In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of humility and avoiding pride in our actions and achievements. He warns against seeking personal glory and attention instead of glorifying God. The preacher highlights how the presence of God departs when individuals seek to glorify themselves rather than God. He urges the congregation to submit to God, resist the devil, and draw near to God, emphasizing the need for repentance and a change of heart. The sermon is based on James chapter 4, which discusses the consequences of pride and the importance of humility before God.

Good evening one more time and we praise the Lord for bringing us back tonight and for us to continue our seeking the face of God for a fresh and a closer walk with him and as we were concluding our meeting yesterday night and we were all praying and seeking the face of God I went again with a burden in my heart that what is it that would stop God from drawing close to us? What is it that would stop the spirit of God from flowing? What is it that can block the river of living water from gushing over and over our hearts? And I've been asking God to put his finger on it and to show us his glory that as we bring these services to this kind of conclusion yet bring us a new beginning of a fresh seeking of God's grace and God's presence and God's face in our lives. I've been just praying that the longing of our hearts individually to see the Lord walk afresh with us, moving the reality of his power, God himself will answer it. And these songs have been coming to my heart since yesterday night and I thought I've already sang it for myself but as we sat here again I felt the spirit will ask us, may ask me to ask you to let's meditate on the hymn together before we turn to the word of God. Hymn 579 you will have it in our hymn book 579 and I wondered why this would be a critical issue tonight but more and more I saw the Holy Spirit pointing out an issue and I would like us to take to God in prayer. What drives the spirit of God away from a man's life? What is it that will not allow the move of God to last? What is it that makes men to lose the presence of God in their lives? What is it that will not allow us to see the glory that we are looking for? 579 says, if thou would have the dear savior from heaven walk by thy side from the morn to the evening there is a rule that each day you must follow, humble thyself to walk with God, humble thyself and the Lord will draw near thee, humble thyself and his presence shall cheer thee, you will not walk with a proud or discomfort, humble thyself to walk with God. If thou would have the savior from heaven walk by your side, not once in a long while, not once in a whole week, but if you want to have the dear savior walk by your side from morning till evening, if you desire to have an abiding presence of God at every moment of the day you know the resident cloud of the presence of God and you know the out walking of the Holy Spirit in your spirit on a regular basis there is a rule that each day, each day you must follow, humble thyself to walk with God, humble thyself and the Lord will draw near thee, humble thyself and his presence shall cheer thee, you will not walk with a proud or discomfort, humble thyself to walk with God. Just as the Lord in the world's early ages walked and communed with the prophets and the sages, he will come even now if we meet the conditions, humble thyself to walk with God. Just as the stream finds a bed that is lowly, so Jesus walks with the pure and the holy, cast out thy pride and in that faith contrition, humble thyself to walk with God. We will sing that song, I think we will sing it about two times, we will sing it both thinking and meditating, I have been asking God to put his finger on what is it that put his faith away, what is it that will not allow us to be in constant revelation of his power in our lives and in our ministry and I am feeling God giving me liberty tonight to look at the issue of pride that hinders the move of God, pride that makes God to keep a man at a distance. We are going to look at various manifestations of it as the spirit of God kept saying to me, many, many moves of the spirit have been lost because the men that God wanted to use, they became self-conceited, they became high, high minded, they took the grace of God for granted and we are going to be looking at the various manifestations of this dangerous element that has turned the face of God away from many, has turned the presence of God away even from great works, even the great works that God himself started. When men hijacked it with pride, God will have nothing to do with it anymore and even though God had great interest in what he began to do, yet when he sees pride, when he sees arrogance that manifests itself in different, different forms, he whose eyes cannot behold iniquity, he turns away and he will have nothing to do with it and no matter how mightily used a man of God has been, he can only continue to be used for God says my power is made perfect in your weakness. When a man began to be strong in himself, when he begins to think highly of himself more than he ought to think, when he begins to think more of his own spirituality than the grace of God that has brought him to where he is, surely the grace, the power, the presence must have to withdraw and I really wish this night we would just pray together, we just ask God to reveal to any of us wherever