He was one of the most famous evangelists in the world in the late 1800s. People came from all around the world to attend his Bible conference in Northfield, Massachusetts. One year, a large group of pastors from Europe were among the attendees. They were given rooms in the dormitory of the Bible school, as was the custom in Europe. The men put their shoes outside the door of their room, expecting them to be cleaned and polished by servants during the night. Of course, there were no servants in the American dorm, but Moody was walking through the halls and praying for each of his guests when he saw the shoes and realized what had happened. He mentioned the problem to a few of his students, but none of them offered to help. Without another word, the great evangelist gathered up the shoes and took them back to his own room where he began to clean and polish each pair. Moody told no one what he had done, but a friend who interrupted him in the middle of shining the shoes and helped him finish the task later told the story of what had happened. Despite the praise and the fame he received because of God's blessing on his life and ministry, Moody remained a humble man. And tonight, as we continue our godly character series, I'd like to focus on this character quality of humility. Humility. Humility. Without humility, we'll never gain an audience with God. Without humility, we will be odious to others. Without humility, we'll find ourselves in situations we'd rather not be in because of our own pride. James chapter number 4 here tonight, let's look at verse 6 through 10. It says, 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, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up. Tonight let's consider this significant character quality of simply being humble. Let's pray first. Father, we thank You for it tonight again, and Lord, we just ask that You would help us see the great significance of this character quality. Lord, it's one that You are very actively working on in our lives every single day, no doubt. And Father, I just pray that we would humble ourselves under your mighty hand so that you may be able to use us, that we would not resist these things, but that we would submit these things to you. Thank you, Lord God, for tonight. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You know, one of the most destructive attitudes in a Christian's life. His pride. Is a prideful heart. You talk about something that will destroy you and destroy me, it's pride. It is pride. Pride is rooted in our old Adamic sinful nature, isn't it? It's rooted right in there. We deal with it all the time. It's often been referred to as the mother of all sins, as pride itself is at the core of our own selfishness. Pride is our desire to elevate ourselves over others and even God, so as to glean attention, glory, or gratification for ourselves. Pride is linked to self-centeredness on all levels. It was pride that originally welled up in Satan's heart and caused his downfall years and years ago, as it mentions in Ezekiel 28, 17. Speaking of Satan, it says, Notice God says this about Lucifer, that his heart was lifted up. In other words, it got proud. It got very proud and it caused his downfall. Isaiah 14 and 13 and 14 speak of the pride that was in his heart. It says, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. It just drips and oozes with pride. And we say, oh, yeah, Satan's that that's nasty for him. But how often have we been like that? We don't want to admit that. But there are many times we have we have done the same thing. As Satan fell in his pride, so can we. And that's something we've got to be very conscious of. Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before fall. That is one of the most soberest things I read in the scriptures, because I know how easy it is to get prideful. I think we all know how easy it is. And sometimes it's not always spoken, but we have it lurking within our soul. It comes out in our thoughts and the way we judge others or the way we perceive others and so forth. No doubt this week you and I have exercised pride in some regards. Pride. You know, it's in there. And it's a deadly sin. It really is. It has driven people to do some of the worst things that they'd ever think they'd ever do. You know, the Bible says in another proverb, only by pride cometh contention. Whenever you see contention between two people, mark it down, there's pride in there. Pride. Oh, it's the other person's fault. Oh, is it? Sometimes we say so, but sometimes it's not the case. But our pride blinds us from the reality of the truth. Tancredo Neves ran for the presidency of Brazil in the 1980s. He boldly declared that if he got 500,000 votes from his own party, not even God could keep him from being president. He won the election, but one day later he got sick and died. There is no way to know if God accepted his challenge, but what we can know for sure is that human beings should not make such bold, arrogant statements. You know, probably go before fall. Probably comes from the misguided idea we get sometimes that we can achieve or do something on our own. That we are dependent upon nobody but ourselves and that is quite sufficient because we think we are somebody. George Gordon Liddy was a Watergate conspirator. He went to prison for several years, but when he was released, he made an interesting statement after his release. He said, I have found within myself all I need and all I ever shall need. I am a man of great faith, but my faith is in George Gordon Liddy. I have never failed me, really. These are strong statements, but there are many people like that, unfortunately. And throughout the scriptures we see people who had