Sacrificial Living Pt 4

Romans, Chapter 12. Romans, Chapter
12, we are in that very profound section, profound, even as we’ve
already tasted and found it to be versus one and two. Paul has
made this overarching appeal that we set aside, we consecrate
our lives, we dedicate in sacrificial manner our lives. What Paul proceeds
to do is zero in on the particulars of what that looks like. Now,
if you’ve been here, you know that I have referred to this
section as sacrificial living in the church, and it is the
church that Paul has in focus and it will become increasingly
more evident. The further into this passage
we get verses one through eight. Paul will begin to talk about
the exercise of gifts, even as we just prayed, Paul will begin
to talk about specific opportunities to serve the Lord Jesus Christ,
but it’s in the context of the church. We are called to sacrificial
living. We are called to present our
bodies a living and holy sacrifice, a particular kind of offering
to God, not just any kind of offering. And in the end, that
offering is deemed by God Himself to be acceptable. Good. But it’s only a good and wholly
acceptable sacrifice if we have indeed been transformed and before,
as we saw before, we can even be transformed. We have to be
prepared for such. We have to refuse to be conformed
to the world and then ultimately be transformed. It’s a work that God does. And
it’s a work that God uses His Word transformed by the renewing
of our minds. If you would glance down at chapter
12, verses 1 through 8, as we refresh. The direction in which
Paul is taking us in this sacrificial living in the church. Where Paul
writes, I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable
to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the
grace given to me, I say to every man among you, not to think more
highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as
to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure
of faith. For just as we have many members
in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members
of one another. And since we have gifts that
differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise
them accordingly. If prophecy, according to the
proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches
in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, or he who
gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who
shows mercy with cheerfulness. Paul is talking about the exercise
of gifts. Ultimately, that’s the form in
which our sacrifice will take its sacrificial living in the
church. It doesn’t occur in a vacuum.
It doesn’t occur in the absence of other people. It is in the
midst of other people that we offer up sacrifice to God. It is in the midst of others
who name the name of Christ that we present our bodies a living
and holy sacrifice. It is in the midst of those people
that we are transformed. But Paul says. That if there
is one area in the church where difficulty will come, it is in
the exercise of our giftedness. It’s somewhat of a seeming contradiction. God gives the gifts, we begin
to exercise the gift. And conflicts arise. It’s exactly
what he was addressing in. The epistle to the Corinthians.
In the 12th chapter, they were having difficulty because some
were. Overplaying one particular gift
and downplaying another. Paul says in verse 12, even as
the body is one and yet has many members and all the members of
the body, even though our men many are one body, so is Christ. We’re going to have a variety
of gifts. We’re not all going to function
the same way, we’re not all going to accomplish the same things
in the same way at the same pace for God, we’re not. For by one
spirit, Paul goes on to say, we were all baptized into one
body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. We’re all made
to drink of one spirit. For the body is not one member,
but many. And then he embarks on this.
It’s almost amusing. If the sin that flows and comes
about from the pride attached to gifts wasn’t so serious and
wasn’t so heartbreaking in the lives of
the church. If the foot says, because I am
not a hand, I am not part of the body, it’s almost absurd.
You begin to think of a body that is made up only of feet.
That’s what some people begin to think that everybody has to
be gifted the same way or because I don’t possess certain gifts,
I don’t matter. Paul says, because I’m not an
eye, I’m not part of the body, that’s absurd, it’s absurd thinking
to think that just because the eye is silent. Because the eye
performs a particular function. The eye is not an unimportant
part of the body. If the whole body were an eye,
where would the hearing be? Paul says if the whole were hearing,
where would the sense of smell be? The point that he’s making
there in first Corinthians 12 is that every single believer
in the church has a purpose and has a value and has a function,
a God given function. Paul. Starts. His discussion here. With a consideration
of that which must go before the exercise of any spiritual
gift. And that’s humility. We must
be humble before God before we ever proposed to exercise any
gift, no matter how great. No matter how grandiose the gift
is or. No matter how mundane you see,
it’s the quote unquote mundane gifts that sometimes are exercised
with a proud spirit. This is all I have. This is all
I have to do. This is this is what’s expected
of me, and we go about it with a wrong heart. Whether it’s a
grandiose gift or whether it’s a mundane gift in our own eyes. We are to exercise it with humility.
