Full Service | Sunday September 5, 2021

good morning aphy creek would you stand with us if you're here in the room if you're joining us online so glad you're here uh man we have a an awesome opportunity on this beautiful morning to worship our king of kings lord of lords our savior so let's uh sing out to him he's worthy of our worship amen amen let's sing to him everyone needs compassion love that's [Music] everyone needs forgiveness the kindness of a savior [Music] [Applause] he can move the mountains my god is mighty to save he is mighty to say forever author of salvation [Music] jesus [Music] so take me as you find me and all my fears [Music] i surrendered [Music] [Applause] [Music] author of salvation heroes jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] my god is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] conquered [Music] and in your time you have heard me brought us [Music] you preserve me you preserve me and all those in chains you call come out [Music] and all those in darkness [Music] the one who set me free always answer me you always have compassion over me [Music] i'll always find redemption at your feet [Music] [Applause] [Music] i will not hunger i will not thirst neither wind nor sun shall strive you have shown such mercy to me i know [Music] [Music] and all those in darkness [Music] [Music] [Music] i always find redemption at your feet [Applause] [Music] [Music] sing rejoicing joy god can move mountains [Music] sing praising praise for he's our salvation yeah he's our salvation [Music] [Music] mountains [Music] our salvation [Music] he's our salvation [Music] [Music] father the one who set me free father you always answer me compassion over me [Music] i always find redemption at your feet [Music] sing father [Music] [Music] and lord to be able to come into your sanctuary this morning and uh to sing praises to you and to know that you're here with us by your spirit such a humbling thing lord and we just ask that we would take advantage of this time that we have with you here together as we praise your name in song as we prepare our hearts to open up your word lord may just bless this service in jesus name amen [Music] nothing i can do [Music] there's no place i can run and hide that you won't be right by my side cause your love never fails it's grace grace [Music] god's grace it's grace that's greater than all our sins nothing i can do or say could make your love for me change there's no place i can run that you won't be right by my side [Music] is [Music] [Music] than all our sins is [Music] [Music] it's [Music] there ain't no [Music] [Applause] [Music] there [Music] [Applause] god's grace [Music] [Applause] [Music] his grace [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] grace god's grace [Music] god's grace grace that is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you oh praise him all you children of god [Music] [Music] glory of your name is higher than the rising [Music] sun you shine forever your name is higher than the rising sun your name is higher than the rising sun [Music] [Applause] praise his name [Music] [Music] glory is savior is [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] father how thankful we are this sunny sunday morning to be able to sing such amazing truths lord just to be reminded lord as we sing these songs we're reminded of all the attributes lord that you possess lord that you're a long-suffering patient compassionate god who loves people and even though we've failed and made huge mistakes lord that you're your grace extends way past anything we deserve anything we could have tried to earn or really um try to gain ourselves but lord you're the one who's got the name above all other names even as we're just saying higher than the rising sun lord your name is exalted and we pray your blessing upon your church lord that we would be a people that would know how to give you glory not just with song but also in our actions and who we are how we live and lord i pray as we open our bibles that you'd speak to us just give us that better understanding of what you want us to do and how to walk and how to live that we might serve you more effectively and be a part of your kingdom lord and and just be able to serve you lord even in this dark world that we live that would be salt and light servants of the most high god so bless this time we ask you to just be be filling us with your spirit now as we open our bibles in jesus name amen amen why don't you have a seat good morning everybody it's good to see you hey let's get into the scriptures grab your bible and turn to the book of daniel as we're continuing through the bible verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book guys don't forget this coming saturday is our first uh installment of ironworks for the the year yeah we we kind of go from fall to spring to spring ironworks uh once a month on saturdays so that's coming up this saturday 8 a.m we'll be getting in the word uh me and the guys we'll have some donuts and coffee and just get in the scripture love to have you join me right here in the sanctuary that'll be at eight o'clock if you're in high school or above you're welcome to join us that's going to be great wednesday night we're continuing verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book through the bible and we take our text on sunday morning from our upcoming wednesday so why don't you turn with me to daniel chapter 4. in 1985 jose cubera one of spain's most brilliant bull fighters was a really young bullfighter but by the time he was 21 he had already become one of the most famous men in all of spain um but on one particular occasion he was there in the bull ring and the crowds were you know roaring and he was in his fancy duds you know they were those funny little outfits and they do the thing and and uh he was doing his thing and you know all the pita people don't like it because well they actually kill the bull as it turns out it becomes a steak after the event um but the the you know this guy he he he was uh jose cubero he was doing his thing you know and being very flashy and and then he stuck the final sword in the in the bowl and the bowl just dropped and the crowd went wild and he turned around with his cape and all his stuff and he did the whole you know uh you know he was all excited that people were happy about his kill but what he didn't know is the bull stood back up came through and stuck him through his heart with his horn the guy killed 21 years old most famous bullfighter in 1985 at least there it was a tragic mistake you know that was made and you know it's interesting just when we think we've finished off pride it raises up again to get us um you know there's there's something i want us