“Love Moves God to Correct My Pride”
Prov. 3:12; 29:23; Jam. 4:6
SUBJECT: CORRECTIONS ADVERSITY COMPELS US TO MAKE
THEME:
Nothing
compels us to make spiritual changes like troubles. Understanding God’s design
to develop and transform us encourages us to respond favorably toward our
troubles. Clearly God desires that we
humble ourselves to his will. When
troubles come, examine your heart for prideful attitudes and correct them to
continue spiritual growth.
RELEVANCY:
When we become complacent, the Lord may permit troubles to come our way to
jostle us forward in our spiritual walk. God doesn't only seek to get our attention;
He also compels all of us to engage in periodic self-examination so we may face
up to our own sin and the smudges on the heart that we acquire during our
lives.
When
adversity comes your way, take a look inward to see what you may need to
correct in your life so that you truly stay on course with what the Lord has
for you. We most move forward. We must keep growing in the Lord. Trouble is God’s tool to
encourage us along. Therefore, we need
to understand HOW to respond to it for spiritual benefit.
INTRODUCTION:
Have You Ever Been on a Journey in Which You Needed to Make a Mid-course
Correction?
Pilots
make course corrections often as they maneuver through air traffic patterns and
avoid potential storms. Road construction crews and detours sometimes force us
to make course corrections when we travel by car.
The
same principle holds true for life's journey. There are times when we need to
make course corrections to arrive safely and soundly at our next spiritual
destination point and ultimately to Heaven. Adversity may be the detour, storm,
or obstacle that compels us to make such corrections.
Anytime you
read your Bible, you should pray, “Show me, Lord,
how this affects my life,” or “Reveal to me,
Lord, how I need to change my life in order to conform to Your commandments and
Your will.”
In this message we will concentrate on correcting our attitude of pride.
MESSAGE:
I.
WHAT MOTIVATES THE LORD TO CORRECT OUR PRIDE?
Proverbs 3:12, For whom the Lord loveth he
correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
A. THE
LORD IS MOTIVATED TO CORRECT US BECAUSE HE LOVES US.
Hebrews
12:5-6, And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when
thou art rebuked of him: [6] For whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
As we enter
this message on God's use of TROUBLES to bring about mid-course corrections in
our lives, we also need to recognize anew that the Lord corrects us because He
loves us. Proverbs 3:12 is important to remember.
The
readers also seemed to have forgotten the encouragement found in Proverbs
3:11–12, which presents divine discipline as an evidence of divine love. Thus
they should not lose heart (cf. Heb. 12:3) but should endure hardship
(hypomenete, lit., “persevere”; cf. vv. 1–3) as discipline and regard it as an
evidence of sonship, that is, that they are being trained for the glory of the
many sons (cf. 2:10 and comments there). All God’s children are subject to His
discipline, and in the phrase everyone undergoes discipline the writer for the
last time used the Greek metochoi (“companions, sharers”), also used in 1:9;
3:1, 14; 6:4. (Lit., the Gr. reads, “… discipline, of which all have become
sharers.”) [1]
1.
Good Parents Guide a Child's Behavior.
Proverbs
22:6, Train up a child in the way
he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
This
is perhaps the best-known verse in Proverbs on child training. The other verses
on child-rearing (13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13–14; 29:17) are all on discipline.
The Hebrew word for train (ḥānaḵ)
means to dedicate. It is used of dedicating a house (Deut. 20:5), the temple (1
Kings 8:63; 2 Chron. 7:5) ….[2]
They
are continually teaching the child what is:
A. Right Behavior.
God
wants us to know what is good, acceptable, and beneficial.
Only
in Proverbs 22:6 is the verb translated “train.” Ḥānaḵ seems to include the
idea of setting aside, narrowing, or hedging in. The word is sometimes used in
the sense of “start.” Child-training involves “narrowing” a child’s conduct
away from evil and toward godliness and starting him in the right direction.[3]
B. Wrong Behavior.
God wants us to know what is bad,
unacceptable, and harmful.
I remember
getting poor grades in elementary school and having to live through one of my
Dad’s lectures about getting a good education. It was like torture enduring one
of my father’s ‘discourses’ on correct behavior, and wholesome living
standards. But he helped me realize that I needed to take full advantage of the
education opportunities I had available to me. He reassured me that I would
never regret getting a good education. Because he loved me, he constantly
reassured me of the value of a solid education. As a result, I made some
serious adjustments in my attitude toward school and eventually went on through
high school and college to graduate with honors. My parents’ loving correction
played an important role in my life as they guided me. Likewise, God is a good heavenly
Father and He labors to bring about correction in our lives because He loves
us.
2.
Good Parents Prepare a Child for Life and Society.
Proverbs
22:15, Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction
shall drive it far from him.
Mischief
and self-will are native to the heart of
a child, but by applying the board of education to the seat of learning you
can rid him of these vices. Matthew Henry counsels:
Children
need to be corrected, and kept under discipline, by their parents; and we all
need to be corrected by our heavenly Father (Heb. 12:6, 7), and under the
correction we must stroke down folly and kiss the rod.[4]
A. Children Are Naturally Wayward.
Foolishness
here implies that children love mischief, waywardness and are self-will; this
is bound up in their very nature with the strongest of chains. But the rod of correction shall drive it far
from him. They are sinners and need punishment.
