♪ Glory in the highest I will shout and sing ♪ Standing on the promises of God ♪ Standing, standing ♪ Standing on the promises of God, my Savior ♪ Standing, standing ♪ I'm standing on the promises of God ♪ Standing on the promises of God ♪ Standing, standing ♪ Standing on the promises of God my Savior ♪ Standing, standing ♪ I'm standing on the promises of God ♪ Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord ♪ Bound to him eternally by love strong Standing on the promises of God, my Savior, standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God, standing on the promises I cannot hold. I am standing on the promises of God Amen. Please remain standing for prayer this morning. Brother Russell Lyons, would you pray for us, please? Amen. You may be seated unless you celebrate a birthday or an anniversary. We'd like to recognize you. All right, let's sing. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Well, it's good to be in the Lord's house today and to have each one of you with us. Found this beautiful little bracelet right here. If it's yours, probably gonna be a small risk, but if it's yours, it's right there and you can have it back. We'd love for you to have it back. A few things from the bulletin. First of all, couples retreats coming up. This weekend, coming weekend, it'll be Thursday, Friday, Friday, Saturday. If you haven't registered online, you can do so at livingunited.com. and so forth, and if you're going, if you could let us know by signing up on the back table there, we would appreciate that. Ladies' meeting will be February 23rd, so next week at 6.30. We are interviewing a young couple to come in consideration of becoming staff. That will happen on February the 26th We're gonna have a meet-and-greet and I'll get more information out about that on Saturday the 25th but I'll be letting you know about that and Then I guess it's already in here. It's at 6 o'clock and bring a dessert. So there you go and then we'll be voting on them March the 5th if everything goes well and So do be praying about this as we look for our next Youth Leaders Missions Conference coming up March the 1st through the 5th. And looking forward to that, we're gonna have the Scuffums to Cambodia, the Parkers to Japan, and the Marinos to California. And so looking forward to our missions conference this year. Encourage you to plan to be with us each evening. And then you'll definitely wanna be here Saturday night as some of the most amazing food you'll ever see comes out. And we'll have a time of fellowship there. And so just encourage you to mark that down, plan to be with us. Youth Rally coming up on March the 17th. Information there in the bulletin. Man camp is on the horizon. We need your $55 by March the 8th. The actual time of the meeting is March 24th, 25th, and so we encourage you men to mark that down. Prayer needs, ask that you remember to pray for all these that are listed here. Linda Booth was in the hospital, has gone home, and praise the Lord for that. And if you would be praying for Donna and Linda, they're in the process of getting ready to move. And so he said, she's at home amidst all the boxes. So if you've ever moved, you know how much fun that can be. And so just pray for them, pray for her. that she'll get a complete healing through this. They said it was a TIA, and so we praise God for that. It wasn't a big stroke. And like I was talking with Brother Don, maybe it's the warning, right? So we just be praying for them, pray for her healing, pray for Brother Medlin. as he's still in the hospital, and then pray for Mrs. Omer. Sometimes we tend to forget she's moved, but I know she'd appreciate card, letter, you get a chance, as would any of these that are shut in. You get a chance, you're not a shut in, one day you could be, and you'll find out how important a card is. When my mom passed away, I went through probably two boxes of cards that had been sent to her in the last two years of her life as she had different health issues. And at first I thought, man, why mom? Why did you save all this? But then as I looked at them, it was so precious to see. There was one family in particular, every week the wife sent my mom a card. And I'm sure that was a habit that she had for all those who were facing that time. And so if you get a chance, you can have a great ministry just encouraging those that are sick and those that are shut in. It's good to be back in the Lord's house today. Looking forward to our Sunday school time. Oh, I got a thank you letter I wanna read. This is from Iglesia Baptista Fundamental de Huntington. And I may have blown that, but you can come read it for yourself if you'd like. It says, esteemed Shawnee Mission Baptist Temple, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the love and support you have shown to our church. The offerings that you have sent to our church have been a great blessing for us in helping us grow our ministry. Our ministry is new and we are working strongly in soul winning baptizing and discipling our new brothers and sisters in Christ. God is blessing our ministry here in Huntington Station, New York. We've had many conferences in which we have been able to lead people to the Lord, and many have been baptized as well. Every day we see God's hand working in this ministry. We ask that you may continue to hold our church in your prayers, that we may have the strength in the Lord to continue spreading