to learn today and and that's this this is an important one and you can write this down if you want but you know we should never consider pride dead and before we are never consider pride dead before we are because pride is a funny thing well brad i'm not a prideful person well the problem is just saying that kind of gives me a little bit of worry if you're one of those people you're one of those people probably they're the last person to know it uh that's the problem with pride there's a lot of problems with pride one is you know you don't really realize how it is and and um i would just give you this word of advice and i try to take it myself and that is if somebody comes and says you're being prideful then you better listen because pride is one of those sins that it looks horrible on other people but on you it's just reasonable it's a funny thing that pride is um we have a lesson from a king here in daniel chapter four and some people might say well what do we have to do to relate to a king of babylon i mean this guy was the most powerful guy in the world he was a absolute monarch he could he could say off with your head and and man they'd take you off and chop your head off i mean this is the kind of king this was he was powerful he seemed to have everything going on he was wealthy you know he had everything he needed he had created a babylon that was quite impressive it was during the reign of nebuchadnezzar that he built the you know one of the seven wonders of the ancient world the hanging gardens of babylon which was apparently one of the most amazing things of ancient times and so nebuchadnezzar he's got it all dialed in he thinks he's all that and what we've seen thus far is kind of this interesting story about this king and you say well i don't have anything to do with a king so i can't relate well the problem is you and i do you realize we live like kings and queens you know we live in palaces you know honestly i bet i bet many of our houses are way more comfortable than nebuchadnezzar even his palace i mean think about that for a second um i could open my garage door with my iphone like that's pretty that's pretty slick you know um i love i love technology and i love all the comforts that we have and man you can you know if you need some food you just nuke it you know and it's like easy things are just easy for us but in babylon even the king we live like kings and queens and and and and really we also have our own little kingdoms if we if we want to kind of admit it as as you know christians in america you know we have our homes and our families we've got our jobs and our careers and and we've got people that respect us and people that follow orders and you know like it's a funny thing how we all kind of have our own little thing and it's very much like nebuchadnezzar i think in some ways you and i probably can relate more to nebuchadnezzar than we can to the average babylonian of that day we probably have no idea what it's like to have a life like an average person in babylon but but nebuchadnezzar that's living large like we live large and so it makes me realize wow i wonder if this story what's the story what we've seen so far chapter one of daniel was nebuchadnezzar trying to cram these jewish boys into the babylonian way but the jews the boys said we will not defile ourselves with the king's mean and they had purpose to to to walk with the lord and nebby was scratching his head who are these jewish boys who worship this god jehovah the god of abraham isaac and jacob who are these boys and that's kind of chapter one chapter two nebuchadnezzar has a dream and he dreams of this big statue and he forgets the dream and he remembers he's gonna chop everybody up and make their houses into piles of manure and all that stuff and and we saw where the the dream was basically a statue head of gold arms of silver belly brass legs of iron and feet iron and clay mixed and this statue gets crushed by a stone and then the interpretation nebuchadnezzar you're the head of gold implication someday you're going to be crushed along with all the other kingdoms that are going to be after you the means of the persians the greeks the romans um it's all going to get crushed by a stone cut without hands speaking of the coming kingdom of jesus we saw that a couple weeks ago and then we saw in chapter three of daniel kind of a whole nother uh situation it's interesting because nebuchadnezzar he continues to be kind of shocked at these jewish boys and and what they were able to do we saw shadrach meshach and abednego not willing to bow down to the statue that nebuchadnezzar never had set up 23 years after his dream about the statue instead of making a statue of gold silver bronze and iron he makes a solid gold statue probably of himself and he tells everybody to bow down and worship it now now we got a little bit of a you know narcissism egomaniac king he's just being seen for what he is pride is part of his deal he wants people to worship him and so enraged was he when people wouldn't worship him well of course you throw them in the fiery furnace that's the kind of guy this this guy was um he wanted to be liked he wanted to be loved and so he forced people to like him and love him and bow down and worship him or else they'd be burned to death so now fast forward here daniel chapter four he has another sort of dream that we'll look at uh wednesday night and basically it looks like more bad news from god for king nebuchadnezzar and daniel's going to interpret and tell what this thing is all about we'll see that on wednesday night it's pretty big implications all kinds of cool stuff we'll look at but but the bottom line is daniel you almost get a sense daniel cares about this king he says oh nebuchadnezzar break off your sins stop doing what you're doing like it's amazing daniel has the boldness to even say that because you know nebuchadnezzar said off with his head but he says come on nebuchadnezzar you know break off your sins um have you ever had a friend that's sinning and you know it's destroying their life their sin is leading their life to sorrow and suffering and you you see it they don't but you try and oh come on you know you can do this you almost get the sense of daniel's talking to a friend saying nebuchadnezzar come on stop being prideful care for the poor and the needy these are the arguments that daniel's going to make with nebuchadnezzar well nebuchadnezzar doesn't listen and then we see nebuchadnezzar walking around babylon about 12 months after daniel gave him the warning about 12 months later you know nebuchadnezzar's walking look isn't this he's talking rhetorically to himself um isn't this babylon the great that i have built for my power for my might and for my