Because it’s a God given gift. And it was a God given gift that
was granted to us bestowed upon us for use in his church. I take you back. To that illustration
that I used a couple of weeks ago, remember the illustration
of the pool toy, the blow up pool toy, beach ball or lounge
chair doesn’t matter. The illustration is the same.
The illustration was simple. That The world pressing in on
that pool toy is like the rather the air pressing in on that pool
toy is like the world pressing in on us. Paul says, do not be
conformed, but be transformed. And that’s as it were, the air
being blown into the in other words, he says, be inflated.
Well, never more is that illustration more. Poignant. than with regards to pride and
humility. Pride is forcing us into the
world’s mold every day. Try this. Just begin to listen
to the advertisements that are directed at you of what you deserve. You deserve a vacation. You deserve
a better banker. You deserve a bigger car. You
deserve the spa, right? The world tells you. The world
feeds your pride and feeds off of your pride by telling you.
Let me force you into our particular mold. God says, no, that can’t
be the case, we must be transformed. Paul wants to deal before he
ever deals with the exercise of any gift. He wants to deal
with the heart issue that must be dealt with before any gift
is exercised. Paul wants to deal with pride
and the destructive chaos that results from it. James paints
a very graphic picture, doesn’t he? In James chapter 3, he says,
Who is wise and understanding? Let him show by his behavior
his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter
jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant
and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not which comes
down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. It’s pride. It’s pride on display. And pride
can get in the way of the church. Pride can ruin the church. James goes on to say, for where
jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and
every evil thing. It’s pride that James is dealing
with. In chapter 4, he opens it by saying,
what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not
the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members?
You want it your way, and your pride will take down the church. You lust and do not have, so
you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain,
so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do
not ask. You ask and do not receive because
you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your
pleasures. You adulteresses, he says, do
you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward
God? Therefore, whoever wishes to
be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Do you
not think the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealousy desires
the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. And then he says
this. Therefore, it says God is opposed
to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We must be humble
before we exercise any gift. Paul, in every epistle he wrote,
deals with this issue. In the book of Romans, he deals
with arrogance, arrogance, sinfulness, remember. That heart that refuses
to submit. And ultimately, he says, in the
course of laying out the sinfulness of the heathen world, he said,
do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance
and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you
to repentance? But because of your stubbornness
and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself
in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.
Pride is nothing to be trivialized. Pride is nothing to be amused
by. He deals with it in the church
of Corinth, in the factions. In their argument over the superiority
of gifts, the passage we just read. He deals with the Galatians
over their pride of doctrine. They were amused in their new
way and their return. To the old way. To the Ephesians, he deals with
them in their dealings with one another. He deals with the pride
that so often creeps into the husband wife relationship. To
the Philippians, he names names. But he gives that clarion call
to humility in chapter two, perhaps the most. Important call to humility
in all of Scripture, therefore, if there is any encouragement
of Christ. If there is any consolation of
love, is there if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if
any affection and compassion. Make my joy complete by being
of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit,
intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or
empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as
more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your
own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
to the Colossians, he deals with the pride that so often creeps
into the family. In 1st Timothy, he deals with
pride in the church family. In 2nd Timothy, he warns of that
coming proud day that will be characterized. The false teachers rather will
characterize. Titus, he deals with the church
in their pride toward the elders. Ultimately, he deals with their
pride towards civil government. In every epistle Paul wrote,
he dealt with this issue of pride and its destructive tendency
within the church. I want to take you back to the
passage. Paul has called us to present our bodies a living and
holy sacrifice, but he says there will be no acceptance before
God. There will be no living and holy
sacrifice If we’re not transformed first, and if we’re not humble
before God, if we’re not humble towards our fellow saints, we
have not been transformed. Go to the passage, if you would.
And first of all, I would have you note the exhortations link.
There’s one exhortation here in verse three. It’s very simple.
