grace and they're going to come out on the other side because they have a lifestyle of humility i'd be very concerned if they didn't i would assume that they'd be crushed i'd assume that they weren't gonna get back up i'd assume that this would shape their view of god and life and and uh and their marriage would be in trouble but i don't believe that's the case for them because of god's grace i don't know about you guys but i am so glad that i can repel or attract more of god's grace into my life and that he would give us the ability to sow something new every morning that we could have a chance to start over is there anybody else who probably shouldn't be here because of decisions you made in your teenage years you know what i mean gosh she's so merciful and like and there's more like i thought of this the other day i'm a big judgement day guy i usually talk about it what if what if you had so much humility in your life that you stood before god one day on judgment day and he said this to you between the spirit and the body i have said everything that i needed to say to you to correct you and you've made every adjustment that i asked you to good job all righty yeah go doing biz with you wouldn't that be incredible there's a place in humility actually do that but i mean even pray for me that i would do that you know when people say like i'm praying for you thank you for praying for me thank you but pray pray that i would see the next like level of humility pray that i'd perceive it pray that i would get into it and and remain there because i i know i know what i was and i know what i'm capable of without his grace upon me i think you do too and i i heaven forbid we see ourselves in such a way that we say well i'm here at this place it's like well no you're not here at this place you're here at this place and his grace gets you there to that place because you've humbled yourself you're here and heaven forbid there'll be less humility in your life moving forward hopefully there's more and that there's more grace i think people do what they do because of a lack of grace in their life would you guys stand [Music] let me say let me just cover some pride if there's anybody in this room who has unforgiveness towards a person that's pride and there's you're missing out you're missing out big time if there's anybody in here who has anything against somebody that's pride [Music] god could pull out a whole list about you and he doesn't he forgives you because he understands the things you did you did because of the lack of humility that's in your life or the lack of him that's in your life if there's anybody in this room who sees yourself as wise that doesn't need to seek counsel that's pride and if you don't have the life to back that up you're looking foolish if there's anybody in this room who's struggling in marriage and hasn't come forward and seeked counsel to get a better perspective but you think you see your spouse correctly that's pride [Music] if you're in this room and you're not known by people and you don't live life with people that's pride and you're missing out on god's grace if there's anybody in this room who is um who's struggling but isn't admitting it that's pride and you're missing out you'll probably continue to struggle if there's anybody in this room who sees yourself more highly than you ought that's pride and that'll get you in trouble and so at every opportunity there is to demonstrate humility and i'll say this one last time this is the most practical thing anybody could probably probably do is go to the people who know you the best and simply ask this question where's god's grace missing in my life let them point it out let them give you examples and and then ask them what would you do if i if you were me how would you do it and maybe they give terrible advice and maybe you get terrible advice from somebody else and maybe you get terrible advice from somebody else and just to make sure it's a multitude you get it from somebody else and it's still terrible advice i bet you his grace would still come and his plans would get established [Music] because it's not wisdom it's his grace i'm not downplaying wisdom wisdom is important but what i'm saying is it's like if his grace is on your plans who cares what the plans are they're going to succeed but that comes for the humble okay let's pray holy spirit i i ask and i think everybody in this room agrees that we need you and there's times where we've demonstrated pride there's probably pride in our life right now that we don't see but holy spirit you see it and you want to reveal it and you've probably have put it in somebody else to share with us but we don't get to hear unless we ask god give us courage give us courage to live in front of one another give us encourage to invite people in we need eyes on our lives and not just our own and so father i just praise you and thank you that we all have the freedom that's found in your mercy and it's new every day to sow something better to sow humility and um and reap your grace so i just praise you and thank you and i hope that we kind of can step out of this sermon series um in humility and always seeking counsel in jesus name amen amen bless you guys thanks again for watching we hope today's message encouraged and inspired you and we are confident that when you participate in what god is doing he will do a good work in you and he will see it to completion if you want to sow into the ministry of praise community church visit praise york.com give and be sure to like our facebook page and subscribe to our youtube channel to stay up to date with the happenings here at praise [Music] you

Channel: Praise Community Church

Views: 90

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, bible, solomon, scripture, proverbs, pride, humility, church

Id: sDlvTEFgj7k

Length: 79min 53sec (4793 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 22 2021