majesty like who talks like that who calls himself your majesty it's funny i i had lunch with a guy this was quite a few years ago but this guy you know i always wondered who he was and you know i'd said hi a few times at church just walking by but he was always sitting back in this back area back here and he always wore some clothes that i always recognized because i i'd been to africa several times and and i knew that this guy was a local from somewhere in africa and i i saw you know the way i just like this guy's like like probably from nigeria as well i was thinking and sure enough he asked me he said hey brett you know would you go to lunch with me so we went to lunch and we were talking and it was kind of an interesting conversation it's not one you have every day we were talking i said so what do you do you know he said well i'm getting my my second phd here in in oregon and the united states and he said he was from nigeria and i said well what do you do when you're back in nigeria he says well i'm a i'm a king i was like oh a nigerian scam yeah i didn't say that but i said okay when when do i send the money you know where do i send the money to get my investment back or what you know but no he said no i i'm really a king and and um and sure enough as it turns out in nigeria there's four quadrants he was the king of the delta quadrant there in nigeria came to anthony creek for seven years sat right back there and and literally i said like do people call you your majesty he says yes they do and then he pulled out some some pictures and showed me his coronation there was a hundred thousand people in a square and cnn and all the people were there when he was getting crowned as the king in nigeria there and i was blown away and sure enough it was totally legit he he was a king and people called him your majesty like that's that's something that i'd be a little nervous being called your majesty um the good news is uh the seven years while he was here he became a christian a believer it was really kind of a cool story he went back to nigeria um you know be served as king for a while and recently went back to home to be with the lord in heaven uh we called him mojo because we couldn't really pronounce his full name it was so it was kind of hard and that's what we called him but great great guy oh all that to say your majesty is not something you know you want other people really calling you because that's kind of an embarrassing thing the only one who's really worthy of being called your majesty is the lord but here's nebuchadnezzar saying the you know the babylon that i have built for my majesty this guy is as prideful as it gets and he thinks he's talking to himself did you know that when you're talking to yourself in your mind or out out loud that the lord hears because this is a funny story here's nebuchadnezzar walking on the majesty my greatness that he's talking to himself and the lord speaks from the heavens and he says nebuchadnezzar like a voice from heaven nebuchadnezzar your kingdom is going to be taken from you now that'd be quite troubling wouldn't it can you imagine suddenly you know hearing this this voice from heaven you're thinking i'm amazing and then god's saying you're done click and at that moment at that very moment nebuchadnezzar loses his marbles he goes nuts and the bible tells us we'll look at this in depth on wednesday the bible tells us he he started to grow claws out of his fingernails and and and his hair became sort of matted and it was almost like feathers over his body and he used to go out and he would go out into the wild with the cows in the field and start chewing cud and just was out there you know as a wild animal there's actually a condition called philanthropy that's actually a real condition where people take on animal-like characteristics and whether it was biologically something like that or god just turning him into a beast but that's what happened and he's out there for what seems to be about seven years seven years uh we talked about this last week this is amazing when you think about it if you're a babylonian and you're you know riding into town and there's the cows and you're like who's that guy oh he's our king the guy out there acted like a cow yep and you look at him he's out there it's like like there's nebuchadnezzar the guy used to chop people's heads off and you know all that stuff now he's nuts and he's out there with the cows what a crazy story but after seven years his understanding returned to him he got his cognizance back and he's no longer can you imagine that moment he's in the field i'll say things like what am i doing here and he walks back into the palace and he comes back into the story and he's and he and he makes a final statement and in fact i'm going to say these are kind of some of the most famous last words in all the world's history he's going to sound from this point forward nebuchadnezzar is going to sound almost new testament apostle paul like nebuchadnezzar is going to be a believer in god and it took all of these chapters that we've been through all the way through to chapter four for nebuchadnezzar to slowly realize and this was over like 30 years of a time period it took nebuchadnezzar 30 years to finally rise there's only one god there is no other god and he is the true and living god and all human beings are nothing in his sight this is what it took to get nebuchadnezzar to be humbled and this is what i want us to see is the very last phrase of the last words of king nebuchadnezzar this will be our text it's not even a full verse it's the very last phrase of chapter 4. it's daniel chapter 4 verse 37. let's take a look at the last phrase of what we hear in recorded history of nebuchadnezzar what does he say he says at the end of verse 37 and those that walk in pride he is able to abase that's the last words of king nebuchadnezzar those ten words those that walk in pride he is able to abase he being god the god of the jews of abraham isaac and jacob what an amazing story that brought this prideful narcissist to suddenly be humbled and a believer in god what did it take to get him there and it starts to make me wonder lord what would it take to get me to that place of nebuchadnezzar's total realization that he was nothing before anyone it took a lot to get this king there and god did what it took but that's the problem with pride is it just creeps around your life and and it's such a slippery topic you know if you try to fight pride you fight it fight it with say i'm going to be humble and when you and then when you find yourself acting in true humility then you're like man i'm being very humble and then you've lost it it's such a slippery topic pride versus humility and what a sad sad thing