7 Things that God Hates(Part one)
Proverbs 6:16-19
Introduction-
This morning I want to talk to a moment about what proverbs 6 calls the seven things that God hates or the 7 abominations of God.
1.Pride
2. Lying
3. Shedding of innocent blood
4. heart that is wicked
5. feet that rush into evil
6. False witness
sowing discord
Do you care what God hates? Are you willing to change where needed.
We probably will only get three of them today and will have to finish up on another day.
Putting the word hate with God doesn’t seem right.
Most people associate God with love and that God cannot hate. The Bible gives us a different look.
God hates divorce, God hates anything associated with hurting others, or yourself.
Most of us want to say I’ll just live a good life, not hurt anybody and God will respect and reward me for that. I don’t murder, and I would never commit adultery. I don’t get drunk.
As you heard in the text this morning; God hates the misuse of our eyes, the misuse of our hands, misuse of our tongue, misuse of our heart, even the misuse of our feet- because we should follow Christ and flee from evil. Walking toward Christ and fleeing or running away from evil.
Illustration-
Fox recently premiered “Moment of Truth” a TV show that wrestles with weather or not anyone is ever telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Contestants are hooked up to a state of the art lie detector test in order to determine weather or not they are spinning lies while asked a series of questions. If contestants tell the truth, they’ll win 500,000. To add a little drama, the show mixes spouses, significant others, family members, friends, an co-workers into the audience. Here are a few questions that have been asked in recent episodes’
Have you ever lied to get a job?
Do you like your mother -in law?
Have you ever stolen anything from work?
Would you cheat on your spouse if you knew you could get a way with it?
As one person on the show put it, “This is the first game show where you know all the answers”
we all have secrets. We all have things we want to keep under the blood of Christ.
What if we had to answer these kinds of questions while your spouse, family members, friends, watched and listened?
What if you had to answer these in front of the church?
It would be terrifying to some.
Honesty matters to Christ.
After all, every moment is a moment of truth before God- he knows everything
We have just came through the election process. We have heard both candidates promise to make changes. Both have given signature things they have promised to do.
Phrases like “lie like a politician” and “smooth as a politician” fits the description of their work. Why? Because in the past they have let us down, told us one thing and done another.
We are going to center on the first 3 of the 7 listed here in Proverbs 6.
1. Pride
2. Lying
3. Murder
That is my 3 point message.
I. Pride
A question is always asked if all sins are the same before God?
Yes and no- yes that a holy God cannot accept or turn away from sin, no in the fact that some sin causes more damages. I believe these are listed here because they are destructive in our lives and cause our walk with God to be destroyed.
“Haughty eyes” prideful is the first one.
Thinking that you are better than someone else is not a new sin.
It’s the same attitude that drove Satan to think that he was better than God.
“Pride will lead to destruction whereas humility will lead to honor and blessing” (Proverbs 18:12)
Pride will drive a wedge in your relationship with God and others. It will corrupt our thoughts and motives.
Illustration:
Hudson Taylor was scheduled to speak at a large Presbyterian church is Melborne, Australia. The moderator of the service introduced the missionary in eloquent and glowing terms. He told the large crowd all that Taylor had accomplished in China, and then presented him as our illustrious guest. Taylor stood quietly for a moment, and then opened his message by saying, “Dear friends, I am the little servant of the illustrious master”.
We can never get to a place in our relationship with God as to think that we are better than someone else. God is the God of grace as much as he is the God of redemption.
I mean the testimony of God is great when God has redeemed a person from addiction and has turned their life around.
The testimony of God is great when God has kept us from such things and has allowed us to remain pure in our lives. Both are testimonies that glorify God.
We cannot look as if we have done these things- both came by the wonderful grace and power of God- not us.
The problem lays that when we think or act like we are perfect, we have no room for improvement.
We do not allow God or seek God to work in our lives.
God is looking fro a broken spirit. One open to hear fromGod.
Prideful living is like we are the pharisees.
Luke 18:10-14
“Two men went to the temple to pray, one a pharisee and the other a tax collector. The pharisee stood up and prayed about himself; God, I thank you that I am not like the other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner”
II lying Tongue
There are all kinds of polls out about how much people lie. Depending upon which one you look at , it goes from everyone lies and some have the nerve to say that lying is healthy.
Everyone is not lying. And it is not healthy. The Lord is not pleased when we lie.
