is down to the uh... uh... the final baptist church of uh... self-liberty and uh... he's preaching i think he's down there all day and uh... self-liberty baptists and uh... we'll be back on wednesday will be back on wednesday so you're stuck with me uh... until then so uh... But I'm thankful for another opportunity just to bring the word to you all and be able to open it and be able to study it and learn together. That's one thing I've learned in retail. With all the vast array of products that are out there and things that are constantly developing and new things and new products and all these different things. It's almost impossible to keep up with it all. So you know what? I call it when a customer comes in and they'll grab something off the shelf and they're like, tell me all about this. And I'll be like, that's brand new, I don't know anything about it. I'll be like, come here, we'll learn together. And so sometimes, you know, that's how I feel in the ministry is that, you know, we learn together and we grow together. And I think that's a special thing, you know, in church ministry and in the gospel ministry is that is that we get to do it, and we get to do it together. And so, I'm gonna ask if we could have a pianist this morning. Cassandra, I don't wanna volunteer you, but if you're willing, we're gonna sing, I've got it picked out. I think it's 132. We'll just sing the first and the last verse of 132. Get the oxygen flowing, get the blood flowing. Why don't we stand up? Wonderful song. The old rugged cross. All right, sing it out on that first now. Here we go, 132 on the first. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. And I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophy's at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown. On that last now, on the fourth, to the old rugged cross. You can be seated. Wednesday night I asked if somebody would be willing to share their testimony this morning and I told if I told everybody that if if nobody was willing that I'd be willing to do it myself And and so at this time if there's somebody I mean all I'm looking for is like 10 minutes Just come up here share what God did in your life salvation testimony Maybe how he's working just 10 12 minutes, maybe And and and we can do that. I think it ought to be something that Yeah, we might get a little nervous to get up in front of people and to share a testimony, but I think it ought to be something that we're willing to put the nervousness aside because we realize truly what God did in our lives. And so is there somebody here today that would be willing to share their testimony? Just come up in just 10 minutes, just brag on God and tell folks what God did. Anybody? Mom? All right, come on up. Well, I guess if I couldn't count on anybody else, I can always count on my mom, right? All right. Just want to start out with saying that I'm not doing this just because Hayden my son and I was here Wednesday night and I knew that he had asked us to do this, but I'm doing this because the Lord Jesus saved me and he's done a wonderful work in my life and I would be completely remiss if I did not take this opportunity and to just share with everybody how the Lord saved a 13 year old girl and I wonder if that's why sometimes vacation Bible school is so important to me, because I always put myself in their place. But no, I did not grow up in a godly home. My mother, she said that she was saved and everything, but she did not really share her faith, and my father definitely was not saved. Our home was not one that I would call a very fun home. There was a lot of hard things in my childhood growing up, And so I always knew that something was lacking. Along the way, people had shared that there was a God, neutral kind of thing. So I didn't know anything about Jesus and so I did go to church because I just felt like I saw Some other people going to church and I thought that would be nice to try and my mother was not against it She would drop me off at the front door and away she would go I learned some things I didn't go I went sporadically and so time moved on and then I actually My grandfather, he passed away. And all this time, I'd had like this emptiness, just very, very hollowness inside of me. And I was searching out different things. I will say that some of the things I sought out were not very good things at all. And so very occultic, very dark things. And so, but my grandfather passed away. This kind of lit a fire in my mother to actually start searching out going back to church. And so, she hadn't made that move yet, but they actually would have, this was back during satellite dish days, the televangelists, they came along. And so, the televangelists, she would put on the TV and this empty, dark hole that was inside of me heard the gospel message. And I knew, I remember even thinking to this day in my brain, it clicked. That's it. That's what I need. And so I sought out a Bible in the back room of our house, and this is the Bible. And I started reading this Bible. And it was just bred to a starving child. It was. So any of you people that teach Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, I just want to tell you, you don't know the home life, the hunger that is there, and the thirsting that some of these kids, some of these adults have. And so I started reading this book, and this book started speaking to me and my soul. and my heart, and I can remember Claire Isabel getting down on the floor in my bedroom. I had nobody telling me that, what to do, what to say, or anything like