been lifted themselves up in pride only to have it severely obeys my God. Because God does not tolerate this sin very readily. It seems to be one of the quickest ones that God deals with for some reason. Isaiah 10 verse 33 says, Behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts shall lop the bough with terror, and the high ones of stature shall he hew down, and the haughty, notice, shall be humbled. The haughty or the proud shall be humbled. Isaiah 2 verse 17, It says, and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. You know, there's a handful of verses that really teach this concept of the fact that God always humbles or abases pride. You know the old saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, too? Think of that, you know, when it comes to pride. And there are scores of people, you know, celebrities and media personnels and politicians, you know, had gotten themselves too prideful and too arrogant in their positions. And now in these days, there's so much junk coming out about them, isn't there? What got them? Pride. Pride. I can do this because I'm somebody or they thought they were somebody. But just as guilty as they are, we can be guilty of just the same. We can be guilty of just the same. It can get us if we're not careful. Verse 6 in our text says, But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud. You know, when we act in pride and when we display pride, let it be known we will be resisted by God. In other words, we are going to find ourselves fighting God. There is a resistance. God is not going to let us go forward when we're behaving proudly. See, without God's blessing in our lives, we're going to go nowhere. And anything we may happen to build in that process will come to naught. You know, God's brought down empires. God has humbled people severely after they have actually built themselves up high to teach them a lesson. that you can't get away with pride. I've seen lost people humble severely after they had exposed some pride. I've seen saved people and maybe we've all experienced it to a certain degree when we've behaved in pride and God had to humble us. I think we've all experienced that on some level and we've seen that happen probably to other people. Pride can come in so many forms because we as people will literally be proud about anything we can think of. I mean, it's kind of the case. We will be proud about anything. We'll be proud how big we can grow our goatee or how big we can grow our, yeah, amen, right there. I was hitting a sin tonight, amen. You know, I've heard people just get proud about the silliest of things. You know, as Christian people who are striving to stand for truth, it's easy for us also to get prideful about the things we stand on. And we've got to be careful on that, too. Sometimes we can mistreat others. We don't want to go that way. The worst, I think, is self-righteous spiritual pride. I've got all my standards together and so forth. And those people often start nitpicking you. And when they start nitpicking you, that's a source of super spiritual self-righteous pride. And what's going to happen? Well, they fall. They fall. I've been saved long enough to see that happen. You know, the nitpicky, griping little things and, you know, because I'm spiritual type thing and it's like, I've seen some of them fall hard, and it is something that we need to guard against, guys, myself included, because, you know, God doesn't have time for pride. God does not have time for pride at all. Because pride is so detrimental, it's significant we seek to practice its opposing virtue, and that's what our focus is tonight, humility. I wanted to paint a picture for us, at least a little bit, to help remind us how bad pride is so that we can understand how great and good humility is. Because humility is a beautiful thing, isn't it? When you see humility in a person, I mean, there's just something beautiful about that in an individual, isn't there? And we just have such great respect for somebody like that. We don't have a whole lot of respect for the pride, arrogant person, do we? You know, maybe you've seen interviews of different people before, and they're just touting how great they are. You know, just like, ugh. I mean, it's just disgusting, isn't it? But humility, when somebody is humble and deflecting praise, you know what we say, we respect that person. Whether we say it with our mouth or not, in our heart, we respect that person. And in some regards, we want to kind of be like that, I think. So tonight, let's talk about this character quality of humility and learn how we can apply it in our lives. First off, let's talk about the definition. The definition, what is humility? Well, Webster defines humility this way. In ethics, freedom from pride and arrogance, humbleness of mind, a modest estimate of one's own worth. In theology, humility consists in loneliness of mind, a deep sense of one's unworthiness in the sight of God, self-abasement, penitence for sin, and submission. excuse me, submission to the divine will. When we are exercising humility, what we are doing is recognizing and openly acknowledging from within our own heart our own insufficiencies and dependence upon God primarily, and of course, others as well. We are esteeming others better than self, like Philippians 2 talks about. And of course, we are saying, God, I can't do this without you. I can't do this without you. There's a verse, I can't remember exactly where it is, it's back in the Pentateuch, though, but Moses was talking with God about going into the promised land and so forth, and he said, if you don't go with us, we're not going in. That's humility, because we are recognizing just how dependent