In this sermon, the speaker encourages the listeners to examine their own hearts and not focus on others. He tells a story about four men who all had a new birth experience but have different attitudes towards each other. One man in a minivan is judgmental towards his neighbor who is on a buggy, while another man in an escalade looks down on the man in the minivan. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not despising others and not letting external factors like technology or lifestyle choices divide believers.

Hello, welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Greetings this morning in Jesus' name. It's because of Him we could gather like this this morning. This morning what the Lord lay on my heart to share, I want to encourage you that allow the Holy Spirit to take inventory of your own heart. Don't think of the person that you wish was here to hear this message, but look into your own heart this morning. If perhaps, perhaps there's any element of this in your own heart. There's four men, all at one point had been, had experience, had a new birth experience. Four men. I'm just drawing a picture here. Let's pick up the story. This one man, he loads up his family, he's heading off to a church meeting hall. He got his family all loaded up in the minivan and shoving the children in the car seats and he takes off. He lives back on one of the side roads, the side roads that aren't paved. As he drives out his road, coming up, he sees one of his neighbors, they're going in the other direction, they're heading for church service also. But he's in a buggy. He's going this way. And as this man in the minivan passes this man in the buggy, he looks over and smiles and waves at him. Now the family in the buggy just kind of glance over and the man in the buggy wouldn't nod his head after this man in the van because this man in this van was one time a part of his setting. And he feel like if he would nod his head back to this man in the minivan, he would maybe in some point let this convey the message to this man that I agree to your move that you made. The man in the van, he has the dust from his minivan just covers over the family. He shakes his head and he thinks, Oh, this brother of mine, he's living a bit of an ascetic life. He, in the name of religion, he doesn't enjoy the technology of today, the inventions of today. And so they exchange thoughts with each other as they go on and both having a bit of a despising spirit towards each other. He said, this man in the minivan, he's thinking, why don't this buggy man, my buggy neighbor, nod his head after me? He knows I'm experiencing more life where I'm at today. This is his thoughts. Well, he comes up, he hits the pavement out through town and he's at the light. Across the intersection is this one man that had at one point been a part of his setting that he's in now. Now, where the man in the minivan still here. He's driving an Escalade over on the other side of the intersection. Tapping his steering wheel there and wears a wedding band. He has a little booty and he's shaking his head there. He's listening to what he calls praise and worship. This man in the minivan looks over and they recognize each other, right? They know each other. They were both at one point a part of the same setting. The fellow in the Escalade, he's like joyfully, hey, you know, waving across the intersection after this man in the minivan. Now, the man in the minivan does not want to wave back because perhaps this man might get the message that I approve of his condition, his move that he made. The fellow in the Escalade, he's like, come on man, you know, you know I'm experiencing more blessing. You know, these blessings that the Lord has for us. Riches and speaking in tongues and, you know, music. And the fellow in the minivan, he knows this man in the Escalade, he's off to what he calls praise and worship service and he plays in the team. He's one of the leader in the worship band, they call it. Well, they exchange their thoughts there too. He, in the minivan, he just does not want to wave or acknowledge more than a nod to the fellow in the Escalade. He takes off and he's down the road. He turns up his, what he calls his praise and worship music again. He's getting all pumped up to head on down to the service. Sure enough, he comes up to the other intersection where I'm the fourth man now. Here, a brother, what he calls a brother of the same affiliation, he's on his way out with his little wave runners. It's a nice summer morning. And he, the fellow, the other man with the wave runner, he's like, hey, hey, after his brother in the Escalade. And this guy doesn't want to wave back because he's thinking, why is this man heading this way? He knows the life we're experiencing in Christ and why don't he just lay down. Don't be going out on the Lord's day, Sunday. Come in and worship. The fellow in his vehicle, the other side, he's like, the man, we're free in Christ. You know it, you know it. They have these exchanges of thoughts. That they think about their own selves and they use their own selves to measure up someone else. Now we're all scared of, to a certain degree, disease or infection. All four of them have this infection in them to a certain measure. And I want to show you it from Luke 18 this morning. Luke chapter 18. What Jesus had to say about it. Allow the Holy Spirit to diagnose you this morning and see if perhaps there's an element of this infection in your own heart, in your own home, in this local congregation here. We pick it up in verse 9. And he speak, Jesus, this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Let's read it again. Does