Sermon Tone Analysis

RECORD

This morning as we press on in our series in the book of Proverbs we are going to be taking a look at a subject matter that is not a very popular one, especially from the pulpit

This morning we are going to be looking at what Proverbs says about pride and humility

I think that part of the reason that this is not a popular subject to preach is that it is very easy for it to come across as “holier than thou”

In other words it is difficult for one to appear humble when they are preaching humility

So to make sure that you understand just where I am coming from and that I am as much a student in these disciplines that I preach as you are I want to begin with a brief story

It was our first winter as Pastors in Quadeville and things were going well although Liane will try and tell you that I had a bit of an antagonistic style back then always choosing the other side of a topic

I know what you’re thinking, ‘That can’t be true!’

I know right?! but anyway that’s what she thought

Well it didn’t take long that first winter for me to realize that winters in “The Valley” were a little bit different than the winters I was used to in Oshawa

Anyway early on in the new year I was informed by members of my board that on the Saturday of that week we would be having a little get together of some of the men in the church

This get together would take place on the roof and we were all encouraged to bring our own shovel

That’s right we were going to be shoveling off the roof of the church

Now what you see on the screen is a picture of the front of the church and as I worked my way towards this corner in the building I was warned by one of the gentlemen to be very careful in this area because the tin in the corner was very slippery and a previous pastor had slipped and fallen off the roof landing in the fresh snow banks below and was okay

Laughingly I told the men that it must have been because he had sin in his life and I would be okay

Well we finished the church roof and the parsonage roof but let’s move on to a couple of days later as I was walking down the driveway to go to the store and get the mail

Long story short I slipped on some ice and fell on my rear end, the result was a compression fracture of 2 of my vertebrae and a week long stay in the hospital

I was reminded more than once after that that “Pride cometh before a fall” but of course it was all in good fun

All in good fun of course

So now you know that I am not preaching down to you but from the same position as you so let’s open up to our text this morning,

So let’s open up to our text this morning,

(ESV)

2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace,

but with the humble is wisdom.

3 The integrity of the upright guides them,

but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Now I hope that you are noticing a constant theme through each of the passages that we have looked at in Proverbs so far

That theme of course is that everything we have been talking about is always described as a process

We are an ongoing work and we should never expect that we are going to move from where we are in God to where we want to be overnight

It is always a process that we have to go through

For example:

Pride will eventually lead to disgrace

Humility will eventually lead to wisdom

Integrity will guide

Crookedness will destroy

To grow in humility we have to allow Jesus to heal us of our pride

It sounds so simple when I say it that way but it is actually so much more difficult than it sounds and the reason for that is that many of us have pride that we do not even know we have

We think of pride as an greatly exaggerated arrogance, a Donald Trump mentality but pride can be so much more subtle than that and can show up in even very Godly people

In his academic essay entitled, “Undetected Pride,” Jonathon Edwards lists 7 “symptoms” to look for in our lives to help us determine whether or not we may have a problem with pride

Fault-finding

This is where we are always seeing in others what they are or are not doing and where they need to change but far too often we are unable to see any flaws in our own walk

Matthew 7:3-5

Paul said that, “A man ought to examine HIMSELF” and David said, “Search ME O Lord, know MY heart”

2. Harsh spirit

When our words, actions, or even attitudes towards another person, or another group of people, especially those who differ from us in some way, is filled with contempt, irritation, frustration, or even judgement, the root cause is Pride!

Philippians

3. Superficiality

This is when we spend way too much time focusing on how others perceive us

4. Defensiveness

This is when we refuse to allow others to speak correction, rebuke, or any kind of guidance into our lives

We accept the language of Grace but nothing else and if they dare we bury them in an avalanche of “reasons” to get them off our back

Humility requires trusting someone to speak truth into our lives even when it is difficult to hear

Proverbs 19:20

5.

A Buffet God

This is when we pick and choose the parts of God’s character that we like and leave the others

We become bold enough with God that we forget that He is God which is manifested either in our attitude that we don’t need to do certain things or in that we believe our sin is greater than God and there is nothing that we can do about it

6.

Desperate for Attention

Have you ever known anyone that just couldn’t stop talking about themselves?

They have to break into your conversation, even if they were not part of it to begin with, just so they could tell you about their opinion, their experience, their theory etc.

They have to one-up the person speaking because their identity is based on the attention

7. Neglecting others

When we begin to prefer some people over others and we honour some more than we honour others it is almost always a matter of pride because those that we honour and prefer are at our level or higher and have something to offer back to us

We can sugar coat it if we want but what we are saying is that those we neglect are not worth our time, a matter of pride

Romans 12:16-

Now for the sake of time I have rushed through this list and there is so much more that we could say about each one of these “symptoms”

It’s not an easy list to hear though is it?

That’s because when we are honest with ourselves, each and every one of us has to battle one or more of these symptoms

And it is important that we acknowledge and deal with it in our lives because if we don’t God has declared that He will

Matthew

So how do we do that?

How do we move from the human nature of pride to the Godly nature of humility?

Well let me share one more scripture with you,

James 4:6-10

There is so much that I could draw out of this passage this morning that I’m sure we could be here another hour, but don’t worry let me real quick draw your attention to just a few things

First of all God gives us grace, we need to acknowledge our pride to him confess our sin and accept His grace

Secondly submit yourself to Him, give Him the right to be Lord over every area of your life

Thirdly resist the devil

God is not just going to magically make you humble, it is going to require effort on your part

Fourthly come near to God, You cannot be continuously in His presence and have a prideful spirit,

The closer we draw to Him the more that we fall in love with Him and the more that we fall in love with Him the more we become like Him

Don’t let pride rob you of the fulness of life that God wants you to have

Instead search yourself for any of these symptoms and then confess your need to Him and ask for the Holy Spirit to bring you into alignment with His Word and with His character

Let’s pray