In this sermon, the speaker uses a parable to illustrate the importance of maintaining focus on God and having a burning desire to meet with Him. The parable describes a person who is invited to visit the king in his throne room. The person begins to ascend the steps towards the king, but as they get closer, they lose their focus and no longer have a strong desire to meet with the king. The speaker emphasizes the need to keep our focus on God and to have a humble and sincere heart when approaching Him. The sermon encourages listeners to examine their own hearts and to seek a genuine relationship with God.

The speaker last night got up and talked about his Irish accent and even referred to it as speaking funny. Folks, I suppose I'll speak funny, but it's a fluish accent. A little different, but you'll figure it out, alright? From time to time, folks have asked me what is the most difficult thing, what is one of the greatest challenges that you face in a revival ministry? You know, without hesitation, typically I have said this, to me, the greatest challenge is making sure that revival is not just a ministry, but a reality. It's very easy in a ministry that week after week, your writing, your preaching, your praying, your ministry is wrapped up in revival. But it's very easy to get very mechanical and very much routine about it. And that's why I'm so thankful to be here for these three days. Yes, revival is a part of my ministry these days, but I believe already God's been making it reality to a greater degree, and I'm so thankful. That's a great blessing. Will you open your Bibles with me this morning to the book of Proverbs, chapter 6? The book of Proverbs, chapter 6. Throughout the Word of God, there are a number of biblical sin lists. For example, we have a tremendous Bible sin list in the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 3, dealing with the last days and the perilous times that shall come. We have another Bible sin list in Ephesians, chapter 4, things that will give place to the devil, things that will grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Here in Proverbs, chapter 6, we have another Bible sin list. And I want to simply read these verses of Scripture before we pray. Proverbs, chapter 6, starting at verse 16. These six things doth the Lord hate. Gentlemen, may I pause just briefly to say, if God hates it, we ought to hate it. Not only ought we to hate it, but we ought to hate it the way God hates it. We ought to pay attention. These six things doth the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto Him. Verse 17, a proud look. A lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood. And heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. Feet that be swift in running to mischief. A false witness that speaketh lies. And he that soweth discord among the brethren. There is a plan for a week of revival preaching. This morning, we're going to focus on the very first thing in this list in the word of God. What does God hate? What is an abomination to my God? The first thing in God's list is a proud look. And that's the subject I want to speak to you about this morning. Let's pray together. Father, it is an overwhelming responsibility to stand in front of this great group of men this morning. Lord, I do not take this lightly for one moment. Lord, the message that you have given me this morning is not just a sermon. It's a message, I believe, from God. I believe it's a burden from God to pass along to the men. And yet I recognize how inadequate and incapable I am to ever do that effectively. And so, dear Lord, even before I would ever try to preach, I come to you this morning to ask for grace to serve you acceptably. The power of the Holy Spirit to take the word of God and to make it fit into our lives. God, will you please confront us? Will you please convict us? Lord, create a divine squirm in our seats today. I pray that ultimately then we will cooperate with the Spirit of God and our lives will be changed. Lord, we have come to seek God and yet I'm convinced the proud look may be one of the greatest hindrances to a meeting with God that is evident in this room today. Show us your truth and have your way, I ask. And we'll thank you for what you will do. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. I want you for a moment as we begin this morning to imagine that I have taken you to a palace. And I want you to imagine that we are going to step into the throne room. Everything we've heard about the throne room is incredible. We've been told that there are a series of steps. There are 100 steps. At the top of those 100 steps there's a majestic and magnificent throne and seated upon the throne is the king. I'm going to begin to approach the king. This is my opportunity to meet the king. And so I step through the doorway and I enter the throne room. In front of me is this series of 100 steps. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and I begin to take those first several steps. Slowly but steadily I begin making my way up the series of steps. At first all I can do is gaze long range at the king. But eventually I can make out the features on his face. I can see his expressions and then I continue to move a little closer. As I make my way up those steps finally I get up the nerve to just pause briefly and I kind of wave at the king and much to my amazement he waves back. Well that just excites me. The king knows I'm here. And so I continue to make my way up the steps. Finally I pause again and I say, Good morning king! To which the king responds, Good morning to you my friend. My friend? The king just called me his friend. I continue to make my way up the steps and I pause again. Your honor I'd like to spend some time talking with you this morning. I pause as