your Bible have that verse in there? It does, I believe. Well, let's read it again. And he speak this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves. Yeah. I'm at the right spot. I have it right. Yeah, they have it wrong. I have come to a greater level of life. But then you despise others. Say that trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despise others. Ten years ago, in September, I flew over here for the first time. Lancaster County. Smorgasbord. Different affiliations. And where the country I'm from, Belize, I didn't realize the differences between the different affiliations until I came up here. Down there, I realized this community right here was the place that kind of opened my eyes to see that there is differences in the way these people operate. Because down there, it's okay, you're having Bible school. Well, youths from here, youths from there, youths from there, they come together. And anyhow, I realized that out here, I see that there's a difference in how people relate to each other because of affiliation. What they call affiliation. And so we could begin to develop this concept that we're non-denominational, but yet deep down in our hearts, we trust in ourselves that we're righteous and we despise others. Beware. Beware. Beware of spiritual pride. It's spreading like an epidemic all over the world. Don't think that it can't overcome you. Not for one moment. And you know, it's those that had experience. Many times, those that had experience, a greater level of life, a deeper sense of who Christ is and more victory in their own hearts, in their homes, in their locality. It's those that it's easy just to creep upon them. Spiritual pride. Well, Jesus is speaking to those, whoever, whoever one of you, that trust in yourself that you're righteous and you despise others. This is for you. Let's read on. He said, Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other a Republican. There's a little background here. The Pharisees, they were men that know the Scripture. They know it. They had a knowledge of it. But it was just mirror in the head. It wasn't something of the heart. Reality wasn't there. It was just in the head. The other was a Republican. If you want to put it in today's term, a government worker. Think about those government workers. Aren't they something? Isn't that the thought? Well, he was a government worker. The Republicans, they're known to be government workers, con artists. They're always there trying to scheme out. They had this repetition. They're to scheme out others, how they could make profit off your head in an ungodly state. And so they had this stigma that goes along with them, the Republicans. Well, the two of these men, they came up into the temple to pray. They both had good intention, if you want to say it that way. The Pharisees stood, verse 11, and prayed thus with himself, God, say God, I, once, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this, mm-hmm, Republican. Say, I fast twice in the week, and I give tithes to all that I possess. The Republican, standing afar off, not lift up so much as his eye unto heaven, but smote upon his breasts, saying, God, oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went on to his host, justify rather than the other, for everyone, E-E-E-V-E-R-Y, everyone, A-L-L, that exalted himself shall be a beast, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Now, do you believe that scripture? Do you believe this is the, this is all true? Genuine? You do? Well, if not, you take out your pen, scratch it out, if you believe you could despise others, trust in yourself, and still be exalted. Take out your pen now, and mark it out, and say, no, we know a way around this. No, we don't. We don't, because this is God's word, and God's word is true. This Pharisee said, I, five times. If you go to, Isaiah chapter 14, and Lucifer, we don't know what his name was, it's a light bearer, or morning star, but you know, they call it Lucifer, we don't know what his name was, at least I couldn't find his name, but he said, I, five times too. P-R-I-D-E. Isn't that something? Five times also. I, I, I, I. And as I look at this, as we look at this this morning, and we see this Pharisee, he prayed this, he said, I thank thee. He comes with thanksgiving, the first thing. I thank thee. So we would say, hmm, he has a good start. He's showing gratitudeness. That I am not as other men are. Who? Which other men are you talking about? Oh, these extortioners. Oh, you're not. No. Unjust? No. Adulterer? No. Or even as this publican, and the publican had a long tail that goes along with it, with what all they were. And we would have readily said, well, I mean, we wouldn't have greeted such a brother with a stiff elbow, would we? No, we would have embraced him, because of what he appears to be. Hmm? Of what he appears to be. So we would have greeted him with a warm hug. Jesus gives us a glimpse into the heart of God here, the minor, our father, that this man didn't went home justified. The Pharisee, he didn't went home justified. Why? He had pride in his heart. Spiritual pride. It is an infection. It is awful. Don't let it creep into your heart. Well, spiritual pride comes in and it makes us begin to trust in ourselves. We have it right over here. We're strong. They're weak. We have knowledge. They don't. We have the truth. They have some, but maybe not as much as we have. We have light. there's still a bit of darkness over there. And, and it's been done. It's been done out of pride as you compare yourself with others. Even someone will sit maybe right beside you this morning. Not only someone that sits across the road I'm