those that walk in pride he the lord is able to obey and the question is what is it going to take to get you and me to be people of real humility and i hope we learn here in the sanctuary rather than out in the storm or out in the field with the cows because some of us are going to have to learn the hard way i'm afraid and the bible has much to say about this the bible has so much to say about pride versus humility it's an interesting thing even you know the great fall of lucifer was one of the most beautiful of all created beings was lifted up with pride that's the thing that got satan into his category of being kind of the most evil being in all the cosmos is is the idea of pride and pride is one of those things that according to the bible is um a massive problem in fact the bible calls it an abomination unto the lord so let's just kind of take a brief look at this and the goal is to see sort of a little bit of a you know cold splash of water on our faces today to remind us oh yeah we're not all that and we need to remind ourselves it's all about being humble before god humble yourself in the sight of the lord that's what we're called to do and this is a good chapter to remind us about that um so let's just kind of break this down first thing out of three number one the problem with pride um you know the problem of pride is um that you know it it's so subtle and it's so sneaky but it's the natural way the gravity flows if you would in human nature it's just natural to be lifted up with pride and to think you know more highly of ourselves than we ought to there's an old saying self-conceit is nothing but self-deceit and it's true we fool ourselves into thinking and there's a real problem that we don't even realize how how much of a problem it is now let's break this down into two categories and i have to talk about this um we've got issues of national pride that can be a problem like nations that are prideful god puts them in a category of their own and then personally nationally the nations that have been lifted up with pride have been humbled every single time i wonder if that's part of the process that we're going through right now as america you know we're so divided and there's so many problems that we have in america today and we have been traditionally for the last couple hundred years kind of an amazing example of what a good nation can look like but man we've we've lost our way and and and you know i remember this this is going to go back for some of you maybe some of you weren't even born when this happened but remember after 9 11 man we were fired up as a nation we even kind of came together as a nation the 9 11 thing made us really come together for about two weeks and it was amazing it was amazing i remember when george bush with his bull horn in in new york city and man the nation was like yeah that's it that's leadership right there and we were all kind of everybody was just kind of wow and then you know i i remember we went into afghanistan and we were looking for osama bin laden and all this stuff and and man we could talk about the politics and and the the good the bad and the ugly and should we have and what was our objective to be nation builders or whatever we were trying to do but but this past week for us was a huge example of what you would call failure there was failure on so many points one we failed to nation build which i could have told you just because if you know anything about islam and especially if you talk about the type of islam that is practiced there in afghanistan you know you're not going to make nice voting uh you know democrats and republicans out of the afghanistan people that was a misguided endeavor we know that now it took 20 years to figure it out but but how long did our our little government and our little you know military how long did that last when we when we left last week 10 minutes i mean the taliban is is celebrating it took just hours to take the country back after 20 years of us being there did you hear yesterday or today i guess technically um the taliban kind of took one of the last positions in kabul uh and they uh they all the whole army started shooting their you know ak-47s or now our ar-15s uh in the air they just shot a bunch of ammo 17 people died just from the ammo that fell from the celebration uh 17 people that's in the news this morning um the taliban's a little different uh than than you know when the american soldiers were there but we left in total shame and we left some of our people behind and there's like there's just tragedy after tragedy and and and now we're embarrassed as a nation we've been shamed all the other nations saying yeah don't trust america they'll bail on you china's being emboldened russia is being emboldened but we talked about some of this stuff uh in our prophecy update on friday night if you missed it you might want to catch that we talked about the lies of the end times and that's an important teaching i think that we did on friday night but but all that to say um now we as americans nationally were kind of humbled and it's interesting because it's not that our military the boots on the ground they didn't fail us it's our leadership the leadership of this country and i would say in the past 20 years of leadership whether you're democrat or republican we've kind of failed the whole situation it's it's embarrassing is the lord using this to start to humble our nation are we being humbled i think it started with saigon and pulling out there but there you know there's kind of a series of events where nationally we're being humbled um there's a there's a great american who said this and and let's see if you can remember who said this um he said this we have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity we have grown in numbers wealth and power and no other nation has ever grown but we have forgotten god we have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and persevering grace too proud to pray to the god that made us who said that anybody know abraham lincoln in 1863 wow you and i thought this guy said this yesterday right i mean like like if this was true in 1863 it's even more true exponentially today now notice what day this is this is kind of funny this is a day none of you even knew there was even a holiday back in the old days but back in abraham lincoln's time they had a national day of fasting humiliation and prayer can you imagine that today like that's almost embarrassing to hear we had a day of humiliation yes a day of fasting prayer and humiliation that's what it was called and and this was the address that abraham lincoln gave on the day of fasting humiliation and prayer in 1863. um we don't have that day anymore when did we retire the day of