It comes in two parts. There’s a positive and a negative
part to it, but there’s really one exhortation. First of all,
look at the exhortations link for. He ties this verse, verse
three, back to what he has just said, that we are to be transformed. For through the grace given to
me, I say to every man among you not to think more highly
of himself than he ought to think. He ties it to this existing discussion
that he’s already advanced. We are to present a sacrifice.
We are to be transformed of mind. And the first thing that he addresses
is humility and or pride. Look at the exhortations means.
This isn’t the apostle Paul arrogantly touting his own apostleship.
This isn’t the apostle Paul browbeating anyone else. Look at what he
says in verse three, for through the grace given to me. Paul didn’t say that, look, this
thing, this thing that I’ve observed of you doing is just entirely
unacceptable to me personally. Paul isn’t saying. that he personally
is offended by their attitudes and behaviors. Paul is appealing
to them as one who has already been touched by the grace of
God. Through the grace given to me,
there were a number of different people that saw that grace a
little bit differently. Some said that this is no doubt
the grace of salvation. Well, we know that to be true,
we know that Paul holds salvation to be wholly of grace, that it
was entirely of grace, nothing of him. It was absolutely the
grace of God that had brought him to faith in Christ. Some
maintain that the grace that he’s referring to here is the
grace of equipping, that it was God who had equipped him. Well,
there’s certainly truth in that. Paul says it repeatedly. Paul, in other words, had been
set up by God to preach the gospel. That was true. Paul says it in
First Corinthians 310, according to the grace of God, which was
given to me like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation.
That’s absolutely true. The grace of equipping. Some,
though, were fixated on this idea that what Paul is pointing
to here is the grace of apostle apostleship that look, God put
me in the position. You listen to me. Some said that he was pointing
here exclusively to his role as an apostle, that it was a
God given gift, it was undeserved favor bestowed on him, and he
was going to exercise that for God’s glory. Well, there is truth
in that too. To the Romans, he said, we have
received grace and apostleship to bring about obedience of faith.
To all the Gentiles for his namesake. There was truth in this. He says
it again in Romans 15. He says it again in Galatians
that God had made him an apostle by his grace. All three of those
things are true. Grace refers not only to Paul’s
salvation, it refers not only to his equipping, it refers not
only to his apostleship, it refers to all three of those. It includes all of the favor,
said one, God’s favor toward him, not merely in conferring
on him the office of apostle, but in bestowing on him all the
gifts of the spirit. ordinary and extraordinary, which
qualified him for his duties and gave authority to his instruction. See, Paul himself is such an
example of the humility that he is about to enjoin upon us. It even has, as he gives this
advice, he reminds us that, look, I’m nothing. It’s God’s grace
that saved me. It’s God’s grace that equipped
me. It’s God’s grace that put me here as an apostle. Nevertheless. He gives this exhortation. The
third little note that would have you observed is not only
this link of this exhortation and the great means of this exhortation. God’s grace in Paul’s life, but
look at the exhortations extent. Look at the exhortations extent.
Look at verse three again for through the grace given to me,
I say to every man among you. And there is no intent to separate
the genders there. It’s to every individual he’s
speaking to every person in the Roman Church and by proxy to
us, he’s speaking to everyone in this room. I say to everyone
in this room. Every Christian. He calls them
to stand before God and to realize that they are on the same level
there in the same condition. Every single one of them needed
to hear this particular exhortation before we exercise a single gift.
No matter how great, no matter how mundane. And it’s only then
Once we see that this is linked, this exhortation is linked, it’s
linked to the offering of a spiritual sacrifice to God, it’s linked
to our transformation. Once we see the link, once we
see the divine means, once we see the unlimited extent to which
this exhortation goes, then we can begin to see and listen.
What does Paul have to say? If we want to present our lives,
a living and holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God, if we want
to be transformed, every one of us, every one of us who names
the name of Christ needs to sit up and take notice. What does
he say? First, he gives this exhortation
in its negative element. He gives it in two different
ways. The same exhortation given in two different ways. First
of all, look at the negative. I say to every man among you
not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. It’s an interesting passage.