talking about. Someone, with each other, even right in your midst, this locality here. And then you begin to think you're better than they. Which we heard in the children's class this morning already. It's not a good thought. It's not a good thought. It's spiritual pride. And we do not realize that if for one moment the grace of God would be removed from your life, just one feet this way, one foot this way, who would you be? Who would you be? Who would you be? The grace of God just be removed from your life. Just this much. No telling. No telling where you would go. No telling where you would end up at. Comes in and it blinds us. It blinds us from seeing who we truly are. That's what spiritual pride does. It blinds us. We can't see who we are anymore. The true state of our own heart. And so then we have the audacity to still come to God as this Pharisee did. He said, I thank you. I am not as other men are, unjust, extortioners, adulterers, or even as this publican here. He blinds us from seeing the true state of our heart. We don't see ourselves from God's perspective. And we see that in Revelation chapter 3 how this one church, this one locality didn't realize their state. They had this high thoughts of themselves but wasn't realizing the state of who they are because they had this infection in their lives. They had this infection in their home. They had this infection in the brotherhood, locality. Let's pick it up. Let's just pick it up in verse 17. It's to the church at Laodicea. This is Jesus speaking to them. He said, Because thou sayest, I am rich, I increase in goods. I have need of nothing, nada, nush, nothing. He said, I knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Now can you, you wouldn't believe that you could ever be in such a state that you would actually be poor, blind, naked, wretched, and miserable and won't even know it, huh? Well, the word of God shows us here that a locality, a brotherhood was in this state and didn't realize it because they had high thoughts of themselves. They had high thoughts of themselves as this Pharisee did. They didn't realize that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He said, I counsel thee, and this is what the Lord does. He comes beside us and he said, My son, my daughter, he said, buyeth me gold tried in fire that thou mayest be rich, white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thy eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see us. And he comes along, the Holy Spirit comes along beside us this morning. He wants to. If we're in this state, we're in this condition, this is where he wants to take us. God has good intentions for us, good plans for us. Allow him, allow him to come down and dissect our hearts this morning. Lord, do I, do I by any means have any element of disinfection in my heart? Have him eradicated out of your life this morning. And so he blinds us and we can't see. We can't see. And then we do what in Matthew 7, we go around with this big beam in our eyes and buck our brother around. Brother, let me, let me, let me. And you have this big beam in your eye as you walk around and you say, let me, let me. You believe in yourself that you're righteous and you're looking down at this brother over here who has this little piece of chip of wood in his eye and you go around with your big beam and you buck him and you want to help him take that out. You fail to realize that in your own heart you're in need of a tremendous, big operation needs to be taken in your own heart to remove this beam from your eyes. He said, and then, many times people stop right there, you know, judge not that he be not judged for whatever judgment he judge, he shall be judged. And they stop short right there and they said, thou hypocrite, first cast out that beam out of thine own eye. But he said, he said and then, so there's a second part also. Then I could go over and help my brother. I have permission to. The Word of God, yes, it does. I could go over and help my brother. But, have this be removed from my own heart, from my own home, from my own eye. Then I could proceed to go over and help the brother. And by that time, I tell you, your heart definitely should be filled with love and gratitude for God removing this big beam out of your eyes that you could help the brother then in a gentle attitude, out of love, that sister and say, come along, come along. Let's have this speck removed in Jesus' name. Come along. The spiritual pride blinds us. It fogs up our eyes. And the Word of God is like a mirror and so we look into it and there's a fog in between there because of this big beam in our own eyes. And so the Word of God I can't speak right into our hearts because this beam is just been a hindrance. Pride, spiritual pride, it has a way how it puffs you up. And then it brings down God almost to eye level with you. It just messes you up. It messes you up. This church here at Laodicea, they didn't even realize that this infection had came in and taken over their lives so much that they were in the state of being poor, blind, wretched, miserable, and naked. For all of the five eyes, eye, eye, eye, eye, well, you got poor, blind, wretched, naked, and miserable. We don't want this. But don't we want the Lord even today to come down, speak into our hearts that now He would tell us, Lord, tell me now, am I really poor, blind, wretched, naked, and miserable? Am I? Is there this in my own heart, in my own home, in the locality? Let Him, let Him reveal it to you today. Wouldn't you want it today? Instead of someday you stand before Him and He said, You are poor, blind, wretched, naked, and miserable. And then He ushers you