the gospel in New York, and that the needs of the ministry are met. We would like to ask for your prayers, especially in that we may soon be able to find a temple for our church to worship. Again, thank you for all the prayers and support you give to our ministry. You have been a great blessing to us. May God continue to bless you. Luke 638, 2 Corinthians 9, 6 and 8, Pastor George Marco. And he's got several pictures down here of the work and all that they're doing. So praise the Lord, we had an opportunity at the Home Missions Conference to be able to give some money to help them and their work. It's good to be together today. Brother Foster's gonna come lead us in his song, and then we'll go to our Sunday school classes. God bless you. Join me in singing hymn number 198, Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory. We'll sing the first and the last verses. ♪ I have found His grace is all complete ♪ Peace in my every need ♪ While I sit and learn at Jesus' feet ♪ I am free as three in tea ♪ It is joy unspeakable and full of glory ♪ Full of glory, full of glory, it is joy unspeakable ♪ I have found the joy no tongue can tell ♪ ♪ How its waves of glory roll ♪ ♪ It is like a great arm flowing well ♪ ♪ Breaking up within my soul ♪ ♪ It is joy unspeakable and full of glory ♪ ♪ Full of glory, full of glory ♪ ♪ It is joy unspeakable and full of glory ♪ Amen. At this time you can be dismissed to your Sunday school classes. All right, my class, we're in lesson number 11 once again. Brother Bob has handouts in the back. If you need one, please raise your hand. He'll get one to you. and we'll be in First Peter chapter number five once again. First Peter chapter number five. All right, lesson number 11, the way up is down. The way up is down. What are we talking about? The way up is down. Well, as children of God, we want to certainly be mindful of what the Lord desires for our life, and we seek to please Him. That's what we were created for. for His pleasure and we need to understand what that means and how we are to conduct ourselves, how we are to respond to His truth and we understand as a child of God that if I am to please Him that I must humble myself and allow God to move me and direct me how He sees fit. thinking about, you know, God sees everything and he knows what is best for us. And as we raise children, parents, we try to do what's best. We can't see everything like God does, but we try to do what's best for them. And even in the realm of if you've had animals and you've tried to raise them and tried to direct them, you know better than they do. and you try to direct them to do right things. And, you know, I've been around a lot of animals all my life and different types of animals, sheep, cows, pigs, you name it. I've been around them, chickens. And I would say that I know better than them, but they didn't always believe that I knew better than them and what was best for them. And Until they submit to that authority, can they be blessed by what we know to be right? And that's what we need to understand as children of God. We don't know what's best for us, but God does. And we need to humbly submit ourselves to him and allow him to guide our lives, understanding that he can see everything. He can see way out in the future. And he knows how he wants to move your life and bring people into your life and work through your life to have the greatest impact for the cause of Christ. So the way up is down. Now this is contrary to our society. We know our society is very prideful and that's why we have so many issues with relationships and people seeking to please themselves and all the issues that come along with that. And 1 Peter 5 deals with this subject of pride and humility and shows us once again as we see many testimonies of this in the Word of God but here specifically in 1 Peter 5 we see it in verse 5 where we're being admonished here. It says, likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. There are many great nuggets here for us to grab hold of and understand. Likewise, you younger. I understand I'm not talking to a lot of the younger in here today, but we can claim that. There are some still older than us, right? So we need to look to those that are older for wisdom and knowledge. Now, I will say this and give you this challenge that within Shawnee Mission Baptist Temple, the younger are looking to a lot of you. And we have a great responsibility to set a right example of what it means to follow Christ and to live for Him and to show and exemplify this humility, that they might understand how they should live their lives as well as a child of God. And then he goes on to say, yea, and all of you be subject one to another. So we are to be subject one to another here in the body of Christ and as we seek to serve God. And then this is most important here, clothe with humility. Now, the next statement he says is very interesting because when you would be posed this question, do you want God to resist you? We would all say, no, I don't want God to resist me. I want God on my side. I want God helping me. So here's the formula for that help is to get rid of pride and put on humility. He resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace to the humble. We all need God's grace. And I'm thankful for God's grace, but we should desire it every day in the way that we have access to it. is through humility. So verse 6 just goes on