the king responds. It will be my privilege to welcome you into my presence for a visit. And then a terrible thing happens. Suddenly I get sort of an overwhelming sense of this is really neat. Man I've never been in a palace before. I've never been in a throne room before. I've never visited with the king. And almost unconsciously I begin to wonder. I wonder if anybody else has ever gotten to do this. And I turn and I look back down the steps. There's another individual. He's just at the first step. And I quickly call to him and I say, I used to be on that step. I look around and I am drawn to someone crying. And off to the side on one of the steps there's an individual sprawled across the steps just sobbing his heart out. And I begin to think to myself why you poor soul. What a shame that that's all the farther you've made it. Suddenly I hear a tumbling sound. And I quickly look up and see the figure of a man above me but he's rolling down the steps. Thought crosses my mind I wonder what he did. Could it be that maybe he lipped off the king and the king just pushed him out. Wonder where he's going to land I think. And I make my way over the edge only to discover that there are several individuals who have already fallen off the stairway. And I think to myself, oh boy. That would be a bad experience. I'm going to stay right in the middle of the steps because boy that isn't going to happen to me. I look around and hear several other individuals and some of them are on their hands and knees and some of them are striving and stretching and trying to make it. All of a sudden I think of a bumper sticker I saw one time. I may be slow but I'm ahead of you. And again a smile breaks out on my face as I look at these poor souls that they have gotten about as far up the steps as they're going to go. I got here relatively easy. This was no big deal. Are you starting to get the picture I'm creating for you? You see, at the point I am, I will go no further. Oh I was invited by the king to come to his throne for a visit. We would communicate. We would fellowship. We would get to know each other. But in this simple little parable that I've been telling you, what really has been happening is that I quit watching the king. I lost my focus on the king. I'm no longer driven to complete the steps to the king. I don't have a burning desire and passion to meet with the king. No, instead I'm now looking down the steps at the poor guy just getting started. The guy that fell off. The guy that rolled down. Those who were crawling in. And do you know what is happening? I will go no further. Because in my satisfaction from seeing where I stand with everybody else, I've lost my opportunity to go meet with the king. You know gentlemen, you take your Bible and you begin to look at the Word of God. And you begin to understand a little bit about what it means to meet with God. I did a little bit of a study, just some word studies the other day. And I looked up all the verses in Psalms about the word throne. The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness. The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens. Then I did a little word study on the word high. And just simply went through the book of Psalms again. For the Lord most high is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. Who has done great things, O God? Who is like unto Thee? He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. But Thou, Lord, art most high forevermore. Who is like unto the Lord our God? Who dwelleth on high. You know, suddenly, I begin to grasp a concept. Do you remember Isaiah? In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. But what was it that amazed Isaiah? I saw the Lord high and lifted up, sitting upon a throne, His train filled the temple. He begins to describe the overwhelming impression He was given not only of the highness of God, but as the holiness of God. As those angelic beings, the seraphim, encircled the throne of God, crying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. The position, the perfection of God so overwhelmed Isaiah. You know, this morning, there is no doubt in my mind that this room is filled with men who want to see the Lord. Men who want to meet with the King. Men who want to go into the very throne room of God, as it were. But the question is continually being asked. Why doesn't it happen? I submit to you this morning. It's the proud look. It's the proud look that takes my eyes off of God and causes me to look at others. And in my satisfaction and fulfillment that I'm better off than others. I never really attain the level of God's glory in my life that I desire. Gentlemen, I recognize that I could probably get myself in trouble for what I'm about to say. But I truly believe that the proud look may be the pride of fundamentalism. You go to the New Testament. You begin to study the Pharisees. You know, isn't it amazing? I have preached some barn burners on the Pharisees. I mean, it's fun. I mean, you can just load up and let them have it with every barrel you've got. Why? Oh, because you know those Pharisees, they were consumed with knowing right. And by the way, they did. Buddy, they knew God's law. And they were consumed with doing right. And again, they did it. But in spite of their knowing right and in spite of their doing right, they weren't right. Boy, that's good preaching material. You start hooting and hollering about that and man, the amens and the preach it brothers and shake that bush. Man, people are ready to go. But isn't it a shame when suddenly we get real honest with God? Hey, I seek to be a fundamentalist. I've sought to be true to the Word of God. I believe in knowing and doing what is right. But fellas, I believe there's more to it than academics and actions. There's attitudes. And