it is where this, this evil that will not allow God to walk with us, if it is located anywhere, if it is found in our hearts, let the spirit of God put his finger on it so that we might not go without his blessing, so that he will not be turning his eyes away even when we need him most. So I'd like us to take that song, we'll sing it gently two times but we are doing so because we are praying and saying Lord put your finger on my life, what is it that will not allow you to walk with me, what is it that will not allow you to reveal your glory, what is it that will not let you hand over your purpose into my hands, Lord open my eyes that I may see, if thou would have the dear savior, do you know it, please come, if thou would have the dear savior from heaven, walk by the side from the morn to the evening, there is a rule that each day, each day it's possible to start walking with God in the morning and when the spirit of God has moved, it's possible that the man of God may mistakenly grab the glory and begin to tamper with that which belongs to God, even though in the morning he sends God, but now in the evening he has become an outcast because pride has pushed him out. I want us to pray together tonight and say Lord, wherever it is found, don't let it be located in my spirit, I want to walk with you. One more time, we'll do it now from the beginning to the end and we're praying with a song. If thou would have the dear savior from heaven, walk by the side from the morn to the evening. Tonight, we don't want to be cast out of your presence, we don't want you Lord to look away from us, we don't want God to go away in dryness, we do not desire that that which you have begun to do in our lives, we suddenly become withered because we are separating ourselves from you. Lord Jesus, we want to place ourselves in that condition where the water of life can find a bed that is lonely. We want to desire of you tonight Lord that whatever you will need to do to put your hand on our lives, to keep us in the place where you are eager and joyfully, pleasurably willing to walk with us, to walk in our midst for us to know your presence. Lord, we thank you for what you've done in the past few days, we thank you for the testimonies O God in our individual spirits, but something is crying out in our hearts, why can't we have more of you Lord? Why can't we have more of you Lord? Why O God are you going to leave us where we are? Lord, draw close to us, draw us nearer to yourself tonight, put your finger on every issue in us that scares your eyes away. Holy Spirit, please put your hand on this matter, not just that you are speaking to us as a congregation, please speak to us as individuals and cause your will not to fail in our lives again. Thank you, in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Please turn your Bible to that scripture that you already know, but it's okay for us to start by looking at the book of James, we want us to read James, James chapter 4, James chapter 4. You will permit me to read very quickly from verse 1, very quickly to verse 10, James chapter 4 from verse 1 to 10. There are so many issues in this chapter, but then we cannot presume to want to deal with all the various issues that the Holy Ghost is raising in that chapter. I just sense that as we read the word of God, the Holy Spirit will breathe upon this world in our midst tonight again. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members? Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit that dwells in us lusteth to envy? Will ye give it more grace? Wherefore it says, God resisteth the proud, will give it grace unto the humble. Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. 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. And 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 5 and 6. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be close with humility. For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. May the Lord bless the reading and the study of his word in our midst tonight. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. There are several issues that God will not tolerate. The book of Habakkuk says, thou art of a purer eyes. Your eyes cannot behold iniquity. But one of the things that I found is that, even though every iniquity, every sin, will turn the eyes of God away from any man. But the sin of pride, the iniquity of pride, God cannot tolerate at all. The reason is because the sin of pride is the secret behind every unconfessed sin. The sin of pride is the secret behind every hypocrisy. The sin of pride is the quiet, is the quiet route behind being unteachable. The sin of pride is what makes men snobbish, and they do not tremble at the word of God anymore. The sin of pride removes contrition or a contrite and a broken spirit from God's people. And that's why it doesn't matter how many, how terrible a sinner you are. That is not what bothers God. It is not that you are the vilest of offender that bothers God. The truth of the matter is this. It is not angels that Jesus came to help. If we were angels, we would not need a savior. But the truth of the matter is that he came for men like me, men like yourself, men that are weak, men that are sinners, descendants of Abraham. But what does pride do? Pride makes a man to pretend as if he does not need help. Pride makes a man to speak and exaggerates a sense of his importance that will not make him to bow before