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"Pride Always Pollutes" Seek • Surrender • Submit • Serve Primary Scriptures: Deuteronomy 10:12–13; Deuteronomy 30:6; Zephaniah 3:1–7; 1 Peter 5:5–11; James 4:6–10; Psalm 143:7–8. Central Truth: Pride always pollutes what grace intends to produce. This message reveals the danger of spiritual self-sufficiency and the necessity of daily dependence upon the Lord. In Deuteronomy 10:12–13, God calls His people to fear Him, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him, and keep His commandments. Yet Deuteronomy 30:6 reveals that the very devotion God requires is something He must graciously produce within the human heart. We cannot accomplish through natural ability what only God's Spirit can accomplish through grace. The life of Moses beautifully illustrates this truth. Once mighty in words and deeds, Moses became a meek and humble servant who understood that God's purposes could never be fulfilled through human strength alone. His usefulness came not from self-sufficiency but from dependence upon the Lord. In contrast, Zephaniah 3 describes Jerusalem as rebellious and polluted. Despite possessing God's revelation, the people refused to obey His voice, receive His correction, trust Him, or draw near to Him. Their pride contaminated their ways, and they eagerly continued in corruption. By reversing the four failures of Zephaniah 3:2, we discover a powerful pattern for daily living: • Seek Him: Draw near to God, recognizing our continual need for His wisdom, presence, and direction. • Surrender to Him: Trust His goodness enough to commit our lives, plans, and understanding to His authority. • Submit to Him: Receive His correction, allowing His Word and Spirit to continually

This passage helps us understand how the Bible affects us when we spend time reading it. We can see how the Bible restores, or gives life to, our soul. We see how it can make the simple wise, and we can also understand the discernment it gives us. We can understand how God's Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and yes, the Word of God enlightens the eyes of our understanding. This means that God will accomplish His desire in you when you spend time reading the Bible—so read your Bible while you have the freedom to read it.

This message centers on the importance of living a life marked by continual praise to God, based on Psalm 34:1: "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." Using the example of Job, who continued to worship and praise God despite devastating loss, suffering, and personal tragedy, the preacher challenges believers to become "fountains of praise" rather than people characterized by complaining, fear, or negativity. He emphasizes that praise should be a deliberate commitment, not merely an emotional response to favorable circumstances. The sermon highlights the promise of praise (a personal decision to praise God), the person of praise (God Himself and His attributes), the pattern of praise (praising God at all times, in prosperity and adversity alike), and the place of praise (not just in church but continually from the heart and through the mouth wherever believers go). The speaker argues that praise transforms attitudes, relationships, prayer lives, and spiritual effectiveness, urging believers to intentionally cultivate gratitude and worship in daily life. Ultimately, the message teaches that God remains worthy of praise regardless of circumstances, and that a heart filled with praise is one of the clearest marks of spiritual maturity, faith, and trust in God's sovereignty.

Using Abraham's journey into Egypt in Genesis 12, this message examines how fear can drive believers to make decisions that compromise their faith and obedience to God. Faced with famine, Abraham chose to rely on human reasoning rather than trust the promises God had already given him, leading him to deceive Pharaoh and place his wife Sarai in a vulnerable position. The preacher emphasizes that fear often causes Christians to abandon biblical convictions, doubt God's provision, and make choices that have long-lasting consequences. Yet Abraham's story does not end in failure. As his life progressed, he grew into a man known for extraordinary faith, earning a place in Hebrews 11's "Hall of Faith." The message contrasts fear-driven living with genuine biblical faith, describing faith as a confident trust in God's promises even when circumstances seem illogical or uncertain. Just as Abraham learned to trust God's character over his own understanding, believers today are challenged to move beyond fear, embrace God's promises, and live with a faith that sees God's work before it becomes visible. The sermon concludes by reminding listeners that without faith it is impossible to please God and calling men to become people whose decisions are governed by trust in God rather than fear of circumstances.

What will the Lord do to bring his people to himself? Whatever it takes! This is a painful and needful mercy, by which the Lord roughly hews those who will not respond to his gentler measures. Spurgeon is dealing sternly with the souls of men in this sermon from Hosea 6, all the while having in the background the desire to see people return to the Lord. With uncompromising honesty he looks at the vain promise which disappoints divine love, as people give some indication of interest or appetite before fading away. Then he considers some of those fearful cuts which the Lord makes to bring down those sinners who resist his more outwardly tender overtures, such as particular providences, or humbling ministries, or inward troubles of soul. When you might hope that he is going to relieve the pressure, he ramps it up, reminding his hearers that to resist the Lord is to be exposed to his judgments, not least when you come before the living God at the great day. But he ends on a hopeful, pleading note. This is one of those sermons in which he loads himself into the sermonic cannon and applies the match, pleading with all who hear to come to the Lord, and urging them to take his hand, or the hand of some other Christian, and follow them to the cross where sin is atoned and peace is made. The sermon reaches a crescendo of earnest desire, and it is hard to imagine anyone not being moved by such a tender and earnest expression of evangelical affection.

In this sermon, the speaker reflects on his calling to help revitalize struggling churches and introduces a message from Hebrews 11 focused on the theme of endurance. Using Moses as the primary example, he emphasizes that faithful Christians must persevere through difficulties rather than quit when challenges arise. Drawing on biblical teaching, personal experiences, and historical illustrations, he argues that endurance is strengthened through righteous anger toward sin, a healthy fear of God, a consistent pursuit of spiritual growth, appreciation for how God can use one's background, and close fellowship with God. The speaker urges believers, especially church leaders and men in ministry, to remain committed to church involvement, soul winning, spiritual disciplines, and supporting their local church. He concludes by encouraging listeners to renew their commitment to God's work, trust Him through future trials, and remain faithful until the end.

This sermon explores Proverbs 16:15 to illustrate how the favor of God, secured through Jesus Christ, provides spiritual life and assurance to believers. The message contrasts the terrifying wrath of a king with the life-giving light of his countenance, applying this to the believer's relationship with the Heavenly King. It emphasizes that access to God in prayer is grounded not in personal merit but in the finished work of Christ, which removes the fear of rejection. The preacher encourages the congregation to live 'coram Deo,' or before the face of God, allowing the awareness of divine favor to motivate holiness and freedom from the fear of man. Finally, the text of the 'latter rain' is used to depict the sufficiency of grace already received and the ongoing hope for further spiritual growth and blessing in the church.

This sermon explores Ecclesiastes 3, arguing that the passage is not merely a list of human experiences but a declaration of humanity's dependence on God's sovereignty. The central message asserts that God has appointed a specific time for every event, including both joy and suffering, and has intentionally limited human understanding to foster trust in His wisdom. By examining God's control, knowledge, and purpose regarding time, the text highlights that human life is a gift from God, meant to be received with contentment and reverence. The preacher emphasizes that genuine freedom and satisfaction are found not in independence or self-reliance, but in humble dependence on a God who works all things together for good. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a posture of fear of the Lord, recognizing that God's eternal perspective surpasses human limitations and that all of life's labor is a divine gift.