God doesn't want me to just know what's right and do what's right. God wants me to be right. And I'll never be right standing there looking around at this brother and this family and this church and this college and this ministry and saying, well, I used to be where you are. I'm not doing real well, but at least I've made more progress than you have. Fellas, I honestly believe as much as I desire revival in my life, my family, my ministry, my home church, the places I preach, I honestly believe that it could be possible for us to come to that place where we get so wrapped up in a humanistic approach to revival that it never happens. What is humanism? Humanism leaves God out. Humanism keeps us man-centered instead of God-centered. Focused on man rather than focused on God. And gentlemen, I'm convinced that many times in revival we do the same thing. And it happens when we get our eyes off God and it happens when we get our eyes on each other. Grab your Bible just a minute. Let me just illustrate scripturally exactly what I'm talking about. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10. Three verses I'm going to show you or three passages that I think illustrate this concept so well right out of Scripture. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves but they, measuring themselves look at this, by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Gentlemen, it makes not one hill of beans to God where I measure up compared to you today or you to me. What matters today is how does Tom Palmer measure up to a holy God? Several years ago I was invited by a friend to go to Rec Hall at Penn State University because over the lunch hour they kind of have an open gym and there's a whole batch of basketball courts and it's kind of the first five are one team the next five enter the next and they just get this thing going and then when you've got five you play the winners and we got out there first game. I got paired up against this probably college age young black fella and you know it was interesting he guarded me, I guarded him and with all the humility I can come up with at this moment I ate him for lunch. Every move I made worked and every move he made man my hands were quicker than lightning knocking the ball, blocking and this guy just getting irritated, aggravated, agitated and I'm just thinking man this is my prime I have finally reached it. We won so we stay on the court. Losers go off. This guy, he is ripped. He leaves the court, he's upset. Next team comes on. I get paired up against about the same age pretty good sized white guy and the next game starts and simply put with all the humility I can come up with he ate me for lunch. It was a short prime in my career. I mean every time I'd take that ball swat, he'd knock it free and I'd go up to shoot, he'd swat it we'd go up for a rebound, he'd box me out we lost, we're done, we're out. Now if I go walking out of the gym that day with my gym bag over my shoulder and you approach me and say did you get to play ball today? Yeah. How'd you do? What's my answer? You know what? All depends what I compare to. Doesn't it? All depends what I compare to. You know what? That's why the word of God says you dare not be one of the ones who's guilty of measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves because it's not a perfect standard of measurement. But that's the proud look at its worst. It's so easy to quickly look around and look at an imperfect standard which, hey, anybody can stand taller than an imperfect standard. Let me give you a second example. Go with me to the book of Luke chapter 18. The book of Luke chapter 18 simply put two men went into the same place at the same time to do the same thing for the same reason. We know them as the Pharisee and the Publican. I think we can at least give the Pharisee a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. At least outwardly he was seeking some kind of favor from God. But before you read the parable starting in verse 10 you've got to go back to verse 9. Why did Jesus tell this parable about these two men in the temple? Verse 9, He spake this parable unto certain which, oh my, trusted in themselves that they were righteous. You know, the honest truth is if somebody would just start to hum have thy known way, Lord, most of us could come forward right now. Sure. Trusted in themselves that they were righteous. But look at those last three words. And despised others. Despised others simply means to look down upon. That's what happened on the stairway in the parable, remember? Then Jesus goes ahead and tells this story. This little parable. Here's this Pharisee. Showtime. And he stood and prayed. By the way, I think this is interesting. Verse 11, thus with himself. Pharisees' prayers are pretty much self-contained. He prayed thus with himself. God, I thank Thee. Look at the first thing he does. That I am not as other men are. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even, can you see it? Or even, God. Even as this publican. You say, oh, we'd never do that. Sure we do. When somebody walks into your church that isn't dressed like everybody else. Or one of the families in your church has a teenager who gets tripped up by the devil. Sure we do. God. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm sure you are too, right? That I'm not as this. Then he starts into his little Christian service report for the week. I fast twice in the week. You know, again, I just use my imagination here. But I can almost see him holding up two fingers just in case God isn't sure how much twice is. And I give tithes of all that I possess. Probably at all ten of them. Because God may have forgotten how much of a percentage to tithe is. You say, oh, come on. Sure we do. Have you ever been to a testimony time in some of our churches? We had a little term we came up with at the Christian camp we've worked at in recent years. We call them bragamonies. And we get up and give testimony to all God has done through me. Sure we do. I told you I could get in trouble for calling it the pride of fundamentalism. But guys, we're no different. We're no different. But then it's as if the focus swings across the room. Bless his heart. Here's this publican laying over there on the floor. What does the Bible say? He wouldn't even lift up his eyes so much unto heaven. At this moment, this man is so crushed and crumbled before God he can't even look at the throne. He smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I remember years ago getting a little book. By the way, it's an old book. You know how you know it's old? When it's one-third print, two-thirds white space. And I believe it was a book written by Andrew Bonner, if I'm not mistaken, entitled How Then Shall I Come to God? You open the book. You turn to the first page of chapter one. The question is repeated. How then shall I come to God? And the answer is given in the next sentence with the only thing I have to bring to God, my sin. See, isn't it amazing? We've assumed that we have to impress God to get His favor. And that's why we're so quick to avoid everything but the one thing that turns the heart of a merciful, gracious, loving, forgiving, compassionate God to us. And that's the acknowledgement of our sins. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He just told it like it was. God, what you see is what you get. Jesus finished up this little story, this little lesson by saying, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Showtime, he just went on to another platform. The publican went home right with God. Let me give you one more scripture passage. Go to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. How does this proud look, this man consciousness affect us? Romans chapter 12. Look at verse number 3. For I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Pride causes a man to puff up. Parentheses. God has a pin for every puff. Pride causes me to see myself as better than God and others know that I really am. That's why it's such an anti God state of mind. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as courting as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. How do we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think? Fellas, I want to give you a quick list. Eight things. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the proud look gets exposed in its ugliness. Number one, we think more highly of ourselves because of our success. What we have accomplished for God. You know what? That can be done by a man who's been in the ministry 30 or 40 years when he looks at a man who's only been in the ministry five years. That can be done by a couple of preachers. By the way, there are ways that preacher's fellowship meetings irritate me. The preacher you are at the preacher's fellowship is not the preacher you really are. Did you ever notice preachers, I understand we have pastors here, did you ever notice how when two pastors meet at the fellowship what is the first question that always gets asked? How many do you run on Sunday morning? Never fails. That's why I went into a revival in evangelism so I wouldn't have to answer that question. How many do you run on Sunday morning? By the way man, how many you run on Sunday morning has little to do with the spiritual temperature of your church. Honestly. And it's so neat to say, by the way, we always round up. Did you notice that? Sure we do. We always round up. Well, we usually run and give 20 or 50 or so and you know what? We automatically, oh not outwardly, you've never looked at a fellow preacher and said, boy I'm so glad I'm better than you are. No, but in our hearts. Oh by the way, who knows the heart? God does. Secondly, we think more highly of ourselves because of our standards. Now gentlemen, I'm going to be as honest and sincere as I can. I believe today the standards that I live by are Bible based and they're strong and they're strict. And I'm all for them. But you know something? If you're not careful, the proud look can cause you to think more highly of yourself because of your strong standards than someone, bless their heart, who doesn't have strong standards. We had an elderly lady stand up in one of our meetings a number of years ago. She's now with the Lord and she said, God spoke to me last night. She said, I was raised in a conservative, strict home. But she said, I had never realized that over the years I had begun to think our family was better than other families that didn't have the standards we have. And she said, God showed me my pride and I had to deal with it. Brother, I'm not for one second preaching about lowering standards. I'm simply saying, keep looking to the King and quit looking down the steps to see whose standards haven't attained your level. Number three. Folks, this list gets tough. It's getting tougher. We think more highly of ourselves because of our separation. Brethren, again, I believe in biblical separation. I believe in having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness and not being equally yoked with unbelievers. And I believe in touch not the unclean. Believe me, I'm all for it. But you know what? Sometimes, our separation is the thing that we think makes us better than others who aren't as separated. My family and I, several years ago, had gone to a state park on the beach in northwest Florida. Basically, the place was deserted. We were having a picnic. We were walking the beach and waiting in the water. And we had come back to our truck. Suddenly, four guys, probably college-age fellows, just came wandering down a trail and into