It uses a particular word or a form thereof for different
ways. The word is to think. That’s
the root word that he uses four different ways. One rewrote the
sentence in these terms. Literally, it says, do not overthink
beyond what it behooves him to think, but to think so as to
become sober thinking. That’s about that’s the best
we can do, perhaps in English. Another one took a stab at it,
perhaps even better when he said this. That we are not to be high
minded above what we ought to be minded, but to be so minded
as to be sober minded. There is an intentional play
on words here. And though it’s complex, all
you have to do is step back and realize what Paul is saying.
But it all starts in our head. It’s this idea of humility starts
in our head where we begin to think that some gift is superior,
some way of serving Christ is better than another. I’ve quoted this before. Everybody likes a somebody. Some even like a nobody, but
nobody likes a nobody who thinks he’s a somebody. That’s essentially
what Paul’s saying here. Don’t let your thinking get out
of control. Do I need to say that again? Everybody likes to
somebody some even like a nobody, but nobody likes a nobody who
thinks he’s a somebody. It all starts with our thinking.
This thinking. Points essentially to our estimation
of ourselves. We begin to think a certain way
about ourselves, we begin to have a certain estimation of
ourselves. And what Paul is pointing to
here is this presumptuous, super confident perspective of self. That we are the most important
people in the church, that we are those that are indispensable. God has gotten such a good deal
since I joined the team. So this idea to be minded. Is to have our thoughts, as one
said, habitually turned in a certain direction, this is an occasional
thought, oh, didn’t I do a great job today? This is one who begins
to live and walk and conduct himself as if he is indeed God’s
gift to the church. One pastor said a Christian must
not overvalue his abilities, his gifts, his worth. He will
make an accurate assessment of himself. He will be very low.
An honest assessment will be very low. You see, one of the
sad tragedies in the church. Where God has designed us, each
of us, to humbly exercise our gifts, the very giftedness that
he has put where one is a hand, one is an eye, one is a foot. God has designed those to be
exercised in great humility. But one of the things that frustrates
God’s plan is the sin of pride. Pride ultimately presents itself
in a coveting of another person’s gift or a belittling of still
another’s and the exaltation of a gift that I may possess
as over against one that another possesses. And Paul points here
that nobody is immune from this. Charles Hodge described this
proud situation as being puffed up with the idea of your own
importance and superiority. You are better than everybody
else. That’s the sin of pride. And whether it’s because of family
name or denomination or strength, whether it’s physical or political
or your outward appearance or your education or your popularity
or your wealth, all of those things and more can feed your
pride. And the trouble comes into the
church because of what men and women think of themselves. And that’s where the fights come
from. That’s where the quarrels. That’s where the jealousies.
That’s where the envies and the wranglings. One pastor said it this way.
Smooth relations in the church can be preserved if the entire
congregation adorns itself with humility. When believers recognize
that they are creatures and sinners, they are less apt to be offended
by others. Humility is the oil that allows
relationships in the church to run smoothly and lovingly. Pride gets upset when another
does not follow our suggestions. That’s where it starts. And it
only goes downhill from there. If you don’t think that pride
is a problem or if you don’t think that a lack of humility
isn’t destructive even in the body of Christ. Listen to this
list. I started meditating on this
earlier this week and I started thinking about all the ways in
the Bible that pride had tripped up people that you and I will
know by name. Adam. Simple command from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. Adam,
though, thought more highly of himself than he ought to think. God asked him, have you eaten?
I ate. That’s the simplest. That’s the
Cliff Notes version of Genesis two and three. Do not eat. Have you eaten? I ate. That’s
Adam. Suggesting to God himself that
he was more important, that he he knew better than God himself
knew. The same thing happened to Cain. But Cain, when he brought
his offering, God had no regard for his offering, so Cain became
angry and his countenance fell. He killed his brother. And when
God came looking for him, he said, Cain, where is Abel, your
brother? But see, Cain thought more highly
of himself than he ought to have thought. And he answered with
a smart aleck answer to God Almighty. I do not know, am I my brother’s
keeper? Am I babysitting today, God?
This tendency to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to
think, sometimes it builds Sometimes it builds very slowly, doesn’t
it? Sometimes it’s woven into the heart of the fabric of the
human being like cane, and it comes out everything they do.
Other times it builds more slowly. Take Job. After 37 chapters of pain and
heartache and counsel from people that thought that they knew the
right thing to say, Job’s heart slips just a notch.
