In his sermon, Mike Davenport explores Proverbs 22:4, which links riches, honor, and life with humility and the fear of the Lord. He recounts an incident from Benjamin Franklin's youth where Franklin received advice to 'stoop' to avoid pride's pitfalls. The sermon traces the biblical narrative of Adam, who was initially endowed with riches, honor, and life, but lost these through sin and pride. Davenport emphasizes that pride is pervasive and prevents true humility and fear of God. Examples from the Bible, such as Nebuchadnezzar and King Herod, illustrate pride's destructive consequences. The sermon underscores that true riches, honor, and life are achievable through humility and reverence for God, and warns against the dangers of pride, urging individuals to humble themselves before God to receive His grace.

Proverbs 22 verse 4. Proverbs 22, 4 says this, By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life." In 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to the son of Cotton Mather, sharing an incident he had had with his father when he was 18 years old. He writes, He received me in his library, and on taking my leave showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind and I turning partly towards him when he said hastily, Stoop, stoop.

I did not understand him till I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man that never missed an occasion of giving instruction, and upon this he said to me, you are young and have the world before you. Stoop as you go through it, and you may miss many hard thumps. Franklin then adds, this advice, thus beat into my head, has frequently been of use to me. And I often think of it when I see pride mortified and misfortunes brought upon people by their carrying their heads too high.

Well, what man or even young man is there among us who does not desire riches and honor and life? If you don't desire any of these things, you don't have a pulse. They are part of our DNA. And I would add, not necessarily sinfully so. Consider the first man Adam.

He received riches. The world was at his disposal. He was given a paradise to live in, and he was blessed with a perfect wife. He received honor. Man alone in creation was made in the image of God.

He was the crown of all creation, created last, And all that was created in the entire earth was placed under His dominion. And He walked and talked with God unhindered. He was honored. But he also received life. God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

He was created to live forever, and he was created to enjoy God's creation uninhibited for all his days. Riches and honor in life. Adam was created perfect. By nature, he rightly feared God, and His dealings with His Maker worked within Him a constant attitude of humility before this great and awesome Creator of all things. However, Genesis 3 changed all of this.

Sin entered into the world. Pride was the sin of the devil who declared that he would become like the Most High God. And that same pride was the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, who took the bait offered to them by this serpent of old. In the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Humility and the fear of God vanished in that encounter with the serpent.

Thoughts gave rise to suspicion. Suspicion gave rise to doubt. Doubt gave birth to wrong thoughts about God and about His word. And at that point, our first parents' thoughts superseded the thoughts of God, and pride was the result. And when pride had taken hold of their hearts, they sinned willfully against the very word God had given directly to them.

And since that very moment in the Garden of Eden there is nothing more common in man than the sin of pride because there is nothing more lacking than the fear of God. In one sense, pride is at the root of every sin, at the root of every sin. And where there is no fear of God, there is no true humility. And in what became the point for a man to desire riches and honor and life is to desire for the recovery of all that was fully his from the beginning. Such a desire is a desire simply to return.

But the problem is this. Now with this heart of ours, man wants riches and honor and life on his own terms. He wants his life to take the pursuits of Solomon, and man learns the hard way that all is vanity and grasping of wind apart from a fear of God and humility before Him. You young men, here is a question you need to grapple with. Do you know by personal experience anything about humility?

Do you? Do you know anything by your own – not the definition of it. Do you know by experience anything concerning humility? Would you consider yourself to be a humble young man? You know, pride is so easy to detect in others and yet so hard to pinpoint in ourselves.

But as you search your own hearts, please take note, where there is no fear of God, there will be no humility. These two go hand in hand. Where there is no fear of God, there will be no true humility. The fear of God is the very pathway to true humility. Just as the fog lingers over the pond until the full sun burns it away, even So pride lingers over the heart of man until the presence of Almighty God burns it away.

Some of you young men are not having dealings with God, And it shows in the very way you carry yourself, how you interact, the way you are among others. It shows that there are no true heart dealings with God. You see, pride is so casual that even a young child is free to lay hold on it, and yet it's so persistent that it refuses to leave the side of even the shriveled-up, bedridden man on his deathbed. Pride is so flexible that it holds the mirror in front of one young man so that he can admire himself. And yet, in another young man, flames the feelings of just how wonderful he is not to be given over to such pride and admiration.