God and to cry unto God for help. That you are a sinner is not the problem because God is willing to forgive. But pride will make a sinner to deny that he is a sinner. Pride will make a sinner to explain away and to rationalize his misbehavior as if it was normal. Pride will make a man to claim and to arrogate to himself what he was not the source of. Pride is always looking on how to share the glory. Pride is not every time that people walk up like this and do their hand like this that they are proud. There are people that are proud, not apparently. Sometimes they are proud of grace. There is what I want to refer to this night as the pride of grace. People that we boast about what God gave them by grace, not by merit. Yet they are proud about it. What God brought into your life, not because you walked out for it. But you want to quickly add that to your credentials as if you had it because you walked. People are proud of grace. They pride because of grace. A man is proud because of his gifts. There is a pride. I call it the pride of gifts. Pride of divine endowments. And Paul was saying to Corinthians, he said, What has made you different from another? What did you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you behave as if you did not receive it? When a man looks down on another brother, simply because the brother is less gifted than yourself and yet it was just a gift. When God sees a man who exhibits any form of pride, that's a man that God cannot even tolerate. And so tonight, what I wish we would do before God, while we are unable by ourselves, Yes, please take note of this. We cannot organize revival. It is the sovereign work of God. Nobody can bring revival except God himself. He's the one that calls into existence those things that we know as who they are. God is the one alone who can make the dead to rise. God is the one that can speak to dry bones and they will come together. But there is something that the Holy Spirit is pointing out that we can do. And if it is something that you cannot do, God will not tell you to do what you cannot do. And as we read this scripture again and again, you see him say, humble yourself. It means it is possible for you to do that. It means it's possible to fall on your face before God and say, Lord, what am I arrogant about? What am I proud about? What am I boasting about? What is it that I have that you did not give me? Pride of grace, pride of gifts, pride of position, pride of divine placement. Some of us were placed where we are placed not because we did anything about it. Heaven just decided to put you in place where you are. And suddenly, the pride of place, the pride of placement or position will not allow you to work with God. Do you know sometimes the pride does not manifest out of anything else but pride of knowledge. The Bible says knowledge, what does it do? It puffs up. Sometimes it's not just the knowledge of science. It's not just the knowledge of some certain skills. Sometimes it could even be the knowledge of the word of God that has become the reason why you have become unteachable such that you no longer tremble at the word of God. When anybody opens the Bible before he will open his mouth, you already conclude in your heart, what can this man say? Instead of receiving something fresh from the spirit of God because you are broken and you are a contrite hearted man and say, Lord, speak to me today. Even if this man were a dog, pass through his mouth to talk to me. But you have come to discover that not many people can speak to your life anymore. You came as a great analyst of the word of God. You sit down there to analyze, oh, the man didn't preach well today. Oh, the man didn't say that properly. Oh, this man, why did he not quote this verse and quote that verse? I hope you are not beginning to cling onto an empty knowledge that will block you from the freshness of experiencing God. So as I look at the scripture here this night, and I wish we can easily illustrate it as we go to God in prayer, we are going to say to God as individual, Lord, what is it that will not let you walk with me? What is it? Sometimes you know even the confession of sin, many people are unable to do so, why? Because of pride of their own personality. They know that God is convicting them, you must confess this and you must confess it openly. But they say, but a big man like me, how can I do that? How can I appear in the presence of my wife, weeping as a baby? You forgot that it's not in the presence of your wife, you are in the presence of the Almighty God. Sometimes you look around and say, oh, the young combats are around, the ones that I was one who preached to them, how can I repent in their presence? And you say quietly to yourself, rather than do that, I would rather lose the presence of God. And now many men, out of the pride of their position, when they should have said sorry to their wives, they prefer to use long, long, long theological arguments to avoid humility of heart. When God sees arrogance, when God sees pride, he cannot walk away. Many, many great revivers are lost. Sometimes you may think a reviver came and it lasted only for one month, or lasted for one year, or lasted for two years and he stopped. And I say, Lord, why? Why do you stop a reviver abruptly? And God says, no, it's not me who stops it. Fire never says it is enough. There are men that quenches the fire. And several times when you go through the history