the parking lot. Every one of them had on a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. And I didn't really pay any attention to them. They just quickly made their way to us. And they were sort of happy and friendly and wanted to know who we were and where we were from and what we were doing there. And I told them, Oh man, that's great! You know what? We're here for the... And they named one of our recent revival phenomenons. We're here for some training and we're excited. And these guys just kind of went on and on. You know what? My poor rotten heart instantly was like, guys, get going. And even as I'm standing there, I'm already preparing my little outline to refute them. And fellas, honestly, I think biblically I could have shown them some real error and misunderstanding in some of the concepts that this movement was really pushing. I really think so. I had serious questions. And I was struggling inside. And finally they were like, Well, hey, we're going to get going, but... I thought, good. And then they said, Could we pray for you and your family? And I'm thinking, Oh, man. I hope nobody from the church we're ministering in shows up. And so I said, Yeah, okay, go ahead. Have prayer for us. And these four guys got around my family and went like this. Oh, no. And the first guy started in. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. And my family, we're all just standing there kind of like... Let me tell you something. I have sat in a lot of preacher's offices. But I have rarely heard a preacher pray for me and my family like those men did. And you know what? Those guys, man, they went on their way. Instantly I realized I hadn't paid a lick of attention. I didn't care whether they knew God or not. We're having a picnic. This is family day. They were the ones who came to us. They were the ones who were so excited about God as they said they had to come tell a family they'd never met. And when they prayed, they prayed for our family in a way I had rarely heard. You know what? I didn't run to their meeting that night. I didn't go get one of their books. But I'm going to tell you something. I was smitten because in my separation the proudness of my heart had made me to think I was better. You say, maybe you were. Maybe I was. But that wasn't the issue. Where does Tom Palmer stand before his God on the throne? That's what was the issue. Number four, we think more highly of ourselves because of our superiority. Fellas, two words I hate when we talk about ministry. One of them is great and the other is greatest. And you know where you see it? You see it when we put an ad in the paper for our church. Or you hear it when Dr. So-and-so or Brother whoever he may be is introduced to preach at the conference. Isn't it amazing how quickly we take all the preachers mentally we do it and line them up first to worst or first to worst or... Sure we do. Sure we do. This one's great. Watch what happens in the gospels every time the disciples got into this greatest issue. Jesus shut them down that quick. Can you imagine? Can you imagine the disciples in the presence of Jesus arguing which one of them was the best preacher? I mean that's ridiculous. You say, oh that was the... No, no. That's what happens when we preachers go out for lunch and try to outdo each other with all of our reports of what God's doing through us. Number five, we think more highly of ourselves because of our stability. Guys, right here is one of the toughest times for the proud look when another brother goes down. When another family's teenager rebels. When another couple's marriage splits up. Do we pray for them? Sure. But isn't it amazing how quickly there's that sense of God, I'm sure you're impressed because they just fell down the steps and I didn't. Oh guys, it is subtle. Believe me, it is subtle. It is so hard to pick it up until you get so brutally honest with God and you realize as long as your marriage is pretty strong and your kids are pretty straight and your church is stable, thank the Lord. It can happen to any of us but it didn't happen to me. Number six, we think more highly because of our spirituality. I don't know why we do it but we preachers often give invitations by saying every head bowed, every eye closed. Maybe it'd be good sometime to just say every head up and every eye open and let's be honest with God. I preached in a little church up in Pennsylvania one time. This is maybe one of the funniest things I've ever seen. We probably didn't have but 15 people a night. Just this little church out in the middle of nowhere and there were these two older elderly, ancient, antique, I don't know, a couple old gals in the church. Every night, the invitation would start and I'd say let's bow our heads for prayer and they'd bow their heads and keep them bowed until it was time to lift a hand or to come. And these two old girls would sit there and go and they'd just do that the whole time. By the way, neither of them moved once. Nothing. Isn't that amazing? Have you ever watched people go forward at an invitation and rejoice that they were getting right with God? Fellas, the man who wants to be right with God is disappointed if he doesn't have a reason to go. It's almost like, God, give me something and I'll go. But isn't it amazing how that air of spirituality, that proud look, number seven, we think more highly of ourselves because of our schooling, our education, our knowledge, our intellect. By the way, again, please do not misunderstand. This is not a thought against learning what's right from the Word of God and developing wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in ministry. But you know what? If we're not careful, that can become an issue that causes us to think more highly of ourselves and think less of those who do