He thought more highly of himself than he ought to have thought.
And God answered him out of the whirlwind and said in chapter
38, Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge? By
words without knowledge. Now, gird up your loins like
a man, I will ask you. And God repeats that essentially
in chapter 40 when he says, Will the fault finder contend with
the Almighty? You see, Job’s problem is our
problem. We have this tendency to think
more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Happened to
Cora. Cora had this idea. Things aren’t
going so well with Moses, we don’t particularly care for his
style of leadership. So Cora took matters into his
own hands and it says that Cora took action. That’s not always
a good thing. You want to make sure that what
you’re doing is by divine direction. As far as possible, Korah took
his own action. And it says that they rose up
before Moses together with some of the sons of Israel, 250 leaders
of the congregation chosen in the assembly, men of renown,
and they basically executed a revolt, rebellion. And God struck them. You know the story. The ground
literally sank from underneath their feet. King Saul thought
more of himself than he ought to have thought. He thought,
you know, the priest is late. I’ve got an offering to make
here, I’ve got a schedule to keep, and he offered up the offering
instead of waiting for the priest. And his rebuke was severe. Your
kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself
a man after his own heart. The Lord has appointed him a
ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord
commanded you. He simply thought more highly
of himself than he ought to have thought. The sad reality is that
happened to David as well, didn’t it? You know, the story of David,
listen to how simple it is. He saw he inquired, he took. Which one of us hasn’t fallen
into that? Which one of us hasn’t fallen into that prideful thought
pattern he saw, he inquired, he took, and then he sentenced
Uriah essentially to die. His rebuke. Why have you despised the word
of the Lord? Essentially, why do you think
more highly of your own plans than you do of God’s? Why have
you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight?
You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword, have taken
his wife to be your wife. You have killed him with a sword
of the sons of Ammon. Why do you think more highly
of yourself than you ought to have thought, David? It happened to King Uzziah. King
Uzziah. You know, the funny thing is,
just like David, King Uzziah was a good king. He was a good
man doing good things. Listen to this one. All the people of Judah took
Uzziah, who was 16 years old, made him king in the place of
his father, Amaziah. He built a loft and restored
it to Judah. And after the king’s after the
king slept with his fathers, Uzziah was 16 years old when
he became king. He reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jekaliah
of Jerusalem. He did right in the sight of
the Lord, according to all that his father, Amaziah, had done. That was the overarching testimony
of Uzziah’s kingship. We say, then, where is the problem?
What it does is for about a dozen verses, recite all that Uzziah
had done. And they were amazing things.
The summary comes in verse 15, in Jerusalem, he made engines
of war invented by skillful men on the towers and on the corners
for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. Hence, his
fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped. until he was strong. And then it says, but when he
became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly
and he was unfaithful to the Lord, his God, for he entered
the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. He made the same mistake Saul
did essentially, but it was because of pride. It was because he thought
more highly of himself than he ought to have thought. It shouldn’t
surprise us that Jonah. We know Jonah did this, God issued
him a command, but in verse three of chapter one, but Jonah, Jonah
had a better idea of how to execute ministry than God himself. Jonah thought more highly of
himself than he ought to have thought. In fact, even after even after
he repents, even after he’s given a second chance to go conduct
pardon me, conduct and prosecute this ministry. Jonah, who sees
great success in God bringing this nation to repentance. Blows it. Says that God said
when he saw their deeds that they had turned from their wicked
way, then God relented. concerning the calamity which
he declared he would bring upon them and he did not do it. And
you would think Jonah would be over in the corner having a worship
service all by himself, praising and thanking God for saving souls. But it greatly displeased Jonah
and he became angry and he went out and he sat and he pouted
and God came to him and he said, Do you have good reason to be
angry? the most uncomfortable silence
in all the Bible, isn’t it? Jonah didn’t even answer God. He thought more highly of himself
than he ought to thought. Then Jonah went out from the
city and he sat. It shouldn’t surprise us that
men like the king of Assyria in Isaiah chapter 10 fought more
highly of themselves. Isaiah says, that I will punish
the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria. What
about Nebuchadnezzar? In the book of Daniel, there
is this fascinating story, isn’t it, of a man who simply thought
more highly of himself than he ought to have thought. The king
was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. The
king reflected and said, Is this not Babylon, the great which
I myself have built as a royal residence by the power of my
power and for my glory and majesty? You know, in all of this court
servants, they move away from them, right? Looking up for lightning.
