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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Grace Is Better than Pride |
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Matthew
22:34 Eighteenth
Sunday after Trinity October
3, 2010 The
emphasis of this, the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity in our cycle of
worship and prayer is grace. It
is best seen when compared to that of last Sunday, which emphasised the
sin of pride, specifically the pride of thinking ourselves good enough for
God. The contrast between the
two is obvious. Pride leads
us away from God; His grace leads us to Him. Our
Pride leads us away from God because it convinces us we are good enough
for God just as we are. I
constantly see two ways pride leads people away from God. The first way is
by building within us a sense of spiritual complacency.
A spiritually complacent person is one who is satisfied with
mediocrity with God. This
person may be outwardly very religious.
He may pray, read the Bible, attend church, give money and live an
outwardly moral life. Or this
person may be almost irreligious. He
may not read the Bible, may not pray, go to Church, or make use of the
means of grace. He claims to
be a believer, but there is not much evidence of it in his life. Or the
spiritually complacent person may be somewhere in the middle.
He may pray often but neglect the Church.
Or he may be absolutely faithful in church attendance but neglect
the Scriptures and prayer on other days of the week.
Or he may do all the religious things while being filled with
anger, selfishness, and greed. No
matter which form his complacency takes, the spiritually complacent person
never gives himself to God completely.
He always holds back. His faith is always lived by his own terms,
not God's. It is as though he
says to God, "I will follow you this far, and no further."
It is as though he says to God, "I will give You some of my
time, some of my money, some of my energy, and some of my loyalty and
affection, but my heart belongs to me."
Anyone who plays sports knows the danger of holding back.
The diver who makes a tentative jump off the board is probably not
going to do a good double back flip.
The football player who makes a half-hearted run with the ball
probably won't get very far. In
fact, there is serious danger in doing either of these sports
half-heartedly, as anyone who has ever done a belly flop, or been tackled
by a person he didn't see, can verify.
Let me say in all compassion and love, there is grave danger in
complacency in your relationship with God.
Listen to the words of Christ to the Church in Laodicea. "I
know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot... so then because thou
art neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth" (Rev.
3:15-16). Our
Lord is telling these people that they are complacent.
They are mediocre towards Him.
They are to Him like tepid coffee, and far from being pleased with
them God is repulsed by them. The
second way pride leads us away from God is by causing us to have an over
confidence in our own actions. The
overconfident person trusts in his own goodness and good works to make him
acceptable to God. The
overconfident person, which the Bible calls "self-righteous,"
says, "I go to Church, I take communion, I pray, fast, and give
money. I live a good life. I've
been a good person. Surely God accepts me.
Surely I am Heaven bound."
Or this person can go in another direction, trying to justify
himself by saying he doesn't have to do the "religious thing" to
be accepted by God. I have
heard many try to excuse their disregard for God by saying, "Jesus
died for my sins, so I'm forgiven, therefore I don't have to try to
forsake sin or live a godly life."
I also hear people say, "I don't have to go to Church to be a
Christian. I can worship God
in the fields and forests, at the beach, at the mall, on the golf
course." I guess they haven't read Hebrews 10:25.
They continue, "I don't have to pray, or do religious things.
I see those people at the Church, and I'm just as good as them,
maybe better, so I guess I'll be accepted by God."
I guess they haven't read John 14:15. No
matter what form it may take, complacency, overconfidence, or something
else, pride makes excuses for us to disobey God, all the while telling us
our disobedience doesn't matter and we are still ok in God's eyes.
But when we compare our excuses to the teaching of Christ we may
see ourselves and our sins differently.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart with all
thy soul and with all thy mind."
We can paraphrase these words quite simply; Love God above all,
with all. When we compare
ourselves to this great commandment we see the wickedness of our neglect
of the things of God. We
neglect His word because we want something else more. We neglect His house because we want to do something else
more than we want to worship Him. We
neglect to honour Him with our finances because we want something for
ourselves more than we want something for Him.
We commit our sins because we value our own desires more than we
value God and we care about indulging our whims and lusts more than we
care about obeying His commandments.
In short, we commit our sins because we love ourselves more than we
love God. We have not loved God with all our heart, soul, and mind, we
have loved ourselves with all
our heart, soul, and mind, and we are guilty of breaking not only the
Great Commandment, but also the First Commandment of having no other gods
before God. Every time we
break any commandment of God we place ourselves above and before God.
Thus, we dethrone God and enthrone ourselves in His place. Fortunately,
there is help. The grace of God is abundant and free, and the grace of God
leads us back to Him. How?
"Seek and ye shall find." Make diligent use of all the means of
grace. Ask God to help you seek Him, do right, obey and love Him above all
and with all. Ask Him to make
you dissatisfied with complacency, self-righteousness, and half-hearted
devotion. I beseech you
today, in His name, do not be satisfied with mediocrity with God.
To most "Christians" God is simply another part of their
lives, like family, work, and entertainment.
Self is the center of their private universe; all things, including
God, revolve around them for the purpose of enhancing their own existence.
God is not first to them. They
do not live for Him. They
have no intention of being filled with the fullness of God.
They have no intention of being able to say, "for me, to live
is Christ." Their desire
is to get to Heaven, not get to God.
Please, do not be one of them. Let
us pray. Our
Lord and our God, please forgive us for loving ourselves and serving our
pleasures more than Thee. By
Thy Holy Spirit make us willing to seek and serve Thee with our whole
heart. Put within our hearts
a love of Thy Bible, Thy Church, and all the means by which You nurture
and mature people into Godly Christians.
Put within us the will and the intention to seek Thy help and to
follow where You lead, that we may love Thee above all with all.
In Jesus name. Amen. "Lord, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
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