Proverbs 12:22
“lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight”
God uses the word abomination as a word of disgust, to lie is disgusting to God.
Being a person of your word is important to God.
God delights when our words fit our actions.
James Dobson:
If you tell me the truth all of the time, I can believe you all of the time, if you tell me the truth part of the time, I cannot believe you any of the time.
Once you get use to lying, it gets easier.
It takes more effort to lie than tell the truth, when you tell a lie you must always follow up with another lie.
God takes lying seriously.
Psalms 63:11
“The mouths of liars will be silenced.”
A false witness will not go unpunished”(Proverb 19:5)
when you build anything on a lie, it will come crashing down.
Lying hurts our relationship with others...trust is gone More important it destroys our relationship with God.
Back to the election:
Those that have not been elected, will not be held to what they have said, but those elected must now be brought to pass. They must deliver what they have promised.
Lying, exaggerating the truth, deception, is contrary to the character of God.
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me”
God desires truth in our lives.
Just because everyone is doing it,
Just because society has accepted it, does not make it okay.
Honesty is the best policy when you are a believer.
Your testimony is a open book. Read by all men, lying tears down your testimony.
Think about it a moment, lying is conveying a false statement, information deliberately given as being true. It also means to deceive, leaving out information, that would change the facts given or not given.
III. The shedding of innocent blood
I realize that I may take some heat on this one.
I want you to set aside political preferences for a moment and focus on God’s word.
Murder and killing is not necessarily the same thing.
The U.S.A. has a responsibility to it’s people to protect the people at all cost.
We do not have a right to murder because we disagree with each other.
We do not have a right to murder someone because it would be convenient for them to be gone.
Murder and bloodshed talked about here is premeditated and purposeful killing of innocent people.
Aggressors and countries that take over others for greed or power is sin.
Self defense is not murder.
A nation can be guilty of corporate murder (Acts 7:52).
I believe this is where we are as a nation today.
This is where we are at as a nation on abortion issues.
Abortion devalues life.
The sanctity of life is the idea that all human life is given as a gift from God and only He has the authority to give it or take it.
America debates when life begins. God has given us the answer to that question.
Jeremiah 1:5
“ I knew you before you were formed within your mothers womb; before you were born I sanctified you and appointed you as my spokesman to the world “
Remember, sanctity of life - God gives and God takes
Medical reports:
18 days - heart beats on its own
6 weeks- moves in the womb
8 weeks- proven brain waves
12 weeks- all organs are functioning on their own. From that point on, the body is maturing for the birth process.
With sonagrams today, they can prove that there is life early in the pregnancy.
Illustration-
1994, Mother Teresa spoke at a National prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. surrounded by officials and President Bill Clinton she declared “ I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion. It is a direct war against the child, a direct killing of an innocent child. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want. By abortion the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put another women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.”
Closing:
What can we learn from the first three of the seven things God hates?
That we should not be prideful.
That we are not better than anybody else. That by the grace of God go I
That our word means something.
That as believers, our testimony to this society is a witness to what God has done in our lives.
That God has value on life.
He is the giver of life, and therefore the only one who can take life.
Abortion is destroying and decaying America.
Listen to me this morning, none of these are the unpardonable sin. If you are here this morning and you ask the Lord to forgive you for what you have done, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins. That is not my words, that is the word of the Lord .
If you have had an abortion and you ask God to forgive you, he will forgive you and heal the hurts that go with your decision.
What do we do? As a nation we need to repent and turn from our wicked ways.
2 Chronicles 7:14
“If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Imagine how life would change if change began in each one of us.
If we would take God at His word and apply it to our lives.
Let it begin in each of us...
Oh God be merciful to me a sinner.
Help me to be pleasing in your sight.
Help me to be that witness you desire us to be.
(Listen to the prayer of Rev. Wright, not the one that has been in the news) as he opens the Kansas Senate)
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek your direction and Guidance. We know Your Word says, ’Woe to those Who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we Have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed Our values. We have exploited the poor and called it The lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it Welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it Choice. We have shot abortionists and called it Justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our Children and called it Building self esteem.. We have abused power and called it Politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions And called it Ambition . We have polluted the air with profanity and Pornography and called it Freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values Of our forefathers and called it Enlightenment. Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts Today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen
Altar Call