fasting prayer and humiliation i don't know but it's a long time before i was on the earth um now we have you know gay pride day and month and year and everything you know it's like everything's about pride and all the prideful things of america but the idea of humiliation well that's not an american characteristic today the idea of humiliation humbling ourselves before god and praying and fasting but that's just nationally that's where we are we've been a prideful nation and i think we have to be careful there's a fine line isn't there between being a patriot and a lover of our country versus being prideful we have to be careful about this but that's nationally uh something for us to be aware of today but what about personally personally we have to also be careful because in the same way that america has crept into this prideful sort of attitude and i i'm not shocked that the lord seems to be humbling us as a nation but i also kind of wonder about us personally if you allow pride just to creep in unchecked the lord is faithful even as he was to nebuchadnezzar he'll be faithful to humble us and you will be brought very low the bible promises that when you are prideful the lord is going to be faithful to bring you low it's going to happen that's we'll talk about those promises in a second speaking of old guys saying things from old times what about benjamin franklin on this idea of personal pride and versus humility benjamin franklin i love this he said there is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride beat it down stifle it mortify it as much as one pleases it is still alive even if i could conceive that i completely overcome it i should probably be proud of my humility man he was he was right on the money with that and that's the problem the problem with pride is it's slippery it's sneaky and it creeps back into our lives and it's not going to be dead when you thought it was dead it still raises its ugly head what a truth and what an important thing to realize the problem with pride number two consideration the peril in pride what's the peril in pride well the bible tells us it's destruction and this is an important thing pride goes before destruction and a holy spirit before a fall people misquote that i think it is worth noting that it actually says pride goes before destruction we always say pride goes fall well that's true too in the sense but it says you know pride goes before a haughty spirit there's is there a difference between a hottie spirit and pride i think there is um and we could talk about what that is you know pride tends to express itself outwardly a holy spirit something that's coming from inside your own heart there's some interesting things there but one brings destruction one brings a fall both are bad destruction we can almost convince ourselves that what we have you know what we've attained in this life our houses our cars where we live all of our abundance something that we've sort of done somehow ourselves that we've gained in ourselves that you know the old saying and i'm a self-made man and i always like to ask well what part of you did you make because you didn't god gave you the feet and the hands and the mouth and the brains some of us a little less than others but god gave us those things and we have to remember that anything that we have came from god um you know we need to remind ourselves that all blessings come from god and and you know if we think well well i just happen to be more successful than people because my hard work you want to know one of the times i realized that i had really nothing to do with anything good in my life um it was it was a time that i was out in burkina faso africa um i was in the main city with a bunch of pastors but one of the pastors after this conference i was teaching at this pastor this young guy he uh pastor zakube he said pastor brett i want to take you to my home and introduce you to my family and i'll show you where i live and i was like cool so they brought up one of those little mopeds for me and zakovic got on his moped and i we just took off and i i still don't know exactly how far it was but it was like four hours in fact we even had to fill up our mopeds with gas uh like it was a long drive out in the middle of nowhere in the bush right i was just riding through africa on a moped you know it was pretty hilarious um but we got out to his house and it was basically a mud hut round with a little thatched roof of weeds on the roof and um and and but he but he was so proud of two things on his property he had two big mango trees now i'd never really had a mango uh honestly uh up until that day so you know uh we sat there he had these two chairs sitting under this big mango tree with these two long poles and so we sat on these chairs they were like wooden benches that they had made and we sat there with these poles and you could just poke a mango and it would fall and you'd catch it and then you'd cut it you know take the big pit out the middle and then you'd slice it into squares and turn it inside out the half and it'd make these little square fingers popping out you just sit there and eat the mango and it was the best thing like it was so tasty and we just had to poop pop it open cut it you know eat it throw the rhine out and get the next one we just sat there see he didn't speak english and i didn't speak more so we just kind of it was kind of a funny thing but but but that's the moment when i realized i could have been born right here like you know the breath that i know the the part of me that thinks and feels and all that you know god knew me before i was even formed in my mother's womb the bible says he knew who i was and he chose to have me born in fullerton california um but but instead i could have been born in ten kudugu or wagadugu burkina faso out in the middle of the bush somewhere i really could have that could have been my life and my existence and i could have been the most self-made kind of person in the world that i wanted to be but but when all you've got is a couple mango trees man that's just a good day popping some mangoes by the way i came home all excited about mangoes and then i bought the ones here in america and they're nothing like the mangoes in africa man it's like it's like i'm a mango snob now but but all that to say as it turns out you and i just the fact that we were born in a place where we have opportunity and where we have things we can reach and achieve and attain we have to remember all every good gift comes from the lord and we shouldn't be prideful about the things that we have or what we've achieved because it really has nothing to do with you and me it's interesting because the lord had to warn the children of israel about this very problem