to reiterate, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. So we'll quickly go through the two points that we looked at last week just to remind ourselves how we are to possess this humility, how we are to put on this humility, and how do we apply it to our lives? Well, we first of all look to the greatest example of humility, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So humble yourself by looking up. We're looking to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. And when we speak about this subject of humility, we have to go to the one that gives us the great example, and that is Jesus Christ himself. So look at what he did and how he served when he was here on this earth. He came to serve and to minister and to be a servant to those that He ministered to. And that's what we are to do. We are to be a minister one to another and exemplify that as Christ did as He lived here upon the earth. So we are to look at what He did. And then we looked at several passages of scripture of what Jesus said as He talked about this subject of humility. And we won't go through all those verses again, but most of them were found in the book of John, John 5, and John 6, John 8, and John 14. have many passages there to speak about Jesus Christ and what He said about humility. It's very important for us to be mindful of the words of Christ. Christ is teaching us and He is our great teacher and He's telling us that we are to put on humility as He did. and we understand the humility that Christ had that He with all of His glory was willing to leave the splendor of heaven and come to this earth, humble Himself and suffer the death of the cross that He might offer salvation to you and to me. So look at what Jesus did by looking up. Then humble yourself by looking in, and this is very important for us. We can look at the example of Jesus Christ, we can see what he did and see what he said, but now it's important for us then to make the comparison. As I see the example of Jesus Christ, then I need to look at my life and allow the Holy Spirit to search my heart and to show me where I am lacking, where I don't compare to what Jesus Christ exemplified in this realm of humility. So we need to look at our motives, and this is very important. When we do anything in this life, we need to look at the motive behind it. Am I doing this that I might be glorified, that I might be exalted, that I might seek the praise of others? What is my motive? Our motive should be, as Jesus Christ's motive was, to bring honor and glory to His heavenly Father. It says, it shouldn't be our will that we desire to do, but His will, just as Jesus Christ expressed many times, I'm here to do the will of my Father. And we are here to do the will of our Father as well. And we must look at our motives and understand, is this motive right? Am I doing this out of the right heart and a right attitude that would align with that of the attitude of the Lord Jesus Christ? And then, we need to look at our mind. We need to look at our mind. How many of you have a mind that just tries to play a trick on you or justify things? That's the human nature, isn't it? When we are faced with trials, when we're faced with different temptations, our mind tries to play both sides of that, doesn't it? because our mind is tied to our heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked. We still have that sinful nature. So we have to look at our mind and allow our mind to be conformed to that of Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So we must ask the Lord on a daily basis to search us. and to help us to understand our mind and know what is right and know what is wrong. And the way that we know that is by the Word of God, knowing what the Word of God says and allowing the Holy Spirit of God to speak to our heart and to show us truth. So we have these areas in our life, we're looking up, we understand the example of Jesus, we're looking in. And it doesn't take too long to understand that we don't measure up. And we have great work to do in this area of humility when we look to Jesus and his example, and then we begin to examine our motives and our mind. So that brings us to point number three where we left off. The third way we humble ourselves is by looking out, by looking out. One of the best tests of humility is our willingness to serve others. When you're asked to serve others, what is your attitude? What is your response? This is the great measure. In Philippians 2, and you can turn there, Philippians 2, just before describing Christ's great humility in coming to earth and giving himself for us, Paul admonished the Philippian believers to humble themselves by looking outward instead of inward. Philippians 2 and verse 1 says, If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." So when we're looking out, the Bible here tells us in Philippians that we are to look out to esteem others. What does that word esteem mean? It's about our attitude toward others. Esteem is a verb that means to regard is more than just having an opinion. It refers to forming a careful thought, thought out conclusion based on truth. What does the Bible tell us about truth? That we are to walk in truth. Our emotions pull us in many directions. We can be up, we can be down, all over the place in the same day. But what is it that levels our life? that should be the guide of our life, and that is truth. Truth is the great aligner of our life. It helps us to bring those emotions in check and bring them back to where they need to be and subject to the truth. So this word esteem means to regard, forming a carefully thought out conclusion based on truth. It does not mean to pretend that others are important, but to believe that others are important. is to value others more than yourself. The world values many different things, and they value people in this way. They value people by what they can get from them. What can I get out of this relationship? What will they bring to the table for me? Rather than looking at their life and how important they are to God or what one can give to them, God has made every person in His image, thus everyone is valuable to God. Genesis 127 reminds us of this truth. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God created He Him, male and female created He them. It would do our society very well to remember the creator of the universe, the creator of mankind. God created them, male and female, and He created them in His own image. So as God has made mankind, He's made His creation, He has a love for His creation and we ought to view His creation in the same way. And we see that this love is exemplified through what He did in sending Jesus Christ to die for every person. This shows that He esteemed us all worthy of the sacrifice of His very life. In Hebrews chapter two and verse nine, but we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. So this, again, we're looking to Jesus again, and He's showing us how to esteem people, how to regard people, And we are to regard them with the same love and the same regard that Jesus Christ exemplified. When we see others as Jesus sees them, we will highly esteem them as people who are made in the image of God and for whom Jesus died. So in this humility, we must look to esteem others, regard them more than we regard ourselves. And as we esteem them, then it leads us to this next area as we're looking out that we ought to look out to serve others. It's not just important that we have the right attitude towards others, but we must also have the right actions. You know, we can have knowledge, but knowledge without action has no effect. We must put it to action. God calls us to serve one another. In Galatians 5.13 it says, For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Philippians 2.4 tells us to look on the things of others. It carries the idea of giving close attention and special consideration. to the needs of others. We're good at giving close attention and special consideration to ourselves. We know what we need, we know what we desire, and we often go out of our way to make sure that our needs and our wants and our desires are fulfilled. But God calls us to give attention to how we might serve others. When we take this consideration and we look to others as Jesus sees them, we will gladly serve rather than expecting to be served. Mark 10 45 says, for even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So how do we serve others? Well, one of the best ways to serve others is to share with them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who do not yet know Jesus as their personal Savior, this is how we are to serve them. This is what we've been left here to do, is to be a minister to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ. So we are a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is our service to society. Sometimes serving others, especially people with whom we have continued contact with, such as our coworkers or neighbors, provides greater opportunity to be able to share the gospel. And we should always be willing to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. So we have an opportunity to serve those out in our community and our society as we share the gospel with them. But we also have an opportunity to serve one another here. And I'm thankful that in Shawnee Mission Baptist Temple, we have a great servant attitude and many of us are serving and trying to help the cause of Christ and build up one another. So this is what God would have us to be doing. This is how we put on humility is understanding who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ and being thankful and have much gratitude towards that. Understanding that the way that I can serve God the best is by humbling myself. And allowing God to use me and work through me to have the greatest impact on the lives of others around me. So when we look away from ourselves and out toward others, it helps us choose humility as we esteem and serve others. So we've seen three things so far. We must humble ourself by looking up, looking at Jesus. We must humble ourself by looking in, looking at my motives, looking at my thoughts, and making sure they're brought into subjection to the word of God. Thirdly, humble ourself by looking out, looking on the needs of others. What is their need? Well, their greatest need is the gospel. as they are saved and as they come into the membership of a church, then we have a duty here to serve one another as well as we serve Christ together. And then fourthly, the last thing we must do to humble ourself is by looking around. How is this different from looking out? Seeing the results of pride in our world can be powerful motivator to embrace humility. So we look on our society today and we can see a lot wrong with it. And we can also identify the root of a