off to the left. The most horrifying words someone is going to hear on that day. Depart from me. I never knew you. Pride is like a repellent to God. James 4 tells us that. You know, you go camping, you spray on the repellent, you keep the bugs away, they just can't come and touch down on you that easy. The grace of God comes along. It's there. God's grace is there. It's not that we have to pump it up, make it up, blow it up. It's there. And God comes along and He's distributing grace. He's giving it. He's giving it. Anyone who wants it, could have it. But there's a condition, there's a requirement to get it. Say, God resisted the proud, but He gave grace to the humble. God can't help but lift up His hand like this to the proud. Put them aside. Put them aside. But see, pride, spiritual pride comes into our heart and makes us feel like God is going to embrace me because I, I, I, I, I. We have these high thoughts about ourselves. Let's seek to allow the Lord to eradicate this out of our lives. Perhaps, if you find any element of it in your life this morning. And it's something you have to battle with. Spiritual pride, it creeps in. It creeps in through some very small cracks. It's right in there before you know it. Before you know it, God leads you to a level of victory in your life. Let's say over anger. And, as He brings this deeper or higher level of victory in your own lives, and you realize, man, God, God really did a work in my heart. Oh, I could remember 15 years ago when I got married or 10 years or 5 years ago how I used to get angry with my wife. God, God through His grace had really brought me along. And then, you hear about this other family or this other brother where he still gets angry with his wife. And then he still does. Your first, maybe your first counsel with him or your first thoughts of him maybe necessarily wouldn't have been in a spiritual pride sense or state. But as you see him still do it, does it, does it again, you begin to think, this guy, what's up with him? And you begin to find in yourself that it's then you could easily despise him for not coming to that level of victory that you have experienced. Spiritual pride comes in, it just comes in from all angles. It seeps in. But I tell you, there's a remedy for it this morning. Hallelujah, there's a remedy for it this morning. And Jesus was our great example that shows us what the remedy is. And He is the antidote for it too. He is. And, as you find yourself trusting in, trusting in your own self, you have this self-confidence within you. You begin to trust in these things you had accomplished or these things you had done. And, I see, I see people go to what they call a mission field. And, you're all missionaries here this morning if you are born again. Because God wants to fulfill a mission in you and through you. It's just a matter of you being faithful with it. Where He, the location where He has you. But people go away on these mission trips or mission field, they call it, abroad or foreign. And, they come back home with a trophy. Yeah, I've been two years. Yeah, I've been two years in Ghana. Yeah, two years in Ghana. And so, a sense of spiritual pride begin to creep up inside of them as they look at others that don't go. They have their trophy on the shelf that they had served. Oh yeah, I was down in Guatemala for two weeks and we, or in Honduras, or I've been over to Haiti, or and, this thing comes in from all angles. All angles. You got to be aware of it. Beware, beware of spiritual pride. And they hang up that trophy and almost as if though they punch out, I'm not a missionary anymore, I served already. Almost as if they punch out. From the day you got born again, I tell you, you became a missionary. God has a work he wants to do in you, a mission, and through you. And through you. It's just a matter of you being faithful in it. It's just a matter of us being faithful in it. And, and then you find next, you despise others. You despise others. You begin to trust in yourself because you, you have these high thoughts of yourself and so others seems to just live right down you're more the summit. And you're more the summit, singular or plural, I'm speaking about here this morning. Take it, you're more the summit, your thoughts of yourself being more close to the summit, meaning the peak, the top then. And others lie below. So anybody, so to speak, leaves from my setting, it's only down. Don't you see it? You see it? You think of any groups out there. We have this thought that we're, we're somewhere, well maybe not the top, we're aiming for the top, but we're the furthest along going up the mountain. And so anybody leaves from my, or setting, it's, it's gotta be down. There's no up from here. That's, that's some of our thoughts sometimes. This infection has a way how it, it just comes in. And, bear in mind, the sad reality is that many times, you see, it does happen that way. It does happen that way. People claim to have more light, claim to have more, without a broken heart. I tell you, you're going down. You're going down. If you don't have a humble heart, you're going down. Down in a destructive way. And we begin to despise others. And I found, in my own life, for years, I had despised smokers. I said I had, right? Bear in mind, despised smokers. People that smoke. I, I couldn't figure out the, the sense in it, or the, what is the gain in it. and, and especially women smokers. And, one day the Lord just showed me through it clearly. Hey, do I, you think you're not a smoker? You've been smoking couple packs a day. I've been smoking people. Despising people. And I find, and when the Lord revealed this to me, I begin