Sermon Notes
Grace is God’s hand on you. It is what makes life easy. God gives a greater grace, and He gives it to the humble. He opposes the proud. That is not written to the world. It is written to the church. You can be worn out or helped out, and that decision is yours. Humility has to be put on like clothes. This week the clothes go on toward one another.
“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5–6)
1. Pride Is Subtle Because We Let the World Define It
Some sins announce themselves. Adultery does not sneak up on you. Pride does. When Pastor Joel was twenty and the church was a train wreck, a minister stopped in front of him in Lakeland, Florida, and said the Lord’s word was, “Be careful about pride.” It did not feel like the word he wanted. Years later it is still the thing he has to watch. Pride is defined by the Word, not by the culture. James 4:11 is how you humble yourself after verse 10: do not speak against one another. There is no pastoral exception. Who do you think you are to judge your neighbor?
2. Pride Judges Others. Humility Judges Itself.
Pride looks at the speck in your eye and passes a verdict. It gossips, sows discord, shames with words, and discusses other people’s behavior. Humility looks at the beam in its own eye and says there are things in me that need to be made right. In Luke 18 the Pharisee was the spiritual elite and the tax collector was the sellout who got rich off his own people. The Pharisee prayed to himself: I thank You I am not like them. The tax collector would not lift his eyes: God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Only one went home justified. When Jesus hears you talking about other people, He wants to humble you. When you turn the lens on yourself and bow, He wants to exalt you.
3. Wisdom Becomes Pride When It Turns Harsh
Proverbs names four kinds of people: the simple, who do not know; the fool, who knows and will not do it; the scorner, who mocks truth; and the wise, who know and do. Church makes you wiser. That is the danger. You start watching the street from the window and narrating who the lion is about to eat. You know what to do with money, marriage, kids, and church, so you become a judge. You become the elder brother with no fatted calf, because God resists that attitude. Rick Eaton was one of the wisest men Pastor Joel knew, and he could not remember him saying a negative word about anybody. Discernment is a gift to help people. If you do not know that, you will talk, judge, and get high-minded.
4. Honor Whose They Are
We are sons and daughters of God and the bride of Christ. Get a father’s child’s name in your mouth the wrong way and see what rises up. God feels that when you do it to the brethren. Even if you cannot respect what they did, respect whose they are. Call sin out. Do not put a person on blast to everyone except the person who needs to repent. Go to them. Ask for wisdom to restore them. Jesus covered His murderers. Joseph covered the brothers who threw him in a pit. David would not put his hand on Saul because he was the Lord’s anointed. Moses asked God not to wipe Israel out. That spirit gets exalted. Noah built the ark, then got drunk and uncovered in his tent. Scripture does not hide the weakness, and it is about to show what covering looks like versus what exposing looks like.
Pride judges others. Humility judges itself.
Put humility on toward one another.
“Do not speak against one another, brethren.” Who are you to judge your neighbor?