upon God we are to do our day-to-day things. Samuel Bringle, who was an early Salvation Army official, was once introduced as the great Dr. Bringle. He later wrote in his diary, he says, if I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without him and helping me to keep little of my own eyes. He does use me, but I am so concerned that he uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only an old iron. Oh, that I may never lose sight of this." That's a great quote. No, basically he's saying, any good that's come out of me, it's because God's done it through me. It's not because I'm superior in knowledge or in ability. It's not because I've got these great talents and attributes or this financial prestige or so forth. Look, if we have any of those things, it's because God has put it within you and within me, and that alone. It's Him, and not us. We must never lose sight of how dependent upon God we really are by exalting ourselves to be something we are not. Remember, everything we have going for us, all is in direct correlation to God's blessing and God's enabling. In fact, God can enable somebody of lesser ability to do more than he because of their humility versus somebody who's got lots of great talent and so forth, who lacks humility. And that will happen. You know why? Because God gets glory out of that. We'll talk about that more here in a moment. But Jesus put it pretty well in John 15, verse 5, when he was talking about fruit bearing. I am the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, a same bringeth forth much fruit. That last part needs to burn within our own hearts. For without me, ye can do nothing. We can't produce fruit on our own. We have to be dependent upon the God to work through our lives and to empower our witness and to change our lives from the inside out. We need Him. For thine ye can do nothing. If we hope to accomplish anything of any significance in life, it must be done with a humble spirit. Proverbs 22, 4 says by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. When we're exalting pride, none of that is possible. When we're displaying pride, that will not become a reality within our life. The prideful person will fall. It's only a matter of time. It's one of the great guarantees of life. It's not one you and I want to take up if we can help it. Pride. It's through a humble spirit, God's power also works. Verse six in our passage, it says. Wherefore, he said, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble, giveth grace unto the humble. God's power works through a humble person. A humble person. A person with a humble heart. Isaiah 57, 15 says, I think God makes it pretty clear. God is interested in us being humble and not thinking that we're something that we're not. And that we are superior, so to say, to anybody. We're not. All we are tonight are sinners saved by grace tonight if we're saved. We would be doing the same exact things anybody else out in that world would be doing if it wasn't for God putting his Holy Spirit into our lives and changing us from the inside out. If it wasn't God working us over, maybe, to get us saved. You know, if you were one that fought salvation, And God was showing mercy to us by working on our hearts. It's it's all because of him. And when a person is humble. They will direct glory to God instead of taking credit for something, again, they cannot do on their own, as we see, secondly, the decision. You know, each of us has a decision we must make in regards to this character quality. We need to decide either to humble ourselves or be humbled by God. We must choose whether we're going to humble ourselves or be humbled by God. In scripture, God appeals to us to humble ourselves and to strive to maintain that demeanor, doesn't he? Look at verse 10. It's in the form of a command, isn't it? If God has commanded it to us, that means we are capable of doing it with his help. If we were not capable of doing it, then he wouldn't command us. God doesn't give us impossible commands. And in verse 10 he says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. So it is a command. We are commanded, we are admonished to maintain a humble spirit. 1 Peter 5, 6 is a sister passage. Peter writes, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Humility. And we can make that choice. And we'll talk about some ways in which you can here in a moment. However, sometimes we don't make that choice and God has to help us, right? If I can put it that way. Help us. And he often does it through circumstances, opposition, infirmities, and weaknesses to keep our pride in check or humble us. He does that. Maybe there's several avenues he's coming at in our lives. But sometimes God has to bring that stuff down because He's trying to break our pride. Because He knows how to break it. One great example was Nebuchadnezzar. I think we're actually in this chapter this week in Sunday school. But Nebuchadnezzar, it's very clear if you study out the life of Nebuchadnezzar from the scriptures, that God was the one that elevated him to the position and Babylon to the position of dominance of the world. It was God that did all that. God calls Nebuchadnezzar my servant. Amongst other things, it's very interesting to look at the way that the word of God talks about Nebuchadnezzar. But there came a point in time when Nebuchadnezzar was kind of at the top, if you would. You know, he's the ruler of the world. Everyone submitted to him. His word was law. Let's just put it this way, for Nebuchadnezzar, it doesn't get any better than that, right? But Nebuchadnezzar had another dream. It was a warning shot from God, and he said, you better humble yourself, Nebuchadnezzar, in so many