of revivers, you will notice that some of it came to a broad end when the man that God is using, or the man that God was using, began to take glory to themselves. When they began to take things for granted. When they began to walk into the pulpit as if they are experts, they forgot that God picked them from the Mary clay. They forgot that God picked them from nowhere and brought them to where they are. They forgot that without him, we can do nothing. This night, I feel exercise in my spirit, not just to speak about today, but to speak about what will make us to walk with God in an enduring, unbroken reviver. That day by day, it may start today. And I do know that for some of us, we have longed, we have cried, we have desired that God will visit our land again. But the Spirit of God is holding back, is holding back, is holding back. And is asking a question, who takes the glory? Who takes the glory? If I move again, who takes the glory? Who takes the glory? So tonight, tonight brothers and sisters, I feel that we must bring ourselves before him. We must look inside and say, God, why will you not go with me? Why will you not visit me again? Have you seen something that is keeping you at arm's length from my life? Look at the way the Word of God is coming. Now he says, You adulterers and adulteresses know you know that the friendship of the world is a meeting with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, what did the Bible say is he? He is the enemy of God. I think it is arrogance. It is this kind of flagrant arrogance, pride of life, that makes a man to keep company with the world that is the enemy of our God. And walk here very boldly and say, Yes, there is nothing God can do to me. I can talk to him. If not that arrogance and pride has come, how will a man who has flagrantly disobeyed the Word of God, how will he dress up and come and sit down there as if he is challenging God to battle? As if he is saying, God, I have done it. Whatever you think you can do, come and do. The Holy Spirit says, Don't you know that whosoever therefore be a friend of the world, he makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you think that the Scriptures are spoken in vain? That the Spirit that dwells in us, lusts it to envy? Why do you provoke God to jealousy? Why do you dare God? I say, let him do whatever he likes. But when a man has begun to be proud, he loses his sensitivity unto the holiness of God. You see, for me, pride is not just about lifting yourself up. Sometimes pride manifests itself by bringing God down. I don't know if you get what I'm talking about. Pride is not always only manifested when somebody is trying to be where he is not. But pride is also a manifestation of scumfulness. That's why that song says, He will not walk with the proud or the scumful. Even scumfulness is a desire, a quiet, deliberate desire to reduce someone else as if to bring him to your level and to prove that he is not different. It's arrogance. When pride is beginning to manifest in a man's life, even though he couldn't climb up there and say, I'm on top of everybody. You see him, he disdains others as if they meant nothing. And sometimes the first attitude, the first manifestation of an arrogant heart is criticism of anyone else whose life or whose ministry or whose manifestation of life reveals your weakness. You are unable to stand where anybody else will manifest a greater grace than your life. You can't tolerate it because you always want to be the local champion. When God sees this kind of spirit, when God sees this kind of manifestation, look at the Word of God, verse 6. Say, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore the scripture says, God resisteth the proud, forgiving grace unto the humble. Now my fear comes here. This is where my spirit is very, very overwhelmed that God resisteth the proud. I don't know whether you have seen that, that whenever a man is arrogant, what he is calling for from God is what? Resistance, not assistance. When the spirit of pride shows up in any man's life, whatever divine assistance he should have received from God automatically becomes a resistance. Where can a man go when God himself is the one resisting him? What progress will a man make when it is God himself that is stretching forth his hand and saying, you will go nowhere. You will go nowhere. You will go nowhere. God resisteth the proud. Forgiving grace unto the humble. Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil. I was wondering why immediately the person to resist is the devil. Do you know why? Behind everything the devil brings to a man he tempts you to be proud. If you know that the temptation that Satan brought unto Eve in the Garden of Eden, the long and short of it is that the Bible said Satan told the woman, he said you will not die any death. God knows that the day you eat this thing you will become God. You will be God yourself. You don't need anybody to come and be ordering you around. You don't need God to come down and be telling you what to do. When you can know what to do by yourself nobody ought to talk to you. And do you know the spirit of pride has wrecked the church. Can you imagine that in the days when Revival was here those that God had put over us they did not receive any resistance. Each time they spoke whether you understood why they said it or not what did you do immediately? You obeyed. But now call a young person and say go and do this. He