lot of those issues are centered around this idea of pride, and we can see the result and the effect of it. And we know this, that pride hurts people. Pride hurts people, and it does so in many ways. The most detrimental thing that pride does is this. It keeps people from getting saved. It keeps people from getting saved. And I'm sure that many of us could raise our hand that maybe we didn't get saved the first time we heard the gospel. What kept you from getting saved? Many of us could probably say pride. What would others think? What would others say? Pride keeps people from getting saved. Why don't people who have heard the gospel and even see God at work in lives receive Jesus as their Savior? It's pride. We can look at many examples in the Word of God. I'm sure we could express many examples of those that we've witnessed to and experienced this in our lives. As we look to the example of Belshazzar in the book of Daniel, Belshazzar had seen his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar humbled by God. And as he was humbled by God, he repented and he turned to God. But as Belshazzar looked at this and what was taking place in the life of Nebuchadnezzar, he still lifted up his own heart in pride. And you could turn to Daniel 5, we'll read this account. Daniel 5 and verse 22, but this is one of many examples we could give of people who do not accept Jesus Christ as their Savior because of pride. Pride could be that they're just enjoying what they're doing way too much to give it up. Daniel 5 and verse 22, And thou, his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart. Though thou knowest all this, thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord in heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee. And thou and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines have drunk wine in them. And thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified? You know, we could liken Belshazzar and what he was serving to different things today. Many people in our society are serving money or prestige or a certain lifestyle, but they're serving gods rather than the God, rather than turning to the God that can save them. And in order to do so, it takes humility to acknowledge that I am a sinner. who so justly receive the penalties of my sin and spend an eternity in hell and be judged by God. I cannot earn my way into a right relationship with God. There's nothing that I can do to earn His favor. But those who humble themselves and call out to Christ for salvation receive His gift of forgiveness and eternal life. You see, humility is key to our salvation. We humble ourselves before God, understanding there's nothing that I can do to save myself. There's nothing I can do to earn favor with God. It's all because of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I humbly submit myself to God's plan of salvation and ask Jesus Christ into my life. Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Aren't you thankful? Anyone who is willing to humble themself and ask Jesus Christ to save them, that He will be faithful to do so. In the year 1847, a doctor named Endenburg Sir James Simpson discovered that chloroform could be used as an anesthetic to render people insensible to the pain of surgery. I'm thankful for that. From his early experiments, Dr. Simpson made it possible for people to go through the most dangerous operations without fear of pain and suffering. I'm not sure all the fear of pain and suffering has gone from that, but it certainly helps that you don't have to endure it while you're under the knife. Some people even claim that his was one of the most significant discoveries of modern medicine. Some years later, while lecturing at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Simpson was asked by one of his students, what do you consider to be the most valuable discovery of your lifetime? To the surprise of his students, who had expected him to refer to chloroform, Dr. Simpson replied, my most valuable discovery was when I discovered myself a sinner and that Jesus Christ was my Savior. I believe we could all testify of that. That is the greatest discovery of our life. It's understanding that there is a Savior who died for me. And that if I simply humble myself before Him and ask Him to save me, He will do so. And He will allow me to spend an eternity with Him in heaven. That's the greatest discovery that any man could find. And it's our duty to show them, to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. So pride keeps people from getting saved. What else does pride do? It keeps people from doing right. It keeps people from doing right. Why do Christians struggle with giving in to the same temptations over and over? Why do couples refuse to get the help they need for their marriages? Why do brothers and sisters in Christ allow an unresolved offense to divide them? Why do individuals remain backslidden and far from God for months or even years? In many cases, I think you know the answer and it is pride. Pride keeps us from doing right. People often refuse to get right or do right because of pride, but the results of pride are disastrous. Proverbs 1618 warns us. The pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before fall. Proverbs 11 two when pride cometh, then cometh shame. But with a lowly is wisdom. Proverbs 29.23, a man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. I'm sure we