words, or you're going to be cut down. and you're going to be brought low. And Daniel had come in, and we're going to see that here shortly in the study of Daniel. But Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, he pleads with him, King, you've got to humble yourself. You don't know who you're dealing with. Well, some time passed, and Nebuchadnezzar is walking through his palace, kind of looking at all his stuff, And Daniel 4, 30 and 31 happened. The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon? Notice that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty. What's he doing? He's taking credit for all this stuff that God allowed him to do. While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. What happened? He basically lost his mind. He lost his mind. He was here, and then all of a sudden, boom, he lost his mind. And for seven years, he acted kind of like an animal. And history even records this happening. It would. Of course, it's in the Word of God. But it's known in history that he basically went crazy for seven years. And God said it would be seven years before that pride act got humbled. And at the end of all that time, this is what Nebuchadnezzar learned, Daniel 4.37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol the King of heaven, all whose works are truth in His way's judgment, and those that walk in pride He is able to abase. There was not a prouder man than Nebuchadnezzar. And God knew how to break him and did. I think Nebuchadnezzar is pretty happy about that, though, today, because I think he's in heaven. As a result of that. Again, God will not stand for pride. Again, the biggest reason is that we are taking glory that rightfully belongs to him, because God is very jealous over his glory. Isaiah 42 8 says, I am the Lord. That is my name and my glory. Will I not give to another? And he certainly will not give it to us. Neither my praise the graven images. God will not allow anybody to steal his glory. He says in the New Testament that no flesh glory in his presence. In fact, God has consequences for glory stealers, if you will. Malachi 2.2, it says, This is pretty serious stuff, isn't it? Pretty strong stuff. Now, some would say, isn't God being proud and egotistical, though? There are those out there that would argue that when they start hearing this stuff. Well, you're talking about pride. Well, God sounds a little proud, doesn't he? And it's usually stated by people who want their own glory, by the way. It's like, why should I share my glory with them? Well, let's back up. We have to, again, remember who the total enabler is. Many don't recognize that. And it's not just the loss. It can also be the saved. Because without God in the equation of life, without God in the equation of this world, without God in the equation of this universe, nothing would exist of itself at all. Not one atom. Not one proton or neutron or... I don't know if there's anything smaller than that, some of you scientists in here, I don't know. But the most smallest objects that we are aware of would not exist without God in the whole equation at all. Colossians 117 sums it up very well, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. The reason the sun burns as it does is because of Him. The reason that the planets do what they do in orbit and our planet spins on its axis as it does is because of Him. The reason that we have rain is because of Him. The reason we have topsoil to grow our food is because of Him. The reason that we have bodies for our souls to live in is because of Him. The reason we've got a heaven is because of Him. Everything that we can possibly have is because of Him, and He's the one that sustains it without Him. It would all fall apart and wouldn't exist at all. So yeah, man doesn't deserve an ounce of glory at all. Man cannot take credit for anything. It's all because of God. Secondly, when God is elevated in the eyes of people, which that's what it means to give God glory, to magnify who he is, to exalt who he is, to brag on him, if you would, what happens? This is what happens. People who don't know him are drawn to him. And that's a very good thing. It's a very good thing. Because God wants to do very good to every person, regardless of who they are and their background. God wants to do very good to others. The same isn't the case with us if we get glory. When we get glory, we help nobody except ourselves. When you and I get promoted and if we were to be magnified, who does it help? Nobody. All it does is gives us a big head. That's what happens. We don't help anybody. But when God is elevated and people are drawn to him, guess what he does for them? Number one, he forgives them unconditionally. He puts that peace in their heart that all things are right between that person and him. But He not only forgives them, He blesses them. And He uses them to do good things. He fulfills that person. He builds a relationship with them. He takes them to heaven. He does a lot of very good things to those people when they are drawn to Him. Do we do that when we're exalted? Oftentimes when people get glorified, they do the opposite. Think through that a little bit. I've never really seen a benevolent dictator, have you? Not one. What I often hear about celebrities is that in front of the camera, they look so wonderful and happy and so forth, but they treat the people underneath them as dirt, oftentimes. Why? Because when people are glorified, they think so highly of themselves that everyone's below them. When God is elevated, he blesses them and helps them and does good to them. There's a big difference, isn't there? Huge difference. When we get glory, all we're going to do is use others for the