not have our credits, our degrees, the size of our library, our knowledge, et cetera. Finally, number eight, we can think more highly of ourselves because of our service. You know, one of the things that I guess would be easier to do the longer you're in the ministry is to think you're better at it. It would be easy to assume that we do a lot for God and God's got to be impressed. Folks, I believe that we ought to be abounding in the work of the Lord. You understand what I'm saying. Please. But fellas, if we're not careful, it's easy to get to that point where our service, what we're doing for God is the basis of our relationship. And you know what happens? Many times, preachers have gotten more wrapped up in the work of the Lord than the Lord of the work. And that business of service, one of those ways that we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Now, we've just gone through eight things. Eight ways that the proud look will cause us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. I'm just curious. Heads up, eyes open. Did anybody sense the conviction of the Spirit of God? Sure we did. But here's what's interesting. Even at this very moment, you know what the struggle is? In a lot of our eyes, okay, yep, you got me. But you know what a lot of us are still thinking? Pride. But that's sort of a respectable sin. Let me just create a little situation for you. Let's suppose, let's suppose you have moved to a new church. I'm sorry, you have moved to a new town and you're looking for a church. You're driving around town and you come to this intersection. There are four churches. One on each corner. And immediately you're sort of captivated by this and you try to find somebody around that can help you. You get out, here's a fellow walking down the street. Hey mister, come here a minute. Four churches. What can you tell me about them? He says, well let me tell you this. See that church right there on that corner? The preacher is a homosexual. Oh, no, we're not going to that church. That church? Well, I'll tell you what. They have these real strange services with these altars and these idols and statues and they offer their children as sacrifices. You say, really? Oh boy. And instantly you may go, that is a church we will never set foot in. Well, what about this place over here on this corner? Well, I'll tell you what. Their thing is the witchcraft kick. And they got this new thing going with prostitution to raise money for their church. And again, almost now you're just getting worked up. I don't want to know anything about it. Do I dare ask about the fourth one? Well, I can tell you this. Doctrinally, they're straight as an arrow. Oh, good. Man, we're Bible believers. We believe what the Word of God says. They're an evangelistic church. They believe in reaching. Good, good. We are too. We want to see our community reach. They do a lot for missions. Have a good music program. Boy, they're conservative. And, man, your smile is just getting wider half inch a minute. And then the person you're speaking to says, but, oh, well, I guess they're a little proud of it, but, oh, you say, no big deal. We're just looking for a church that's got those things and we don't want anything to do with any of these churches. But we'll take that one. Do you know what you just revealed? That you fail to understand the word abomination. You see, every one of those things that I named in those other three corner churches, chapter and verse, they're called an abomination by God Himself. But we go right back to our text. These six things do the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto Him. Number one, the proud look. Let's just kind of forget about what I think and what you think about the respectability of pride. And let's just pause for a moment and let the reality hit home that the proud look in God's eyes is just as despicable as the conduct of that gay rights crowd who marches through Washington. The abortion crowd that slaughters the babies. The devil worshipping crowd that conducts their seances and drinks blood out in the backwoods. The immoral crowd that wastes the lives of people. Gentlemen, I didn't write it. God did. And the pride that rises in my heart and the pride that rises in your heart in God's eyes is not respectable. It's just as despicable as every one of those ugly, ugly abominations in Scripture. Yea, but Brother Tom, look how far I am up the steps. I'm getting closer to the throne all the time. You know what's very interesting? You'll never get close to the throne. Tough word the New Testament uses. James uses it. Peter uses it. God resists. I'm not a great Bible languages scholar but I understand that word to mean something like this. Stiff arms. Sure. Stiff arms. Some of you were a little brother and had a big brother and you were convinced as a little brother you would beat up your big brother if it was the last thing you ever did. And you'd get worked up into a frenzy and you'd come flying at him and what would he do? He'd take that big old big brother hand and he'd just go... and he'd just stand there like this. Man, we'd be flailing away with all you've got. I'm going to get you and your little legs would be kicking and he'd just stand there and grin because as hard as you tried you couldn't touch him. My dear friends. My dear brethren. Today we may know what's right and I trust we do and I trust we're getting to know better what's right. And we may do right and I trust we do and we're doing more that's right for God. But we will never be right as long as we think more highly of ourselves and we ought to think that we seek to justify ourselves that we're righteous and despise others. And we measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves among ourselves. Let's bow for prayer, please.