that. I just knew that the Lord said, come unto me, and I did. And I don't even remember what I said to the Lord, but I knew that I was a sinner. I had lied. I had stolen things. I had said bad words. I was not a good girl at all. And so I was pretty tough. My husband even can testify to that. And so, but I knew when I got down on that floor and I prayed and I meant every word and I believed it. And when I got back up There was just a light that filled my soul, and I just knew that I was saved and that Jesus was living in my heart. And after that, I never sought out anything else. And so my faith, really, it was unbreakable. I knew if anybody said, are you really saved? I can say hands down, I certainly am. I know that I am. And so life went on. I went to a public school. You know, walk the walk, talk the talk and everything because you're a teenager. You want to try to fit in a little bit and stuff. But in my heart, I knew and I still know to this day. And so, God has just done such a wonderful work in our family. My husband later on, he got saved. My father got saved, which made us really believe in miracles. And so and my mother, she just recommitted. My father was going to church. The Lord has really just done a wonderful work in our family. We have two sons that are pastors now. So this is the living word. And out of my belly has flown rivers of living water. And I just, I praise the Lord for that. And I say hallelujah and glory to God. And that is my testimony. Even in this book at 13 years old, I wrote down says June 18th, 1986, born again. Amen. You know, if I could pick anybody in this world to come to Christ, knowing who my mother was going to be, you know, can you just can you think of anybody that is more impactful on you spiritually than your mother? You know, I don't know everybody's background. I don't know everybody's situation or how they grew up, but I know in my life just God, how God used my mother, somebody that's closer to me than many other people. And just, you know, it's wonderful to see that, you know, the work of God, regardless of the background, regardless of the situation, it's no less a miracle. for a young person, four or five, six years old, to accept Christ as it is for somebody that's in their 30s or 40s. And I think it's beneficial and I think it's good for us every so often just to pause and just give opportunity for somebody to testify the work that Christ has done in their life. And we've seen that in Thessalonians, have we not? How that when we get singled out and we get alone and we get less connected, there's more chance of vulnerability. And I think the opportunity for testimony, I think it's important, I really do. And I felt led to do that this morning, and so next time I teach Sunday school, we might just do it again. We might just do it again, because I think it's helpful, and it's a blessing just to hear how God has worked in people's lives. And we give the glory to God, amen? Amen. All right. With me this morning? Everybody here? All right. So in my Sunday school class downstairs, we have been in a continual look to the book of Proverbs, to the book of Proverbs. So we're going to be in Proverbs in chapter number 11 this morning, Proverbs in chapter number 11. We've, we've talked about many things leading up to this and many things that I've hoped that would be helpful to these young people that I teach. And so, and get ready here. Proverbs chapter 11, our text is not a lengthy one. As you know, Proverbs is very condensed. I think of Proverbs as kind of wisdom and instruction in concentrate. It's like, you ever go to Hannaford and buy the cans of, what was it, apple juice and orange juice? And you'd crack the can open, you'd put it in the pitcher, and then you'd add water? Anybody ever done that? Or do you just buy a Tropicana in the bottle? Leo, do you still do that? Yeah? All right. Well, that's what I think of when I think of Proverbs, all right? I think of wisdom and instruction. Pay attention, guys, all right? Wisdom and instruction, you know, just condense down, and it's in literally a verse or two, you know, and you really got to be paying attention as you read through the book of Proverbs, or else you're going to miss it, because it is power-packed. And so Proverbs chapter number 11, Last week we talked about a false balance. We talked about a false balance and how it is in fact an abomination to the Lord, as the Bible says right there in verse number one. We've also looked at things in the beginning of Proverbs and how that the writer is talking about the things that the Lord doth hate, and yea, seven are abomination unto him. And we've looked at each one of those specifically and taught on those. And so we're just kind of going through the book of Proverbs, just kind of hitting the high points, just kind of hitting the high points and looking at some specific things that I believe will be helpful for us. And so in Proverbs chapter 11, our text is verse number two, where the Bible says, when pride cometh, then cometh shame, but with the lowly is wisdom. Did you get all that? You did? I've been studying this all week, and I don't know if I've got it all. There's a lot there. There's a lot there in those, just those, just that one verse. And so today, with the help of the Lord, I'm just gonna teach for a few moments here. I don't have a ton of time, but I'm just gonna teach for a few moments on the dangers of pride and the wisdom that needs to be accompanied by, the wisdom that is needed in order to avoid it, essentially. I'm just going to work right