long before the children of israel went to the land of promise there in israel long before that lord says okay when you get the land you're gonna have some problems and and this is this is the problem you're gonna become prideful if you're not careful and it's gonna bring destruction if you're not careful where's that warning would you keep your finger here and flip over to the book of deuteronomy with me real quick deuteronomy chapter 6. flip over there in deuteronomy chapter 6 and i'll show you this is a big deal like the lord says this kind of over and over in the law you know i mean here's moses getting the law of moses the law of god and he's writing for the jews and then there's this really somber warning given to the people before you go to the promised land you've got to remember this it's deuteronomy chapter 6 and let's take a look deuteronomy 6 verses 10 through 12. it says and it shall be when the lord thy god shall have brought the end of the land which he swear unto thy fathers to abraham to isaac to jacob to give the great and goodly cities which thou build us not and houses full of all good things which thou fill us not and wells digged which shall dig us not vineyards and olive trees which shall plant us not when thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware lest thou forgettest or forget the lord which brought thee forth out of the land of egypt and from the house of bondage watch out you can forget the lord when you're all living large in your new place now fast forward deuteronomy chapter 8 just turn the page deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 10 similar warning but even more pointed deuteronomy 8 10 it says when thou hast eaten and are full then thou shalt bless the lord thy god for the good land which thou hast given thee by the way that's an important part of this solution we're going to talk about in a second um if you want to how do you solve this problem is you bless the lord if you're constantly thanking the lord and blessing the lord for all the good things you have it'll be kind of a nice reminder that it's it's the lord alone who's done this being a worshiper is kind of a big thing to to fight against pride i've noticed this sorry if this hurts but if you're a person who doesn't like to worship the lord and you're like i just like bible study i don't like worship i would be willing to bet that you're wrestling with another issue called pride there's something about being a worshiper you have to kind of break through your pride to to worship god and it's humbling to sing and lift hands and to stand before god praising him for who he is a lot of the prideful arrogance is that which is i'm not really into that sort of thing lots where we need people to worship god well that's a prideful thing that keeps you from that i love how it starts out in verse 10 when that when you've eaten and are full then thou shalt bless the lord thy god for the good which he has given me that's the that's the remedy but i'm getting ahead of myself verse 11 beware that thou forget not the lord thy god in not keeping his commandments his judgments and statutes when i command thee this day lest when thou has eaten and are full and have built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied then here it is verse 14 then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the lord thy god which brought thee forth out of the land of egypt from the house of bondage the heart being lifted up is another way of saying prideful fast forward to verse uh 17 chapter 8 verse 17 through 20 and he says it even more pointedly still in verse 17 and thou say in thy heart my power and the might of mine hand have gotten this wealth that's what nebuchadnezzar was saying look at my majesty my might that's what nebby was saying but but we like the children of israel watch out when you say in your heart it's my power and the might of mine hand hath got me this wealth verse 18 but thou shalt remember the lord thy god for it is he that giveth the power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he swear unto thy fathers as it is to this day verse 19 and it shall be if thou do at all forget the lord thy god and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them i testify against you this day that you shall surely perish now verse 20 check it out as the nations which the lord destroyeth before your face so shall you perish because you would not be obedient unto the voice of the lord your god centuries before the children of israel get into the promised land the lord gives the somber warning watch out when you get in the land you're going to start living large thinking you did all this stuff yourself and you're forgetting the lord don't do that if you do that you'll be just like the other nations that i've driven out and you'll end up in total destruction verse 20 quiz time question how did the jews do with this warning that was given centuries before they went on the problem how did they fare well if you know we've been in jeremiah and lamentations and ezekiel and we know that they failed miserably and just like all the other nations they were lifted up with pride and they worshipped other gods and they thought it was all because of their amazing abilities and they ended up totally destroyed pride goes before destruction and a holy spirit before a fall and that's what happened to the children of israel it was a somber warning in deuteronomy and it's a good warning for us this is the peril in pride is destruction let's go through some of the new testament scriptures that warn us as well first timothy chapter 6 verse 17. in first timothy 6 17 it says charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trusted uncertain riches but in the living god who giveth richly all things to enjoy the idea is high-minded that's pridefulness don't be high-minded or rich those that are rich in this world it's a somber warning the bible gives to us from first timothy chapter 6. also proverbs is good for scriptures having to do with pride proverbs 16 5. everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the lord though hand join in hand he shall not be unpunished it says that everyone that is proud in his heart not just in his actions you might have the appearance of humility i might be able to fake people i'm just really humble it's not me it's the lord but actually in your heart if there's pride what is that to the lord an abomination i can't stress this word abomination we overuse words uh today um you know you uh you say we all say stuff like wow that that little puppy is awesome is that puppy really awesome probably not it's just a cute little puppy but awesome probably over selling on that word we say words and we you know we think everything's