can give it account in our lives when we allow pride to creep in and how it hurt us and it And in order to get it right, we had to humble ourselves and ask God for forgiveness. And maybe we had to ask forgiveness of those that our pride affected as well. But we know the destructive powers of pride in our life. God tells us that if we humble ourselves, he will give us the grace to take the steps forward we need to take to restore a relationship or conquer our struggles with sin in our flesh. The resolution is in the grace and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way we have access to that is, again, go to our text verse, is we must put off pride and put on humility. Humble ourselves before God and what does He say He'll do? He will give us grace. We need God's grace to restore, to help us conquer struggles with sin in our flesh. James 4 and verse 6. I'm thankful for these verses, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. This would be a good verse to wake up to every day as we seek to conquer pride in our life through the power of God and the Holy Spirit living within us. We're being reminded to put on humility, knowing that God will give more grace. But pride keeps us from getting saved, pride keeps people from doing right, and pride keeps people from getting along. There's an issue in a relationship. You can often look to pride as the issue and the root cause of the problem within that relationship. The Bible tells us that contention is always rooted in pride. Proverbs 13, 10, only by pride cometh contention, but with the well-advised is wisdom. In Proverbs 21, 24, proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath. So in relationships, pride is one of the biggest challenges, because people refuse to admit they are wrong. Their focus becomes proving everyone else is wrong, instead of seeking to restore the relationship. Remember, you can win an argument, but lose the relationship. It's losing the relationship worth taking your stand. Understand, there's things that we need to stand up for, the truth of the word of God. But if the stand that you're taking is rooted in pride, you don't need to stand there, humble yourself, get the relationship right, restore it. So we have some things here to consider, looking up, looking out, looking within, I got those out of order, and then looking around. F.B. Meyer, a British pastor and evangelist, once emphasized the need for humility with a helpful word picture. I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above another, and the taller we grow, the easier we can reach them. Now I find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath another. And the lower we stoop, the more we get. We need to work on humbling ourself and allow the blessings of God to flow and allow Him to work in our lives and see Him work through us. Isn't it amazing? The greatest fulfillment in our life is to see God working through us. To see God reaching others through allowing Him to work in us and allow us to have a ministry with other people. These are the greatest things, and these are things that will last for all eternity. We think that the way up is to pridefully promote ourselves, but God says that the way up is to humbly lower ourselves. We are aided in making this choice of humility when we look in these four directions that we just mentioned. Humble yourself by looking up. Look to Jesus and see His humility and His focus to glorify the Father. Are you seeking humility and is your focus in life to glorify the Father? Well, it should be our focus. Humble yourself by looking in. Ask God to search your heart and your thoughts to reveal your pride. When he does, remember to look to Christ for grace to go forward in humility. Humble yourself by looking out. See the people around you through the eyes of Christ, esteeming them and serving them. Humble yourself by looking around. Let the destruction that comes to pride in our world serve as a warning to you. We can see what pride has done maybe in the lives of others, but don't forget to look within yourself and ask God through the Holy Spirit to show you what pride is doing in your life. Are there areas of my life that I'm prideful, that's hindering my relationship with God, that's hindering my service for God? that could have a great impact on the lives of others around me. We have an admonishment here from 1 Peter 5. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. The way up is down. Heavenly Father, we're thankful today for your word. We're thankful for its truth, and I'm ever thankful for a source of truth to go to in times of difficulty, in times of struggle, in times of question. that we can go to your word and know exactly what you have for us. And I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit of God that lives within us that enlightens that truth and brings things to our mind and our thoughts that would help us to make right decisions. And I pray that you'd help each one of us in this area of pride and humility to put off pride and allow ourselves to be humbled in the sight of God, that you would be able to use us for Your honor and Your glory and I pray that that will be our focus is to glorify You with our lives. I pray now for the service to follow, speak again to our hearts and we'll thank You for it in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for your kind attention. We'll meet right back in here at 10.30.