While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from
heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared. Sovereignty
has been removed from you. You will be driven away from
mankind. Your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the
field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and even
seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize
that the most high is ruler of the realm of mankind, and he
bestows it on whomever he wishes. See, he just thought more highly
of himself than he ought to think. The amazing thing is, in a word
that we’ll end up revisiting next week, it says that at the
end of that period, Nebuchadnezzar raised his eyes toward heaven
and his reason returned to him. He saw the pecking order. He
saw where he fit in God’s plan. You know who else thought more
highly of themselves than they ought to have? The Pharisees.
The Pharisees thought more highly of themselves. Jesus said they
do all their deeds to be noticed by men. They love the place of
honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful
greetings in the marketplace and being called rabbi by men. The Samaritans, you would think
that if there was a people that would have a cause to be humble,
they knew of God, but they were essentially half breeds. They
were outcasts. You would think that if there
was ever an opportunity to show forth humility, the Samaritans
surely would have shown it. But as Jesus was headed towards
Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead of
him. They went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements
for them. They needed some hospitality.
They needed some groceries, something to eat, maybe a place to lay
down. But they thought more highly
of themselves than they thought ought to have thought, and they
did not receive him simply because he was heading towards Jerusalem.
They didn’t want a Jew in their village. The sad thing is this touches
even Christian. Peter. Peter thought more highly
of himself than he ought to have thought. From that time, Jesus
began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and
be killed and raised on the third day. Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him. The Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid
it, Lord, this shall never happen to you. See, Peter thought more
highly of himself than he ought to think he thought he could
rebuke. God himself. Jesus turned to Peter and said,
get behind me, Satan. You’re a stumbling block to me,
for you’re not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.
James and John, here’s a curious one. Maybe we’ll end with this
one. There are many more. This is one of those things where,
you know, I’ll greet you at the door at the end. You forgot about
there are thousands of them. And go ahead and feed me the
list. I’ll add it to my list and we’ll go there next Lord’s
Day. There are almost on every page, almost every person. Right, even Abraham. Abraham
had a better idea than God. I know, I’ll just tell this little
lie about my wife. James and John, right? Classic, precious Jewish mother. The mother of the sons of Zebedee
came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a custom,
seemingly humble approach, right? Well, listen to the request,
he said to her, what do you wish she said to him, command that
in your kingdom, these two sons of mine, these lovely boys. May
sit one on your right hand and one on your left. And I get the sense that Jesus
turned graciously to look at these two young men. And he said, you do not know
where you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I’m
about to drink? And you can almost it’s almost
amusing to think of these two guys. Yeah, sure, yeah, I yeah, we’re
able. Hearing this, he said, my cup
you shall drink, but to sit on my right hand or my left. This
is not mine to give. You think more highly of yourself
than you ought to think. But it is for those who have
been prepared by my father and. Not to be outdone. Hearing this,
the 10 now they become indignant. See, that’s when you know that’s
when you know that pride is at work. There are many more. Pages and
pages and pages. Bring me your list. What I’m
telling you is that this sin of pride, this tendency to think
more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. It’s such
a danger and it’s so common and it’s so easy. And it’s so utterly
destructive. We’ll take it up there next Lord’s
Day, let’s examine our hearts. Oh, Father God, as we come to
you, we see that this sin of pride. This tendency that we
have when we know that we have it as so many others have had
to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Oh, merciful
God. Bring us to a place of humility.
Make us to be usable for the sake of your kingdom. Bring us
to a point where we can embrace the fact that we are sinners
and that we are only equipped and saved by your grace and that
these gifts are not ours to withhold or to use at our own convenience. But they are gifts that you have
given to us out of the abundance of your goodness to be used for
the building of your church. Father, examine our hearts. And we do pray that if there
is the sin of pride, this thinking more highly of ourselves than
we ought to think, Father, we pray begin the work of taking
it away, removing it. Humble us, we pray. It’s in Jesus’
name that we ask. Amen.