to see, yes, yes, around the dinner table. I'm quick to pull out that smoke. A brother, light him up. Give my wife a couple puffs. And my children might, try to stretch over. I say, give me a puff too. And they say, shh, no, you don't need to get in this. I hadn't necessarily experienced that with my children. They're pretty young, right? But, a brother comes over. He sits there. We're sitting in the living room. And we're talking away. And he said, yeah, did you heard about? And I said, no. And then he goes on. And the next thing you know, we're fine. We're pulling out our packs. And we're beginning to light up. We light up someone. And maybe he light it up first, right? It doesn't matter. But then he offers me the smoke. And I say, yeah, yeah, those brothers, they're really, and, and, yeah, I can't, I don't know why that family is that way. yeah, he's, he's, and we're passing around. We're smoking. Smoking away others. You know, after that, when I see smokers, it just reminds me of my own self. It reminded me of my own self. So, if you're smoking, hmm? We think, these guys are pulling a little thing from their mouth. They're pretty bad, huh? I tell you, we're smoking. I tell you, you're worse than that. You smoke a brother over the dining table, or in the living room, or you smoke over another family in the brother's meeting, or something like that. I tell you, you're worse. By a long shot. And somebody that puts a little piece of, what is it? Tobacco, or I don't know what all they have in there, and pulls it away, and blows it up. Trust in yourself that you're righteous, and you despise others. So, no smoking anymore. No smoking. We talk about issues. We need to deal with issues. Bear in mind, yes, we need to share. But, you could find out, exactly, if you seek from the Lord, you could find out, that whenever, you're beginning to pull it out, about to smoke the brother, you find whenever, you're saying something about that brother, or that sister, and you find within yourself, there's a bit of a spirit, a kind of, you know, the despising attitude, is rising up inside of you, because of his or her state. Bear in mind, you're lighting up. You're lighting up. Throw it away. Ask God to help you, overcome, this habit. In Jesus name. He wants to. He wants to. If you desire it, He will. He will. He will. Then we find, we despise others, we judge them. We judge them, wrongfully. Excuse me. We judge them wrongfully, in a despising attitude. But Jesus, allows us, to judge. There's a right way. John 7, 24. It says, Judge not according to appearance. If you didn't know it was there in the Bible, read it for the first time. Turn there. John 7, 24. Jesus said, Judge not according to appearance. Read it. Read it very slow. So you could see it. Maybe you didn't know it was in there. Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. So there's a place for it, done in a right way. Not in a despising attitude. Not in a self-confident, I, I, I, I. Not in a state where you, you put yourself on a higher level, as you make a judgment. But judge righteous judgment. Scripture, it has it all in here. All in here. The way in, the way out. It just, it has it here. It's so beautiful, God's Word. It tells us. It tells us of the sickness, the infection. And then it tells us, hey, here's the remedy, the antidote. And I'll show you it here. In a, um, there's two operating spirits in the world today. Two operating spirits in the world today. Oh, you know I have no marker? There we go. I'm not an artist, but, um, I'll draw a triangle here. It's an upside down one, we would say. And a upright one. And we have two operating spirits in the world today. One is, we're going up, up, up, up, that's four, that's five. The other teaches you to go down, down, down, down. I'll show you it. Turn with me to, let's look at, um, Isaiah 14 first. Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 13 said, this is just given, uh, verse 12, at the start of verse 12, it said, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, O day star, O morning star, Son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nation? It said, For thou has said in thine heart, it's like what this, um, Pharisee did, you know, he said in his own heart, I will ascend into heaven. 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. Still not high enough. Still not high enough. I will be like the most high. And there are thoughts to operate in spirit. The thoughts are up, up, up, up. We want to go up, up, up, up. Those are Lucifer, Satan. Right? Make your way to the top. Have your own agenda, you know. Push your agenda, your way of thinking. Spiritual pride comes in, and then you find yourself, yup, yup, yup. Others are somewhere down in here, down in here. And then we find in, uh, Philippians 2, beautiful passage. We can't pass it. We can't pass it. We'll pick it up in verse 5. It says, Let this mind be in you. Let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. It's encouraging you. It's giving you the invitation this morning. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, taught it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also had highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name that hath the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, and things on the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, to the glory of God the Father. And so we see then, that it's the next operating spirit, that Jesus is going down, down, down, down, down. Now when Jesus came down, He passed us by a long shot, right? He went way down. He went way down. He studied the inner life of Christ. And you could sum it up in one verse, the whole biography of Christ, or the life of Christ, in John chapter 6, John chapter 6, verse 38. He said, For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but a will of Him that sent me. And so He went down, down, down, down. He humbled Himself. And we know that Jesus went way down there, right? So He took this spot, the bottom of this triangle here, the upside down one, Jesus took that spot. So Jesus is down there. But then you find mainstream, mainstream Christianity, Christendom today, we tend to want to go up, up, up, up. Spiritual pride does that to us. Humble ourselves like Christ did. This is where grace is. Way down here. Grace is way down there. Power. Well now Jesus took that spot already. So we can't go down there. Nobody can take that position. He already got that. God exalted Him. And glorified Christ. Where are you this morning? You're still up here somewhere? Or you're on your way down? You're close to Jesus? Hum? You're close to Jesus? No, we're trying to find our way through things and up, up, up, up, up, up. Spiritual pride just has a way how it takes us. Takes us up. We puff up ourselves and we remove ourselves far from Christ. Where grace is. Where power is. Where the enabling spirit to overcome and to see things from Christ's perspective. See others from Christ's perspective. That then, in Luke 18, again. That then we could. Jesus said, I tell you this man went down to his house. Justify. I don't know if you noticed that. He said, Rather than. He didn't say more than. He said, Rather than. Clear, black and white. Boom. Rather than. This Pharisee. This Pharisee. He said, Rather than the other. For everyone there again. E-V-E-R-Y. Everyone. A-L-L. That exalted himself. He shall be abased. He that humbled himself. Shall be exalted. You want God's approval upon your life. You want His anointing. You want the grace. That empowering spirit that could help you to make it through life. That's what David did. Basically. We heard that this morning. He encouraged himself in the Lord. You can't do that with a lofty high thought spirit of yourself. It takes a humble heart. And he was reminded of what God did in the past for him. And he remained down there. And God gave him the grace to win all those that he thought was with him. That was fighting the battle with him. We're now not sure about his position anymore. Not sure. About how good of a leader he is after all. Not sure. David humbled himself and encouraged himself in the Lord. God's grace came in. And it brought more quality inside of the life of this man. He wants to bring more quality inside of our lives too. But he can't if we're running away. If we have these lofty high thoughts and we're going up, up. Two operating spirits. Which one is taking the joystick of your heart? Which one are you allowing to rule in your home? In the locality here. The brotherhood. Let it be. This mind that was in Christ Jesus. As it tells us in Philippians 2. Let this mind be in us also. Him that had ears to hear, let him hear. Let him hear. Lord, we do want to hear you. Lord, we hear you. Many times we do, O God. Help us not to walk away and forget what manner of man we are, Lord. But God, just to come before you, Lord, with our faces in the dust. Lord, allow you to eradicate this sin out of our hearts, Lord. The four of these men, they were off to their meeting halls, their church, or their gatherings, Lord. The exchanges, thoughts of self-confidence and trusting in themselves that they were righteous and despising the other, Lord. God, help us to make righteous judgments in all lives. Lord Jesus, thank you. You are the author and the finisher of our faith, Lord. We want to run this race behind you. You have been such an example to us, Lord. You humbled yourself. You passed us. Way down you went. Now you want to bring us up. Help us, Lord, to truly be humble, have humble hearts. And I pray for this congregation here this morning, O God, and those that your Spirit had spoken to, Lord. Go way down. Break their will, Lord. Be like you. Not I, but Christ. Let the will of God be done and not mine. Lord, so let it be. Prosper our day in you, Lord Jesus. May we seek to encourage each other as we go along the way. Bless your name. Amen. Amen. So may the Lord bless you and guide you, direct your life. This morning message, I trust, I didn't want it to be a message of you feeling condemned, but an exhortation. He said we need to exhort one another daily lest the deceitfulness of sin comes in, overtakes us and makes havoc of our lives. One day we get a surprise when we stand before God. We don't want it. I beg with you this morning. We do not want that surprise like being ushered off to the left. We want those beautiful words, the most beautiful words you're going to hear that day. Well done! Thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord. Make him thy Lord. The Lord has spoken this morning. I know He's spoken to my heart. I pray speaking to your heart this morning, and I think what a more appropriate time than to open up your heart to the Lord this morning. I would like to have us get on our faces this morning, kneel for prayer, cry out to the Lord what the Lord has shown you this morning, whether it's about the beam in your eye or a heart attitude or how you've been dishonoring the Lord or your spiritual pride, whatever the things that God has spoken to you about this morning. I think now is a beautiful time to do business with the Lord. So I'd like to just invite all of us to get on our knees and let's talk to the Lord Jesus this morning. Beg His mercy in our life and the life of our own life in our church. And then I'll close.