said why? I can't do that because I don't believe in that. So to bring instruction even to our members in the church is becoming a big problem because people only do what they want to do by themselves. The spirit of pride. Where are those days when the elders will sit down and having prayed they just call you and say brother we are paid and by the spirit of the Lord we felt you should not do this anymore. And the young man the young member in the church simply said it's ok. And he would do that in submission. But now there's a lot of arguments. There's a lot of desire for independence. For us to say something somebody will argue it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Do you know why discipleship that following in order to be made for God do you know why it has died in our midst? Individuals are saying no you don't have to tell me anything I know what I'm doing. I don't need to talk to you about anything. And you can't order me about. I'm a man of my own. And it is appearing as if that's our culture. It's appearing as if that is how to be educated. It's appearing as if that's how to be matured. But may I say to you tonight that I see that as a temptation of Satan against what God wants to do in our midst. That spirit of independence that spirit that does not defy unto biblical instruction from elders and from those that God has placed over us. That thing that says, well he has said his own I don't need to, he doesn't need to order me about. That spirit that spirit you see it in the life of the young people. We're going to be calling on God. Where is it that this canker is eating deep into my own life. I need to lay it down. I need to lay it down. Receive the devil because that's what the devil will bring to you. The devil will say, now you're a big girl. Now you can be on your own. Now you can take your decision by yourself. Now you can go and stay on your own. Now you can get your own support. Now you can be this, now you can be that. And arrogance that makes even discipline in the church almost impossible. If you want to discipline somebody he walks out on you and say, well your church is not the only church in the city. And he moves he goes to join another place because he cannot be disciplined here. Arrogance. Why we cry for revival. Why we cry that God will come back to us. Why we cry that the spirit of God will visit us again. We need to deal with that spirit of pride. The pride even of knowledge. The pride of what does he know that I don't know. God God resists the proud. But he giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil. And he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God. And he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned to mourning. And your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. And he will lift you up. Now before I leave this matter tonight I intend that we could look at how it works out. How it works out. And I want you to know that Satan is so wicked because that was what pushed him out of heaven. Am I right? He was Lucifer. He was an archangel. He was of the rank of Michael of Gabriel. And Lucifer was that angel. One of the cherubim that covers the Shekinah glory. The Bible said he was made of perfection of beauty. There was no fault found in him. He is perfect. Perfectly made. Perfect of beauty. Perfect of wisdom. Until pride was found in him. And from that height he fell down to the bottomless pit. And he will not have any space in the presence of God anymore. Brothers and sisters, there's no height any man has reached even in serving God that pride will not bring him down. There's no amount of grace that a man had received when he begins to overstep his bounds and begin to share the glory with God. He will come down and become nothing. A bubbling walk that the glory of God that visited and the power of God that had been there will become empty, will become a wilderness when men begin to share the glory. When men begin to be arrogant quietly in their spirit. Now, Satan was very daring. He even came to Jesus. He even came to Jesus. All the three temptations that were recorded for us in scripture, if you read it very, very well, you will know that the quiet issue behind it was the temptation to be proud. Satan came and faced Jesus and said, if you are the son of God, as a son of God, you need to demonstrate that you are the son of God. Command this bread to become, this stone to become bread if you are the son of God. Do you know that he did not say if you are hungry? Are you hearing me? Do you know that he was not asking him if you are hungry? No. He was only saying prove, prove your position. The pride of position. The pride of position. You know sometimes, even as we begin to walk with God, Satan comes quietly and tempts you and says, if you are a man of God, if you are this, do something so that people will know that you are around. The Holy Spirit is watching when that strange stream enters the walk. His presence must go. How wonderful it is that I saw this brother and her sister Richard playing very beautifully. How I pray that God will protect your spirit from arrogance. Sometimes, pride of skill, because you know how to play it very well. You see your hand moving on the keyboard. And the Spirit says, look at this. This is no more for me. This is no more for my glory. This is a display of personal excellence. To draw attention to yourself. And when we come into service where God was to