Enemies of The Seed (Mk. 4:13-20) (Part 6)

THE SEED ON GOOD SOIL (4:20)

• There is no enemy here, right?
•  Think again.
• What makes this soil different from the other soils?
•  All four groups had the Word, so the difference isn’t there.
• At one point, the seed was on top of all the soils.
• All four groups heard the Word, so the difference isn’t there.
•  Only this fourth group accepted the Word.
•  They received it.
• To “receive” means to admit access, to give permission.
• This group let what they heard impact their innermost being.
•  It is not the seed’s job to push its way into the soil.
•  It is the soil’s job to receive the seed.
• If you are to properly hear, understand, and respond to God’s Word, the fourth enemy you must conquer is pride.
•  How does pride behave?
•  It rationalizes current, sinful behavior.
•  It makes excuses for the status quo.
• Pride says, “That’s good, but it’s not me.”
• Pride says, “That just doesn’t apply to me.”
• It minimizes my own sin and maximizes the sins of others.
• The problem is that other people aren’t the standard; Jesus is the standard.
• If there is no acceptance of the seed, there will be no production of fruit.
• We are called to bear fruit (Jn 15:2, 5, 16).
•  If we don’t deal with pride, our crop will be limited.

Verse of The Week (03/11/16)

Heart Cry: Keep Me Small & Humble (Jam. 4:6) (Part 4)

As we begin to wrap up this message, we must engage today's heart cry.  Our heart cry is, or at least it should be, “Lord, keep me small and humble.”

“They that know God, will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud.”¹ (John Flavel)

   A little boy came to his father one day and said, “Dad, I measured myself, and I’m eight feet, four inches tall.”

   His father said, “Son, you know you’re not eight feet tall.”

   “Yes, I am,” the boy replied. “I measured myself, and I’m more than eight rulers tall.” 

   The father went to see what the boy was measuring himself with and discovered it was a six-inch ruler. You can always get taller if you’re using the wrong gauge.

   A lot of us think more of ourselves than we ought to think because we’re measuring ourselves against the wrong people. We’re comparing ourselves with each other instead of with God. We need to measure ourselves against the right standard.² (Tony Evans)

1 Pet. 5:6

Bring your heart cry to Jesus.

1 http://www.preceptaustin.org/james_46_commentary.htm (accessed 3.2.16)

2 Evans, Tony. The Battle Is the Lord's. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, n.d.

Heart Cry: Keep Me Small & Humble (Jam. 4:6) (Part 3)

Several questions arise from this verse (Jam. 4:6).

What is pride?  Pride is the tendency to declare or think of yourself as being above other people, that you are better than or superior to them.  Pride is the mindset that keeps you thinking you have no need to obey God.

Never let it be said God didn't warn you! “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (Prov. 16:18). “A man’s pride will bring him low . . .” (Prov. 29:23). “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

Why is God opposed to pride? Pride is illustrated in the building of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 1:28; 9:1; 11:4). God's instruction:  Multiply, spread out and fill the earth.  Man's intention:  Multiply, stay put and don't fill the earth.

Read Jam. 4:1-6a. This is the context of today's Bible verse. God is opposed to pride because it says, “God, I know that You want exclusive rights to me (Jam. 4:5) and that, though it is difficult sometimes to give up selfishness and worldliness (Jam. 4:1-4), You give extra grace (Jam. 4:6a) so I can please You and obey You; no thanks, my way is better.”

What does it mean when it says God is opposed?  A good example of God's opposing someone is found in Numbers 22:22. God's opposing a person means He stands in that person's way so that he or she cannot prosper.

By the way, it isn't just that God is opposed to pride. God hates it! (Prov. 8:13). In the Greek, the word “opposed” means 'God sets Himself to do battle against.' You can be sure about this: If God sets Himself to do battle against you, you will neither prosper nor prevail.

Have you ever met someone who never seems to catch a break – not ever – in life? How much of this person's misery does he bring upon himself, simply because he will not humble himself before God?  