Pride is so subtle that it can clothe itself in deeds of righteousness and yet so brazen it can parade itself in the shock value of wickedness. Pride flaunts itself in one young man, hides itself in yet another, and in another it acknowledges the true humility that he has within himself. Pride can just as easily glory in what it has avoided as in what it has attained. It cares not which. Pride comes as a standard setting on every social media platform, and it by and large is grayed out so you can't change it.

Pride flourishes not only in executive offices but also in seminaries. It manifests itself not only on ball fields and courts, but right here in this very pulpit, It can parade itself. Pride is the first thing you put on in the morning, and it's the last thing you take off at night. Young man, wake up to your need. This text is trying to pound into your head the fact that riches and honor and life are attained only by humility and the fear of the Lord.

Why will you seek these things your own way? Why will you go down the same path as the world around you and think that you will wind up differently, that you will lay hold of the things that elude them? Heed the counsel of Matthew Henry, quote, advancement in the world makes a man a fair mark for Satan to shoot his fiery darts at. God casts down that he may raise up. The devil raises up, that he may cast down.

Therefore, they who would take heed of falling must take heed of climbing." of climbing." The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5, 5, and 6, be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. You young men, let those words sink into you. God resists the proud. He resists the proud.

God has spoken. He will not share His glory with another. If you are proud, God will set Himself in battle array against you. He will oppose you at every turn. What do you think you will accomplish against Him?

If God resists you, What will you accomplish? Why does God go to war against the proud man? Well, Proverbs 6 describes six things that God hates, seven things that are an abomination to Him. Do you recall what is first on that list? A proud look.

God hates it. He hates it. It's an abomination. Thomas Manson described pride as a lifting up of the heart above God and against God and without God. My dear friend, consider the outcome of those whom God resisted due to their pride.

Think of what happened when they lifted their heart up in pride. Think of the Rabshaka of Assyria who came against Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah. He boasted of his accomplishments against the other nations and their gods. What was God's response to the Rab Shaka? God said this, but I know your dwelling place.

You're going out and you're coming in and you're rage against me. Because your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and I will turn you back by the way which you came." And in one night, the angel of the Lord wiped out the Rabshakas army of 185, 000 men, soldiers. I will put my hook into your nose and bridle your lips, and I will turn you back the way you came." Consider Nebuchadnezzar. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?" What was God's response? And in the response, notice the quickness of God's response.

Daniel says, while the word was still in the King's mouth, a voice fell from heaven, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you and they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses." Again the quickness. That very hour, The word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws." We're in a camping setting.

Scott's already talked about his cows, right? Just beyond those vehicles. Dear young man, God sees your heart. If in your heart you are proud like Nebuchadnezzar, consider what would happen if tonight, rather than sleeping in your tent or in your bed at home, God turned you to spend the night with the cows under the rain that is forecasted to fall and left you in that state until you gave glory to him." That's what he did to Nebuchadnezzar. That's what he did.

Consider King Herod. So on a day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them, and the people kept shouting, the voice of a god and not a man. Then immediately, immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. My friend, the only way up is down. The only way to achieve is to simply embrace.

If you ever hope to achieve riches and honor and life, then you must first simply embrace who and what you are really and absolutely before God. My dear friend, the other promise of God in that 1 Peter 5 passage is that God gives grace to the humble. He doesn't just resist the proud. God gives grace, grace, grace to the humble. God will exalt all of those who humble themselves before Him.

And with that exaltation comes riches and honor and life. Riches and honor in life, they're yours for the taking. Do you want them? Do you? Then embrace what God has declared himself to be, and with a proper view of God, you will get a proper view of yourself.

You won't have a proper view of yourself without a proper view of God. You won't. And when these two views, the view of God and yourself, come clearly into focus, humility and the fear of God are not far behind. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. The Council of Cotton Mather, my friend, is for you today just as much as it was for Benjamin Franklin, you are young and have the world before you, stoop as you go through it, and you may miss many hard thumps.

Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Oh God, we thank you for your Word. We thank you that as we were reminded already that The book of Proverbs, yea, your entire word gives us all we need for life in this world, life and faith. Oh God, I pray for each of these young men that you would give them clear views of who you are, that they would be young men of the Word, instruct them, teach them. Lord, may they listen as they were exhorted earlier tonight.

Lord, we pray that You would cause them all to be free from this sin of pride. Lord, even for us as fathers here, oh Lord, that You would make us humble men before You. Lord that we would not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but to think lowly. And Lord, that you would give us grace by humility to fear you, that we might enjoy all that you have in store for us. Lord, write your word upon our hearts in Christ's name.

Amen.