advancement of ourselves in some regards, with no regards for their well-being, like God. The human heart is so prone to pride, it is something that we all fight against in some regards, probably every day, and sometimes as a result, even. God has to place thorns in our flesh to humble us. Remember that statement from the Apostle Paul? Go to 2 Corinthians 12. In fact, in some cases, God has to do that when God uses certain people in certain positions, because it'd be very easy for them to get proud. Here, Paul has an opportunity to see heaven. I don't believe anybody else has had that opportunity. Not like Paul did. And verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 12, it says, unless I should be exalted or above measure, in other words, unless I get prideful through the abundance of the revelations because of what he saw, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. That thorn in the flesh was there to humble. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that I might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul could have easily gotten proud about these things, but God sent this thorn in the flesh to keep him humble. And God may have a thorn in your flesh to humble you or to humble me. It might come in the form of a physical affirmity. It might come in the form of a person or people. It might come in the form of a financial situation. It can come in multiple forms, but it's something that is in your life or in my life meant to keep us from getting proud. And I've known people who've had those thorns in the flesh given to them. Some cases it's through events that have happened in their life. Some have lost children, some have lost spouses. We've had preachers here that have lost spouses. I know of preachers that have lost kids. Or else they have a physical infirmity. of some sort. There are some that have been in this pulpit that have had physical infirmities. Dr. S. M. Davis, just last year when he was here, he had just been through surgery like a week or two prior for prostate cancer. And he, you know, it's been about a year now since he had that, and he's, or less than a year I should say, but he had another real big surgery. And he said, I'm just getting my strength back now. But I know that time period was trying for him so forth. I think a doctor Beckham and he lost his precious wife. Years ago, and he's had his grandsons both. I think he's had either one or two of them like get in accidents where they actually broke a part of their neck. They they're doing fine. But you know you go through those things. Why? Because sometimes God uses at the humbleness. I'm saying some of these guys who've been here, I mean, have been through, Dr. Filder almost died. He was in Uganda, and he got bit by a mosquito, had malaria, and he got back home. He said, man, I'm just not feeling good, and all that thought was the flu, and his dad is an evangelist, I guess, or something like that, and they were talking. He said, you know what, you better get into the hospital, and found out he had malaria. He was just a day or two away from death. We try to bring people in here that have got some experience in some of these things. and have gone on and God's used them in a variety of ways. But they've gone through a lot of things in some cases to experience it. I think of another preacher that I know lost a wife and lost another wife and a child. But God has used them powerfully. Again, you just see that stuff. It doesn't have to be a preacher. It can be a person. So does it have to go to that extreme? Not necessarily. God chooses the foreign, as he did in Paul's case here. Some believe that it was an eye problem in his case. Like I said, it might just be a sickness. In some cases, it is a wayward child. I know some good preachers that have children that are wayward right now. Heartbreaks for him, you know, they I know that. But God uses that oftentimes for for for a season or for a part of time, or in some cases it is for the rest of their life. But it was meant to bring good. To keep them humble, because if they exalted themselves. As we can exalt ourselves. We would destroy every good thing that God would be doing in our lives through our pride. I mean, it's pretty serious. If we've got pride, God is going to have to deal with it. Now, we can help ourselves, though, by doing everything we can to recognize and squash pride when it wells up in our hearts. But it's a decision we have to make, lest God has to humble us through his means. as we see thirdly, the directives. So how can we humble ourselves? Let's consider some different thoughts. Number one, each day we must choose to submit to God all areas of our life. Verse seven, back in our text, if you go back to James chapter number four, James chapter number four, it says, submit yourselves therefore to God. Before we can resist the devil, by the way, you and I have to submit ourselves to God. We must make a conscious choice every day to be controlled by the Spirit, and that's submitting ourselves to God. Humility is an act of submission as we submit ourselves to God's superior wisdom and power and guidance. In other words, we take ourselves off the throne of our life and we say, God, you're in control of it today. And that's something we have to do continually, probably throughout our day and each day. Number two, we need to seek God daily. Look at verse eight, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. In other words, we need to openly seek Him and acknowledge our total dependency upon Him for every area of our lives. You know, how many people fail daily in this area, not seeking God daily? To not seek God daily and declare our dependence upon Him is an act of