through my notes. I have a hard time, I'll be honest with you. I'm learning, you all know that. You've watched me progress from 14 years old all the way up to now. I'm learning as I go different methods and I'm constantly tinkering and testing. My job literally that I do on a daily basis is I'm basically a paid tinker. if that makes sense. So I tune bows for a living and I work on bows and service bows and stuff. And it's, you're constantly just tweaking and learning and you can refine your own process of how you do things in archery specifically. And so with preaching and specifically in teaching here, um, I'm trying to develop a teaching method, if you will, that is helpful for me, but also helpful for the hearers and trying to captivate the audience that I'm teaching to, and that being the young people downstairs. So today I'm tying something a little bit different. So bear with me a little bit here as I'm trying to work on this and trying to kind of refine and develop a process that would help me be efficient in study, but also it makes sense for you. So when pride cometh, then cometh shame, the Bible says. We understand pride is a culprit of many things. We can see from Genesis all through the Word of God how that pride, pride is mentioned, pride is made mention of, pride is talked about, pride is something that is present in the heart of man. And the reason it's present in the heart of man is because we all bear this sin nature, do we not? We all carry around this sin nature from Adam, that's been passed down from Adam. and I'm a sinner because Tim Wood's a sinner and Tim Wood's a sinner because Doug was a sinner and on and on and on we could go. And we have this nature that's been passed down from Adam and I believe we can even look to Genesis and see that the original sin was the sin of pride. where Eve looked upon the fruit and she heard the voice of the serpent and said, you know, here it is, you know, you will be like gods unto us, and she sees and perhaps in her mind she's seeing this vision of what they would be like, this vision of oh my, you know, oh my goodness we're gonna be like God, the one that comes down and walks and talks with us, not realizing what truly was going to take place and what truly was going to happen at the taking of that fruit and the sinning against God. And so they desired something. Adam and Eve both desired this thing. in the sin to be like gods, and so that is where we are today. We are cursed. We are people that are cursed. We are people that are destitute of understanding of what right and wrong is. If you look out in society, you can see that clearly. But pride is a culprit of many things. Men have warred over it. I mean think if you think about that for a moment just how that how that pride can influence leaders and can influence countries it can it can it can cause men to want land here and men to want land there and and you know you you can even think and you could name You could name countries, you could name things where pride was governing or pride was the motivator behind what they did and where they went and the people they persecuted. And we can see that in history and we can see how that in today's day and times that thousands of dollars are spent because of it. You know, because there's an American image, there's an American image, and young people, it could be dangerous for you going ahead when you don't have a lot of money, when finances are tight, you could go ahead and you could be like, well, I gotta keep up with this person, I gotta keep up with this person, so I need this specific vehicle, or I need this specific car. And so, you know, you get yourself a loan, and you take out this loan from the bank, and it's got a really high interest rate, and you start paying on this car, and then pretty soon, you know you're trying to keep up with everybody else and you've got to wear these clothes and you've got to look this way and you've got to smell this way and you've got to do all these different things and what is truly what is the root of all those things you know and and so it can be found in so many different places it can. Marriages are torn apart because it could not be rid of. Pride, pride. You know, I had a man tell me when Marissa and I were about to get married that one of the greatest secrets to marriage was full selflessness on both sides, husband and wife, complete selflessness. serving the other rather than themselves. And that stuck with me, and I'm telling it here to you today because it had an impact on me, because it changed the way that I look at marriage. Marriage, it's not about what you can get, it's not about what they offer to you or what they can do for you, the meals that they can cook for you, yada, yada, yada. It's not about all that, but it's what can I do for them? You know, and so we need to be careful of how that pride can sneak in and it can cause issues in marriage. Well, pride and shame, we can see here, are used together in verse number two. When pride cometh, then cometh shame. The Bible says in Psalms chapter 10 and verse 4, the wicked, through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. God is not in all his thoughts. Proverbs 8 in chapter number or Proverbs chapter 8 verse number 13. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogancy in the evil way. And the froward mouth do I hate. Proverbs. Proverbs 16, 18, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. We can see how that pride equals shame because pride equals destruction. When an individual has bought a really nice car and perhaps they've bought this car, they've made some payments on it, they've had it for a little while, everybody knows they've had it. Some of their friends have taken it for a test drive or whatever, done a few burnouts in it or whatever and they're like, This is really cool, you know, and then and then all of a sudden they get to a point where, you know, I can't afford this anymore and they lose the car. What what's going to happen now? Everybody's going to go around and be like, hey, where's your car at, man? You know, are you guys with me this morning? Yeah. OK. All right. So that's the idea there is that, you know, when pride is involved, when pride is involved in something, even such as that, you know, there can come shame every time somebody comes up to you and they're like, hey, where'd that car go that you had? I was hoping you could give me a ride to work. You know, I like your car, that's cool. You know, sports car. Pride is destruction. We can see how that somebody, if not careful, They can allow themselves to be fooled into and think a path that they're on, a road that they're on, a journey that they're on in their life is leading them to some prosperity or some greater thing. But truthfully, according to the Bible, it would lead to destruction. And we can understand from the word of God the dangers of pride. We could look at, we could go all through scripture and we could look at example after example after example after example. of pride and how that it caused an issue here. It caused somebody to fall here. It caused an army to fall there. We could look at all these different issues. But the third idea here is that the fear of the Lord gives no mooring for the ship of pride in our lives. Do you get that? The fear of the Lord gives no mooring to the ship of pride in our lives. Everybody know what a mooring is? Yeah, we live in Maine. See them all the time. You pull into a harbor, wherever it might be, and you see all these boats floating in the water, they're tied to a mooring. Right, that song that we sing, though the angry surges roll on my tempest-driven soul, I am peaceful for I know, wildly o'er the winds may blow. I have an anchor safe and sure that will forevermore endure. You know what I think of every time we sing that song? is I think of some of these harbors in Maine, where if you go by them, when there's a storm coming from the south, southeast, and we're just unsheltered wind is just pounding into this harbor. And these ships, they're tied to this mooring, but they're in much turbulence. You follow me here? You can see how that it's important that that holds fast. Well, you know, the dangerous thing is, is if, you know, while that principle is good, how that we can be steadfast in Christ and we can be anchored to Christ through all the storms of life, through all the waves of life, the same idea is what I'm getting at here today, how that if we're not careful, we can harbor pride in our lives or we can even have a connection for pride in our life that that that you know it might be there and it and we might give we might give give uh safe harbor to this where whereas if the opportunity presents itself that that that the ship carrying pride can come in and can anchor up and it have a place in our heart and it's so dangerous if we allow that to happen how that how that we can we can we can just give place to it. The Bible says that that we're to give no place to the devil and I believe the devil he knows us and he studies us and he sees us and he and he understands what what we are susceptible to. He understands what mankind has been susceptible to for years and years and years. And historically speaking and and physically speaking he can see all these things and he can see that if I feed their pride a little bit. I believe from pride stems a lot of sins. I believe you could even trace almost every sin back to pride if you wanted to in some cases because you can see how that the pride ultimately, and this is what I believe the verse is getting at, that the fear of the Lord is to hate pride in the evil way. I believe when we, when we neglect, and young people, this is what we've been talking about in Sunday school, when we neglect the fear of the Lord, when we, when we no longer understand, have respect, see God for who He is, when that, when that is skewed, when we are distant from God, we're more susceptible to what? Our, I think our own understanding. our own mentality, how we see things. We are trusting in ourselves rather than trusting in the Lord. And we can see how that there's a danger of pride in one's life. And that is, it is not to be underestimated. It's not to be underestimated because when we stop fearing God, when we stop understanding the fear of the Lord and we stop seeing God for who he is, I think who we are starts to inflate. Who we are starts to become something that it's not. And pride ultimately will distort your view of right and wrong because it will distort our view of God. I think this is something that I know I need. I know that there's some young people that need it. I don't know a whole lot of young people that at some point or another haven't struggled with pride. I mean, I struggle with it, struggle with it. You know, and I think it's a wonderful thing when we can look to the Word of God for instruction and help and reminders of things such as this. You know, my mom just giving her testimony, what was that? That's a reminder to us, the work that God has done. We aren't just people that decided to show up to church one day and put our best suit on