be glorified and some certain persons among us are seeking to glorify themselves. The presence of God quietly departs. I am no more part of that singing. I am no more part of that orchestra. I am no more part of that program. They are taking it over. They are taking it over. Pride of achievement. When a preacher comes up and just wants us to know that he has he has understood all the Greek and has understood all the Aramaic. And instead of preaching the word of God, simply he comes and says, well, according to the Greek text of this passage did we need Greek? Does God want us to keep talking Greek? But because right in the heart, he wants to show that he has great knowledge. So gradually, the presence of God departed because simplicity of preaching the word of God is no more maintained. The man of God has become sophisticated and he wanted us to know that he has gone to read many many books and that he had had his doctor of divinity and that he has finished the philosophy of religion and that he has learnt all the issues about traditional and new new logics and all of that. And the Holy Spirit says I cannot walk with a proud or discomfort. I can't I can't put myself here. I'm bringing this word unto you tonight with trembling in my heart that God is saying if I'm going to send you a reviver if I'm going to visit you again if you are going to experience my presence, please look at this matter. Look at this quiet matter. This thing that makes you not to tremble at my word again. That makes you feel that we have experience. Sometimes the pride manifests out of expertise and out of experience. But may I say to you experience as wonderful as it is is history. If God does not come afresh your experience is ordinary history burnt ashes that can no longer produce fresh fire. But all those that God used mightily they put aside their experience. Paul said, one thing I do forgetting what is behind. I forget all that I am I forget all that I have achieved I forget all that I have seen before. I am coming afresh. Lord, yesterday is gone. I need fresh grace today. I need a fresh touch of your spirit. I cannot just build on what I used to be. The pride of past reputation and the pride of power. The pride that authority and power brings to a man that makes him to make himself a bastard in the presence of God. He said, if you are the son of God, command the stones to be bread. Even though you can see that Jesus in time to come, he is going by the grace of God to bring the miracle of bread. But it was not to show that he was the son of God. He was going to give bread because people are in need. Am I right? How many times sometimes you want to see a miracle just to assert your importance? How many times you want God to move just so that he can confirm how important you are in the work of God? May I say to you, only Jesus went to the cross. Only Jesus died for us. Only Jesus is the worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy is the lamb to take glory, to take honor. None of us did. None of us died for anyone and our blood is not good enough even for our own deliverance, talk less of the deliverance of someone else. Where is that arrogance coming from? And Satan was saying, look at all the glory of the world. You can have it. The pride that comes out of possession, the pride that quietly seeps into people's hearts because of what they have. Maybe you are a farmer and your farm is big and quietly you sit back there. Even though you don't talk it, but you are very snobbish. You look at those that are struggling and say they are not serious. Maybe your business is doing so well and gradually you allow it to enter your head. You forgot that it is God that gives it increase. And it is God that gives you power to get wealth. And he told Jesus, the pride that comes out of presumption, he said, since you are a very important man of God, even if you go up to the pinnacle of the temple and you fall down, God, because you are too precious, God cannot afford that you will fall. He will send angels to come and carry you. Jesus said, no, thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God. And I found that some of us and some great men of God, they think they are too important. They think that God would be feverish to discard them. So I see them taking God for granted. Taking the word of God for granted. Coming on the pulpit, I see they are going just to chat. I see them coming, I see they are God, I see they are classmates. Such men, God cannot bless them with revival. They can make noise. They can do their performance on the pulpit. They can do more drama. They can do a lot of activities, but they will not have his presence. They will not have the divine signature of God over what they are doing. Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. 1 Peter chapter 5 was concluding and he says, and I want just to read it, he said, Likewise, ye younger, and I wonder why the Holy Spirit has to say that to us. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. We are now in a generation where submission is regarded as oppression. We are now in a generation where wives are no more told to submit to their husbands. Actually, the law of the land continues to undermine the authority that God has set over a home. He said, the head of every woman is the man. And the head of every man is Christ. But we are now in a generation where wives, women, have been told there's nothing about that. You can speak to him and if he does not agree with you, you can check him out. And if there's any little problem, and I've seen this happen in this country, that if there's any conflict between a man and his wife, it is the man that will be checked out. And many wives are so happy to threaten their husband and say, if you don't behave, I'll check you out of this house. They thought that they have the capacity, arrogance, that would not allow God to bless us. Arrogance that would not allow the presence of God to come to us. But we cannot stand to bring judgment on the world system if the same issue is located in our own lives. This night I wanted to check where is this pride manifesting? Could be little. It could even be that argument you are making with your husband incessantly. That when your husband says something, you say, well, if he makes one sentence, you make three sentences at the same time. But then you come here and God is saying, why is this woman praying without her head covered? While it was wonderful that our sisters are learning to put a cover over their head. But may I say to you that God needs more than ordinary scar on your head. He needs shamefacedness. He needs a life of submission. He needs a life that honors, honors our head. And the Holy Spirit is saying, you younger submit yourself to the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisted the proud. This is the second time we are reading this. God resisted the proud and gave grace to the humble. Those of you that carry cross-reference Bible, if you go quickly, you will see where the scripture was referring to. When he said God resisted the proud. Can you follow me quickly and look at Psalm 138? If we can catch it there quickly. Psalm 138. You see what God says there. Verse 6. He said, though the law be high, yet he has respect unto the lowly but the proud. What does God do? He knows him afar off. Some simpler version would say, but the proud God keeps him at arm's length. There can be no intimacy between a proud man and the holy God. And my prayer this night is that as we bow before God, we are not just speaking about what will happen just this meeting. We are looking for what we must put ourselves into that will draw the presence of God constantly. Constantly into our spirits. That will make us to be a people that God will say, I am happy to identify with that man. I am happy to identify with that man. Though God is high there, God is the most high God. But when he sees a humble man, what does God say? He has respect for him. God regards a humble man. But when he sees a proud man coming from afar off, he says, stop him there! Stop him there! I don't want to see him near me! Keep him afar off. Brothers and sisters, what do you have? Sometimes you may not know that you are proud. Sometimes you may not know that pride is already seeping into your spirit. You have got this strange boldness that no longer fears God. That no longer trembles at the word of God. I was speaking yesterday about when a man has lost his passion, I said, tears rise out of his eyes. Because it is no more a problem to him even if the presence of God no longer comes to him. But tonight, I see God saying, humble yourself before the Lord that he may lift you up in due season. And in Isaiah 57, I want you to please check Isaiah 57, I think verse 15, look at what it says there. For those, says the Lord, the high and lofty one that inhabited eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place. With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Are we asking for revival? Excuse me, are we asking for revival? Now, the Bible says, this is what God looks for in sending revival. He said, thus says the high and lofty one that inhabited eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high place, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always strong, for the spirit shall fail before me and the souls which I have made. Brothers and sisters, God will not revive the spirit of the humble. God will only revive the heart of the contrite ones. Those that cannot humble their heart, they will never experience revival. Those who are snobbish about the word of God, they cannot experience the blessedness of his presence. Now, why do we need to say that to ourselves as a congregation here? May we be very careful that even our past history does not make us arrogant. Hallelujah. Do we need to pray that even the way God dealt with us, our distinctive, the things that God reveals to us, will not make us arrogant. We need to pray that the volume of Bible knowledge that we have will not make us arrogant as not to seek God to visit us afresh in our lives. May we not be preoccupied, listen to me, contrasting ourselves with other people, as to forget that by grace we were saved, not of works, lest any man should boast. May we not be distracted by comparing and contrasting ourselves with those who have given themselves to worldliness as if to justify ourselves as if we are better than them. May we be careful. May we not become a Pharisee in our hearts. And it's very easy. You remember the two people that came to the place of prayer in Matthew. Do you remember? One man came and knelt and stood before God and said, God, I am not like these people. You know all the things that you say I should not do, I have not been doing it. Unlike this one that is always misbehaving, they are doing things, they are doing things. And the Bible said, he prayed