pride, isn't it? Say, I don't need my devotions today. I can get by without reading my Bible today. I can get by without, I'm too busy today. What you're saying is, and what I am saying is, God, I don't need your help. I'm self sufficient. And God will show us how self sufficiently really are. And it won't take long. You know, I've said this before, and I'll say it again. You and I will get way further with God's blessing upon our taking the time to spend time with God to get his get his heart up, get our get our our life in tune with him. We will get further in the day than trying to skip that and just run into our day. But how many people have learned that? Have you personally learned that yet? Or is it still, oh, I just can't get the devotions done. I'm just too busy. Well, you'll keep stubbing your toe. But the thing is, when you keep hurting a part that hurts, doesn't it hurt worse? I just kept stubbing my toe, stubbing my toe. You know, that would just keep hurting worse each time I did it. We're only hurting ourselves and hurting ourselves worse. Because what we're telling God again is, God, I don't need your help. I don't need you. I can get by with it. I can handle it. And God will show us that we can't. It doesn't take much, trust me. It just takes a little grain of sand in the right spot to humble us, doesn't it? Just take God, and you know what's interesting? God will use the little things to break us. Just to show us we aren't self-sufficient. Number three, we also need to acknowledge our sins before God and seek His forgiveness. Verse eight, draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. What it's getting here, or what it's trying to communicate is this. We have to be serious about it. When it talks about cleansing our hands, it's talking about confessing those things we've done actively. And purifying, of course, our hearts means confessing those inward sins that we commit that, you know, may God only knows. and purifying our lives and going through every day and asking God, God, is there anything in my life that is not right? Is there anything that I've done or didn't recognize and so forth? Can you help me see that so that I can walk purely with you? That's something you have to do continually. Think how often you have to wash your hands. Now, some of you might have been last week, I don't know. Some of our kids, you know, we're always telling them, wash your hands. It's like, I thought you washed them, and we did. Yeah, right, doesn't look like it. But you know, how often we have to physically wash our hands should tell us how much we have to spiritually do it, right? And we need to do that on a regular basis and be serious about it. Acknowledging our specific sins can be quite humbling though, isn't it? I don't know about you, but have you ever had a time where it was hard to even admit to God that you did something wrong? I've had that. I'm just like, I don't even want to admit it to God. I feel so embarrassed or whatever. How I had that thought or did that, whatever it was, or said that thing. You know something? When we get real with God and come clean on those things, it can be humbling, isn't it? But that's not a bad thing. We have to be serious about it, especially as God reveals them to us. Ask God to remove the blind spots we may have, because pride has a way of blinding us from reality. Boy, does it ever. Number four, practice periodic fasting. And this may be our greatest need and greatest helper all at the same time, but it's the thing that we don't like to do. It is absent from modern Christianity. but periodic fasting. Psalm 35 verse 13, David writes, but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. Notice it says here, I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom. Fasting has an effect on the soul that brings it low and into a proper state of spiritual focus. If you've ever fasted sincerely before, you know what I'm talking about. It has a unique power to humble the soul. and bring it low and to weaken it and put us into a proper state of spiritual focus. It's so powerful that it even was displayed by the most wicked king of all of Israel, King Ahab. King Ahab was the worst king the Northern Kingdom ever really had, I believe. There's a lot said about him, but he was a very proud man. He resisted God completely, him and his wife Jezebel. But God pronounced the judgment against his lineage that would be carried out, that in fact his whole house would be wiped out because of his idolatry and his wickedness and his stubbornness and just simply his pride. But after that pronouncement, Ahab did something very interesting. This is the proud, wicked King Ahab and he got before God. He fasted. And this is what God said to him. This is God saying to Elijah, See, it's not how Ahab humbled himself before me. Because he humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house. Hey, look, if God can respond to wicked King Ahab like that. How much more can he do it for us? Not that we're better than him, but you know. I think you get the idea. If we actively choose to seek to humble ourselves, God will respond to us. Isaiah 66 to you, for all those things have my hand made and all those things have been, sayeth the Lord, but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. You and I will be the closest to God as we'll ever be when we humble ourselves. And sometimes we may not be getting an audience with God simply because our pride is putting up a barrier. It might be an area that we need to look at. But may we tonight take heed to the things we see from God's word and seek to be humble people because the benefits are bountiful and the consequences are detrimental if we don't.