awesome but but it's really not um but abomination is about as strong of a word as the bible can employ in god's disdain for this sin you can't get a stronger word everyone that is proud in his heart or her heart is an abomination to the lord that's something you and i should desperately not want to be to god of an abomination very important proverbs 16 5. also the scripture that we quoted earlier this is one that you all probably have memorized proverbs 16 18 pride goeth before destruction and a holy spirit before fall but the next verse is equally important better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud man i i worry that there's this tendency for you know people and let's let's bring it into the church the church itself is i've noticed in church there's this tendency to hang out with people that can help you be an influencer or to help you look better or like you're more dialed in choose the friends that kind of make you look better and you know get the selfie and the group shot so you can put it on your social media let people know you're kind of popular and you're kind of you know people and and you know and there's this kind of thing where we we like to hang with the the successful but the bible says right after pride goes before destruction and a holy spirit before fall better it is to be of a humble spirit with a lowly hanging out with the the least of these as the bible puts it than to divide the spoil with the proud strong words from the the wisdom of solomon first corinthians chapter 12 verse 10 talks about you know when we stand in pride wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall in that previous verse we just read pride go forward section in a hotty spirit before a fall but that haughty spirit often comes when you're standing in life look what i'm doing and i'm standing in all my goodness and my strength and my majesty like nebuchadnezzar but that's right before the fall came um so you know wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed that's what we might have to do today is take heed am i am i prideful am i standing in my wealth in my might or my power proverbs 29 23 a man's pride shall bring him low but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit oh man the bible just just keeps going it hits this topic i haven't even shown you all of them i'm just showing you some of my favorite reminders that i try to remind myself and say man i don't want to be the person that is plagued with pride the problem with pride is it's slippery and it's tricky the peril in pride is you'll fall you'll be you know when you think you're standing you're gonna fall in destruction and and even as it says here a man's pride shall bring him very low uh man we don't want any part of that oh lord build within us a humble spirit the bible says the lord is near to those that are of a humble and contrite spirit that's an important thing now that brings us to the final thing the final observation the perfect answer to pride what's the perfect answer to pride i already gave you sort of a thing about praise and worship it's hard to be prideful when you're remembering who god is and and worship and praise is a good thing we talked about that but i'll give you kind of another one the perfect answer if you ask me is simply this the cross the cross of jesus christ is the best thing that combats against pride it's i i think it's really hard to take an honest look at the cross of jesus christ and to continue in pride um you got to be pretty bad you got to be pretty far gone pretty lost to look at the cross and realize what jesus did for you and for me and think you know i'm pretty amazing i'm pretty awesome as jesus is the one who's never sinned he was amazingly awesome in that real sense of the word awesome he never sinned he only did good god became a man lived among us sinless and then because he loved us so much god goes to the cross and dies for us on the cross for for us to stand before that and realize he did that for me because i'm such a miserable wretched sinner there's something about standing in front of the cross and remembering that jesus went there for me personally and i like to remind you that you know i believe it's you know if you were the only person on the earth i believe that jesus would have still died for your sins if you were the only person here um because there's some language in the bible that talks about how it was a very personal thing that it was the joy that was set before jesus that he endured the cross and despised the shame what was the joy that was set before him you he knew that by going to the cross he would be saving you and so to stand before the cross and look and say oh that's where paul you hear his heart he says oh wretched man that i am who will deliver me from this body of death like it's really hard to be prideful when you realize what a sinner you really are and how far f you know far short all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god there was no one righteous not even one the perfect answer is is to remember the cross look at the cross and remember what jesus did for us by the way jeremiah talks about something you and i can be proud of it's funny because it's it's a tough thing because i know we use the word proud sometimes in a way that's more innocent i'm just gonna say it you know some people say proud american i think somewhere along the way there's there's a line where it's okay to be a proud american but it's not okay to be a prideful american and i think a lot of us have crossed that line probably way too much but i'll never forget my sweet mom when i was a kid even sometimes this day my mom she's so sweet and she's so careful because she never wants to be prideful or anything so i remember she'd say stuff like this brad i'm just so proud of you in the lord it'd always be kind of compassed in that you know i'm so proud of you brett in the lord you know just to make sure i'm not being prideful but i'm really proud of what god is doing in your life and it just always cracked me up i'm like mom i know what you mean thanks and it was an encouragement to me um as a kid um but at the same time that that that that slipping from being just a healthy you know pr you know pride or whatever uh it can become very ugly if we're not careful so what can we boast in jeremiah tells us this is kind of cool um check this out jeremiah 9 23 and 24 thus saith the lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom let not the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him the glorious glory in this so this is the thing you can glory in that he understandeth and knoweth me that's what you can glory in that you understand and know the lord that i am the lord which exercise lovingkindness