with himself. He did not pray to God. He prayed with himself. He was so full of himself that it was about himself that he was talking. He was only, you know, bringing before God everything about himself, all the good things he was doing. Whereas the other man, the Republican sinner, he fell down before God and on his face he said, have mercy on me, you old sinner. The Bible said, the man, the sinner man, honestly, went home justified. But the man who has so many, many credentials, he went away sorrowful. God had nothing to do with the hell of God. May you not be over concerned about other people as to forget your need of God. Sometime when the word of God comes to us, we find a way of refracting it. In science, we talk about refraction. And what is refraction? Refraction is the bending of light from coming to a focus somewhere else. And unconsciously, sometimes God is speaking directly to you, but instead of letting it land on your life, you are refracting it to someone else. You are thinking that God is talking about someone else. You are thinking that God is talking about someone else. You forget that God does not gossip about someone else to you. If you ever came into God's presence, God speaks to me for myself. And even as a preacher, when God wants to speak to me, he speaks to me first before he sends me to people. May I ask you tonight, you will not walk with a proud of discomfort. As we pray and as we seek the face of God, to whom will I look? He said, those who are of a contrite and broken spirit who trembles at my word. Sometimes we think that yes, we have fulfilled that, but I'm sensing the Holy Spirit saying, be careful that what is turning my eyes away from you, you are pampering yourself too much. You are not dealing with pride of life. And I will not walk with a proud of discomfort. The issues we are raising tonight may be probing. It might be making us to look inside. Look inside. But I felt the Holy Spirit will have me share this because I could see that we are longing for revival. We are longing for God's move. We are longing to experience his power. We are longing to experience his glory in our lifetime. May the Lord help us. The Bible spoke about Uzziah. This is the last illustration I must make. There are many, many in the Bible. Let's look at Uzziah. Uzziah, when he became a king, his story you will find in Chronicles chapter 26. You will have time to read that on your own, but I just want to draw something out. When Uzziah came to the throne at the age of 16, he was a man that God blessed at 16 years of age. He was already on the throne. He was already a king. He was 16 years when he began to reign. He reigned 52 years. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah did. He sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding of the visions of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. And God helped him. These are the stories you will read as you reach chapter 26 verse 7. God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians. Moreover, God was advancing him. God was advancing him. Now please go to verse 16. Please read 16 for me. 26, 16. But when he was strong, there are people that are humble when they were simple. There are people that their hearts are simple because they have not yet grown. There are people that are teachable because they have not seen miracles yet. Now the Bible says, but when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his own destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God and he went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Now I was saying, Lord, what's wrong with that? He didn't go chasing other women. He didn't go stealing money. His own arrogance only became manifest as he took the altar for granted. I hear him saying, what is it that the priest can do that I cannot do? So he came to church one day and, you know, the priests were to officiate. They were to burn incense. What did Uzziah do? He just went straight to the altar. And he took the censer. He wanted to burn incense. And the priest said, no brother, you have not been ordained for this. You have not been set apart for this. You are a king. You are not a priest. He said, get back. Get back. What are you talking about? What are you doing that I don't know how to do? It was arrogance. Sometimes pride makes you to overstep your spiritual boundary. Sometimes pride makes you to forget the boundary of your ordination. Sometimes pride of life does not allow you to remember where God has put you and you want to dabble into someone else's calling. Pride makes you feel there's nothing they are doing that I don't know how to do. And that day God was saying to him, Uzziah, Uzziah, do I love you? But not as a proud man. And immediately he became a leper. Oh, he died a shameful death. From the temple, they couldn't take him back to the palace because a leper cannot stay with human beings. They went and put him in a secluded house in the bush and there he died. Pride will bring anybody down. No matter how wonderful a ministry God has blessed you with, pride will scatter it. Pride will bring you down. The Bible says pride goeth before destruction. He will not walk with the proud or the scumful. Humble thyself to walk with God. Humble thyself and the Lord will draw near thee. Humble thyself and his presence shall cheer thee. He will not walk with the proud or the scumful. Humble thyself to walk with God. Let's pray together.