and put our, you know, a nice dress on and come to church and assemble. We're people that God has worked in our lives and God has saved us from the consequences of our sin. Yeah, isn't that cool? Yeah, it's a big deal. And I'm thankful. I was a little worried that nobody was going to want to give their testimony this morning. I was ready to give mine. But but it's just wonderful to see when we can see the work of God and we can allow the God to continually work and we can allow God to continually use us. But you know what I think sometimes we have to do and young people sometimes you're going to have to do this in your life is you're going to have to you're going to have to assess your life. You're going to have to assess your life like a harbor. You're going to have to assess your life like a harbor, and you have all of these different things in your harbor. You've got a boat here, you've got a boat there, you've got all these different things. You have school, and you have work, and you have your time, and you have your hobbies, and you have church, and you have your family, and you have all these different things mooring down in your harbor. I think it's very dangerous if there's a time in our life where we get to a place and we might just pop a new mooring over the side and allow something to come in or not get rid of. Sometimes you need to take a mooring up and get it out of there because we're harboring things that can cause us to have a skewed understanding and a skewed vision of God and who He is. And I think pride is one of the greatest hindrances in the Christian's life because ultimately pride, and something here that I've struggled with, pride, self-sufficiency. We're Mainers, are we not? We like to be self-sufficient. But you know what the wonderful thing about a relationship with God, a personal relationship with God is? We can't, we have to come to a point where we understand, we realize there is nothing I can do in and of myself. When we come to that point of salvation, we understand I'm completely helpless here. But you know what our tendency is, we accept Christ and we get saved, is we can start thinking from day to day that, yeah, I'll just recite a couple verses in my memory instead of spending some time in the Word. You know, we can become self-sufficient like that. And you know, I get it, everybody's busy and everybody's got a lot of things going on, but if God is truly the God of our lives, should he not sit upon the highest throne? Because if we're not careful, if we're not careful, we can have a skewed vision of who God is, and we can allow pride, we can allow pride to have us wear a different lens in how we see things, and how we see things, and we can become very self-sufficient, very self-dependent, very self-reliant. And you know, that truly is pride right there, because when we get to a point like that where, spiritually speaking, we're self-sufficient, where we are self-reliant on our spiritual needs and our spiritual nourishment, you know what the problem is there, and we stop looking to God, we stop looking to his word, you know, we think, I can endure temptation today all on my own. Just being real with you this morning. I don't get to preach that much. So when I preach, I have to just say it like it is, because it's the truth. You and I can wake up every morning and we can say, yeah, I don't have time. Just going to go to work. And my heart breaks, because there's been days I've done that. And the sad thing about that is how the effect that we can have You know, when we take a person, one person, two person, three person, four person, as Christians, as believers, we're supposed to be a testimony, we're supposed to be a witness, and we're supposed to be a help to the people around us. If we forsake that, and we're self-sufficient, and we go out into the workplace, my, and my heart breaks, because I've done this, where I've missed an opportunity for the gospel, I've missed an opportunity to help a coworker answer a question, because started my day off wrong. And that's the tendency of all of us. We can become self-sufficient, spiritually speaking. But the fear of the Lord is to give no mooring for the ship of pride in our lives and the danger of pride in one's life. is not to be underestimated. Pride will distort your view of right and wrong because it will ultimately distort your view of God. Hope this was helpful to you this morning. Let's pray. We'll be dismissed. Father, thank you for loving us. Thank you for your word. Thank you for how, Lord, it just helps us to see more clearly, Lord, who you are and God, what you expect of us. And Lord, I pray that you just help us, Father, with with what we've heard and God what we've read in your word God that you'd help us to do something about it and Lord that it wouldn't just be Lord something we have knowledge of Lord but that there would be knowledge and application Lord combined Lord that we might be doers of the word and God I pray that you just help us today bless the spirit of the church Lord and just be with those who are who are here and for those who will be here in the coming moments, Lord, I pray that you just bless the time. If there's a lost person here today, God, I pray that today would be the day of salvation, that they would find hope and that they would find peace in you. And Lord, we're just thankful for who you are and for you loving us and God giving us opportunity for salvation. Pray that you'd bless this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Got about 15 minutes and we'll get started.