judgment and righteousness of the earth for in these things i delight saith the lord if you want to boast in something you can boast that i guess what i know the lord and i know and understand what he's doing that he's the lord that gives us loving kindness you know and judgment and righteousness in the earth that's the lord if you want to boast about something that's the one thing you and i can boast of according to the word that's pretty cool but james chapter 4 reminds us humble yourselves in the sight of the lord and he will lift you up what is that humble yourself in the sight of the lord that's the answer right there in the sight of the lord at the foot of the cross with the lord right in front of you humble yourself in the sight of the lord and he then will lift you up see we all have this desire to be lifted up out of our you know oh wretched man that i am like paul talks about the amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me like we all know that once we're really honest for a few minutes but you don't want to just stay in that wretched miserable state but the lord has saved you and redeemed you and he's paid the price on the cross for you and and so that what happens is when you humble yourself at the foot of the cross and say lord i'm a wretched miserable sinner then the lord says i'll now lift you up in a healthy way not not a prideful way now what do i do pastor brett what do i do if i if i'm humbled before the lord and then the lord lifts me up and then i get lifted up a little too much back into pride go back to the cross and just remember you know that's why we need to take up a cross daily and follow jesus we need to look to jesus who's the author and the perfecter of our faith all of this to say you know humility is something we all need desperately real humility and i believe that real humility comes from just looking to jesus looking to the cross and remembering what he's done for us what a huge and important thing for us today so may it be a splash of cold water maybe you're a person who overtly is prideful and everybody knows it go to the cross humble yourself and remember what a wretched miserable sinner you are and and then confess your faith in christ if you're not a christian maybe it's pride that's kept you from accepting jesus maybe you think well i'm a self-made person i can save myself bible says no and that's just pride and pride leads to total destruction even hell even where satan goes he's thrown into gehenna the place of outer darkness lake of fire that's where pride leads so you got to repent of that sin and that's what becoming a christian is by the way just acknowledging your sin before god repenting and saying lord these are the sins i've done i acknowledge my sins before you and then accept the work that jesus did dying on the cross for your sins that's what a christian is it's not a person that goes to church or you know marches publicly and makes statements politically that's not a christian is a christian is a person who says i'm a sinner and i need to be saved from my sins from hell and good news the gospel jesus loved me so much that while i was yet a sinner jesus died on the cross for my sins and any tongue that confesses in any heart that believes that jesus did that for them the bible says you will be saved that's the good news of the gospel message pride is the number one thing that will keep you away from that you've got to humble yourself before the lord to be saved by the lord so some things to learn things that so the overt pride really ugly but be careful christian because i found the older i get the more that little you can act humble on the outside but in your heart pride can raise its ugly head and stick you through the heart once again watch out for that so humble yourself stand at the foot of the cross and remember who he is and rejoice in that in jesus name let's pray together lord these messages these reminders from the bible lord we're reminded here as nebuchadnezzar has to learn the hard way oh lord i pray that we would learn through the the scriptures in the sanctuary rather than out in the storm or out in the troubled times like nebuchadnezzar we pray nationally lord that we'd be a humble nation um we know that the only reason america is beautiful it's because you shed your grace upon us that's the only reason and and i pray that we'd be humbled as a nation that we'd repent of our sins and turn to you but personally lord we also see the great peril in a prideful attitude so would you just work that out of us work within us a real humility and a and a huge appreciation for who you are lord may we worship your holy name and give you all the glory and all the honor that you deserve lord so may this be a splash of cold water on our face today spiritually and this we pray in jesus name amen amen let's stand together if you're a person who has never accepted christ and you're not been a christian we'd love to pray with you you can walk out of this building knowing you're forgiven and your sins are dealt with so i'm going to have some of the pastors stand and write you know up here in the front they'd love to just pray with you you can accept christ and know that know that you're saved that'll happen right after david dismisses but let's let's just humble ourselves and worship the lord and and maybe just work out that little last bit of pride that's stuck in our hearts let's do that as we close out the surface [Music] [Applause] [Music] things oh lord we cast down our idols to give us clean hands give us pure hearts let us not lift our souls to another give us clean hands give us pure hearts let us lift our [Music] [Music] souls spirit come make us [Music] we turn our [Music] oh eyes we cast down our idols to give us clean hands give us pure hearts let us not lift our souls to another give us clean hands give us pure hearts let lift us souls to another god let us be a generation that seeks seeks your oh god jacob god let us be a generation that sees seeks your face [Music] give us pure hearts let us lift our souls to another give us clean hands oh god give us pure hearts let us not lift our souls to another let us not lift our souls to another and lord we ask and we pray that lord that would be true this week that you would find people who are serving you and you alone lord that we might humble ourselves before you and be led by your spirit so i just pray your blessing over these your people this week in jesus name amen amen you are dismissed we'll see you next time you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 9,162

Rating: 4.8456593 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: XqQgOQSd2jk

Length: 74min 34sec (4474 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021