B. Children Must Be Corrected.
Sensible
correction overcomes this natural tendency, by expediently punishing
misbehavior whenever it appears, and imparting wisdom and instructions (Prov 13:24 and 19:18; and
comp. Prov 23:13; 29:15). The current
theories that children are not naturally bad, but only maladjusted, and that
education should lead them to self-expression, find no support in Proverbs. (C.
Stanley)
C. Children Require Prudent Love.
Proverbs
13:24, He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Correction
is to start young and be administered often.
If a Parent Doesn't Do this for a Child, That Child Grows up to Be Wild
in Behavior. That wildness or stubbornness makes him:
1. Miserable in himself.
2. Undesired by others.
3. And alienated from those who
might bless or help him the most.
Proverbs
29:17, Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight
unto thy soul.
Proverbs
19:18, Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
A few
years back I had a little niece. Though she is beautiful, was perhaps the most
unrestrained child I knew at the time. Whenever they would visit, we would literally
rearrange certain furniture items, we would take certain little what-nots and
place them out of her reach. We would close off certain areas of the house to
make sure that she could not get in to terrorize that room. It was nearly awful;
we sighed with relief when they left for their home. I deeply loved my family,
but we could not handle their little wild daughter. What she needed was a lot
of love in the form of more old-fashioned discipline and correction. This would
have made her much easier to live with.
As a
child, my neighbors did not properly restrain their boys. That family was
postured for trouble and hardness filled their path. They were seemly the
wildest kids in the neighborhood; always in trouble at school and with the law
as young adults. These young people were boundless…mean spirited… and loved to
fight! If there was trouble to be found,
they had a ‘gift’ for finding it. They were expelled from school, spent time in
reformed school as children, and as adults they were in and out of jail and
prison. After a while no one wanted them around their children… they were so
wild and unrestrained. Folk discouraged
others from associating with them because trouble seemed to live with them all
the time. Those parents failed to prepare these children for the Lord Jesus and
a profitable role in society.
3.
Good Parents Prepare a Child for the Future.
Hebrews
12:10-11, For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure;
but he for our profit, that we might
be partakers of his holiness. [11]
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
They
should not think that their sufferings were unique. Many of the witnesses
described in chapter 11 suffered severely as a result of their loyalty to the
Lord, yet they endured. If they maintained unflinching perseverance with their
lesser privileges, how much more should we to whom the better things of
Christianity have come.[5]
In
like manner, God desires for us to be disciplined and mature adults in the
faith. This is to ensure that we
experience inner peace and harmony, enjoy relationships with other believers,
and receive the blessings that God desires to give to us through other people. Often
the race that is set before us involves trouble and pain.
A. Trouble and Pain are Often Necessary for a
Child of God’s Growth.
Hebrews
12:1-2, Wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, [2]
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God.
God
often disciplines and matures our faith through troubles and pain. When we face
hardship and discouragement, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. When
we become complacent, the Lord may permit troubles to come our way to jostle us
forward in our spiritual walk. This is a common experience for every believer.
Understand that we're not alone; there is help. Many have already made it
through life, enduring far more difficult circumstances than we have
experienced. Through their troubles they learned to trust the Lord more fully. Troubles,
suffering, and even pain are the training grounds for Christian maturity. It
develops our patience and makes our final victory sweeter.
B. Sometimes Trouble and Pain are Necessary to
Get a Child of God’s Attention.
Often
the words that we say, and the things we try to teach go unheeded by our
children. We can’t seem to get their
attention with the warnings and admonitions we frequently give. Then it becomes necessary to reinforce what
we are trying to teach them with some more painful lessons to get their
attention.
God
had to get the attention of the Philistines through sending several waves of
trouble, disease and hardship.
1 Samuel
5:6-9, But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed
them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. [7] And
when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of
Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon
our god. [8] They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines
unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And
they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And
they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. [9] And it was so,
that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the
city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both
small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
Although
the Philistines had just witnessed a great victory by Israel's God over their
god, Dagon, they didn't act upon that insight until they were afflicted with
plagues. Similarly, today many people don't respond to biblical truth until
they experience pain. Are you willing to
listen to God for truth's sake, or do you turn to him only when you are
hurting?
Conclusion:
Realizing that God Has a Desire to Correct Our Attitude of
Pride Should Focus Our Self Examinations and Identify Some Changes
We Need To Make.
If we begin to walk just one degree away from the truth—in
pride, we will soon find ourselves a long way from the path of righteousness in
which the Lord desires us to walk daily.
When troubles comes your
way, take a look inward to see what you may need to correct in your life so
that you truly stay on course with what the Lord has for you.
[1] Zane
C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F.
Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 810.
[2] Sid
S. Buzzell, “Proverbs,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures,
ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985),
952–953.
[3] Sid
S. Buzzell, “Proverbs,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures,
ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985),
953.
