Pride on SermonAudio

This sermon examines Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians that God chooses the foolish and weak things of the world to shame the wise and strong, ensuring that no human can boast in their own abilities. The central message emphasizes that salvation is entirely of grace, revealed to those who recognize their spiritual poverty and inability to save themselves. By contrasting the self-sufficiency of the world with the brokenness required for true faith, the exposition highlights that Christ becomes the believer's wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The tone is both convicting and comforting, urging listeners to abandon pride in their own status or intellect and instead find their identity and glory solely in the Lord. Ultimately, the sermon asserts that God delights in using humble, broken sinners to display the magnitude of His grace and power.

This sermon examines the spiritual privileges of the nation of Israel, including their redemption, sustenance, and divine presence, to illustrate that spiritual privilege does not guarantee faithfulness. The central message warns believers against the sinful practices of lust, idolatry, fornication, and murmuring, which led to the judgment of the majority of the Exodus generation. By contrasting Israel's experiences with the completed work of Christ, the text emphasizes that believers are called to a higher standard of obedience and humility. The preacher urges the audience to view Scripture as a pattern for admonition, steering their lives by the light of God's Word rather than their own perceptions. Ultimately, the message calls for vigilance in the Christian race, urging believers to remain faithful and avoid the danger of becoming complacent or spiritually stagnant.

This sermon examines the root causes of conflict within the church, identifying selfish desires and worldliness as the primary drivers of quarrels and fights. It contrasts the wisdom of the world, which is characterized by enmity toward God, with the divine call to humility and the pursuit of God's glory. The message emphasizes that believers often fail to receive what they need because they ask wrongly, seeking to satisfy personal passions rather than aligning with God's will. Despite this spiritual adultery, the sermon highlights God's jealous love and His inexhaustible grace, which is sufficient to overcome sin and restore the believer. The passage concludes with a call to humble oneself before the Lord, trusting that God opposes the proud but exalts the humble through the work of Christ.

What does it mean to walk as children of light? In Ephesians 5:6–16, we learn why Christians are called not only to reject the works of darkness but also to reprove them in love. Having received Christ's gospel-centered love, believers are called to live differently from the world. This sermon explains why sin must be reproved, not with pride or condemnation, but with a redemptive desire to expose its emptiness and shame and point others toward Christ. Biblical reproof is part of loving one another, restoring fellow believers, and guiding the lost to the light of the gospel.

In "Obadiah: Who Will Bring Me Down?" Charles Sebold walks through the shortest book of the Old Testament, a single twenty-one-verse oracle against Edom, the descendants of Esau. After tracing the long rivalry of the two brothers from Rebekah's womb through Edom's refusal of passage in Numbers 20 and Moses' charge, "You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother," he shows that the indictment rests on family: Edom wronged its brother Jacob. Edom's sin began with pride. Secure in the clefts of the rock, it asked, "Who will bring me down?" and God answered, "From there I will bring you down." Its allies, its wise men, and its warriors would all fail. Then comes the charge: on the day Babylon sacked Jerusalem, Edom stood aloof and was "like one of them." The eight "do not" commands of verses 12 to 14 trace a slippery slope of sin, from gloating to looting to handing over survivors. Watching came first, and the rest followed. Because the day of the Lord is near, "as you have done, it shall be done to you." God remembers wrongs done to His people, and His judgment fits the deed exactly. Yet Proverbs 24 forbids God's people the same gloating, and Romans 12:19 reminds us that vengeance belongs to the Lord, which is exactly why we need not take it ourselves. History confirms the word: Edom vanished. The book closes on Mount Zion, with a remnant that escapes, a restored land, and the promise that "the kingdom shall be the Lord's." The lesson calls believers to love brother, neighbor, and enemy, to glory in God's justice rather than in anyone's ruin, and to refuse to stand aside when evil falls on others.

Join us as we worship our Triune God! For more information about Grace Church, please visit www.graceharrisburg.org.

Belshazzar's problem of pride blinded him from learning from (recent) history and exposed him to God's wrath. Sound familiar? God declared Belshazzar "wanting" or "deficient." That, too, should sound familiar. All of us, apart from the grace of God and faith in Jesus Christ are found to be deficient before the holy God!

This sermon examines the distinction between religious noise and genuine spiritual power, using the metaphor of a firecracker versus dynamite to illustrate the difference between impressive speech and transformative action. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 4, the message warns against the danger of mistaking God's patience for approval and relying on eloquence rather than the evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in one's life. The preacher challenges the congregation to evaluate their own spiritual maturity by asking whether they are prepared to be held accountable and corrected, rather than merely defending their own positions. True Christian maturity is defined not by what one says, but by the power of God evidenced through humility, obedience, and repentance. The central call is to move beyond self-confidence and pride, allowing the gospel to produce real change in character and conduct.