Heart Cry: Keep Me Small & Humble (Jam. 4:6) (Part 2)

“GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” (Jam. 4:6)

Today's verse contains a contrast.  The contrast is illustrated in the “Parable of the Pharisee And the Publican” (Read Lu. 18:9-14).  Did you see the pride of the Pharisee and the humility of the publican?

Let's go back to the verse in James.  Several questions arise from this verse.  (We will examine those questions tomorrow.)

Heart Cry: Keep Me Small & Humble (Jam. 4:6) (Part 1)

Three Sundays ago we started a new series called “Heart Cry.”  I asked the question, “What is on God's heart?”  Do you remember the candy hearts?  On each was written a saying, expressing the giver's desire.  

Three Sundays ago, this is what was on God's heart: “Be true.”  We looked into 3 John 3-4, considering the meaning of “walking in the truth.”  In response to this, our heart cry was, “Keep me true, Lord Jesus.”

Two Sundays ago, this is what was on God's heart: “Be dependent.”  We looked into John 15:5, considering the meaning of “abiding in Jesus.”  In response to this, our heart cry was, “Lord, keep me dependent.”

We're going to switch Bible authors, from John to James.  Today's Bible verse is James 4:6 - “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, 'GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.'

How many of you have a translation in which half of those words are in capital letters?  When you see this, you now that the writer is quoting from or alluding to the Old Testament, which is the left section in your Bible.  In this case the writer, James, is alluding to Psa. 138:6 and quoting from Prov. 3:34. (Read these two verses.)

So far in our series, here is the conclusion that holds the sermons together: God's heart is that you would want what He wants for you.  The natural question becomes, What does God want for you? More specifically, what does God want for you today, hearing this message?  God wants for you to be small and humble before Him.

That Speck In My Eye (Mt. 7:3)

photo: http://tinyurl.com/hoqvv3h

This verse doesn't speak well of me or of any disciple of Jesus.  How we wish Jesus was speaking primarily to the Pharisees!  His audience, as this is still the Sermon on The Mount, is His disciples (Mt. 5:1-2).

The plank in my eye is . . .

1. Big enough I can't deny it (unless I'm willing to lie to myself, which is possible but never profitable).
2. Big enough God cannot not notice it.
3. Big enough that others cannot not notice it.
4. Deceptive enough to cause me to become a piddly fault inspector.
5. Dangerous and common enough for Jesus to mention it (Among all else Jesus could've said in the Sermon on The Mount, He didn't leave out "planks.")

The main question is "why."  "Why do you see the speck" and "not consider the plank"?  Why?  I'm a master at having to avoid my own sin.  It is built into my fleshly DNA to always look better than I am.  I always want someone else to be the one who struggles or is the problem.  Bottom line -- pride.

Forgive me, Lord.

The Power of Simple Thanksgiving

"Consider the power of simple thanksgiving.  Its genius is its prerequisite:  humility, which is essential to a proper relationship to God.  Paul asks, 'What do you have that you did not receive?' The answer is nada, nothing -- absolutely nothing whatsoever.  Everything we have is a given, not a gotten.  We enter the world naked, we exit the world naked.  All we have in between is on loan.  It's humiliating!  Precisely.  Then the apostle asks, 'And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?' (1 Cor. 4:7).  In other words, what grounds do you have for pride?  Same answer:  nada, nothing -- absolutely nothing whatsoever.  So 'gratitude is a species of justice,' writes Samuel Johnson, meaning that when we genuinely say thanks to God, we are seeing things as they actually are, and humbly giving credit where credit is due.

 To be ungrateful is to see things as they are not, to have a perspective that is fundamentally and fatally distorted.  Such is the view of the proud who see all that they have and are as a gotten, not a given."

Patterson, Ben.  Deepening Your Conversation With God:  The Life-Changing Power of Prayer.  The Pastor's Soul Series.  Ed. David L. Goetz.  Minneapolis, MN:  Bethany House Publishers, 1999.  pp. 88-89.