Number One On God's Hate List

Well, good morning. It's good to be here on a snowy morning with warm fellowship and, uh, yeah, to be—to be here with you all.

The title of my message this morning is Number 1 on God's Hate List. What—what comes to your mind when I say that? Does God have a hate list? There's a verse in Proverbs that goes like this—or two verses: "These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto him, and number one is a proud look."

And that's what I want to speak about this morning—pride. It's something that everyone deals with. Since the time of Adam and Eve until the end of the world, pride is here. It was the, uh, it's what caused Satan to fall, it's what caused Adam and Eve to fall, and it will be our falling too if we let, uh, pride rule.

We had a discussion last week on—on pride, and, uh, so this week I had—I had, uh, recently got the book Mere Christianity on audio, and I was listening to that, and there was a chapter in there that C.S. Lewis talks on pride, and it seemed like God was speaking to my heart and, uh, on this area of pride. And then I was listening to another message by—or a, um, a book written by Andrew Murray on the humility and holiness of God, and, uh, so if you hear some thoughts that you say, "I think I maybe heard that from—from one of them," that's because I was listening to—to various people.

It's an infection that was given to us by—by the fall of—of Adam and Eve, and from there on out this subject of pride has—has been a—a major—a major issue in our life, and it encompasses practically everything that we do. But God hates it. He says I—here in—in Proverbs it says that He hates it, and it's an abomination to Him.

In fact, we read in 1 Peter 5 and then in James 4 He says, "God resists the proud," and that idea of resist has to set in array like a battle. He's going to come and fight against you if there is pride in your life.

And when you think about how foolish it is to fight against God, we realize, um, what we're up against.

You know, I find it interesting that in the Sermon on the Mount, what is the first thing that is mentioned? A poor spirit. It's—it's the number one attribute of a Christian is humility. So we have these two things: the thing that God hates is pride, the thing that He wants out of us is humility or a poor spirit. And the other thing I found interesting in our discussion this morning, it felt like—it feels like in the Sunday School discussion, those who were the humble, those who were the poor, those who were the lowly recognized God for who He was. Those who walked around with an air—you know, their head stuck up and their chin out and their chest out, they somehow missed it, and that's what pride does; it blinds us to who God is and, uh, and keeps us from seeing—seeing God.

So what does—what does pride look like? And I have four different areas I'm going to look at as far as pride goes. There are a lot more areas, but the first one is the pride of association. Turn with me if you would to Luke chapter 14.

I have lots of verses to read this morning, so we'll try to keep them—keep it moving along here. Verses 7 to 14: "And He put forth a parable to those which were bidden when He marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. But he that bade thee, and him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou be in the shame, to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee, cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, Go up higher.

Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee, for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Then said He also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thee friends, nor thee brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thee rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.

But when thou makest the feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." So here I'm going to call it the pride of association.

If I understand correctly, what would happen is if you were invited to, say, a wedding feast, they would have tables arranged in a kind of a U shape, so you have three tables and they kind of—well, they kind of were like beds, and then you would lie down and eat off the table in front of them. And there were certain places in that setup that if you were sat there or laid there or however it was that they—they ate, that was your position, that was the high place, and others, you know, so you arranged yourself in a way that put you—and that's what we have gone on here. He was seeing this, he marked how they chose out—it's called the chief rooms here, but they actually—they say it was more like a—a—a position, and he said they were—they were here, if I s—you know, if I sit right here, then that's going to put me up a little another notch.

And so—and then Jesus gives this parable. He says, "That's not how it works. Don't do it." Because we have this tendency to say, "I want to be associated with this person, and if I get this position here next to them, then look at me," and it does something for us.

You know, I was like, "Well, does that affect me?" But I think about some of the things that have affected me. How many of us has said, "I know so and so?" And why do we do that? Is it not—we're trying to associate ourselves with that person. I have met the President of the United States.

I have met—and we can—we can put in names, we can add any names. Here's one that affects me. I sang with—and you feel in the group. And somehow when we do that, we're—we kind of put our nose up and we say, "Well, this is how I am."

It's pride. It's something God hates. And yet we so easily get caught up in it and do these type of things where we try to—to—to position ourselves higher. James 2, he talks about it as well. I'm going to read James 2 chapter—James chapter 2, verses 1 through 9.

"My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect to persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vial raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou here, or sit here under my footstool.

Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which—by the which ye are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, thou shalt love a neighbor as thyself ye do well. But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the trans—of the law as transgressors." He calls it sin, and that's what it is; it's pride. Because we want to associate ourselves with the—the rich man, the man that is think—and I think about it, we do it with our clothes.

We—we—we want to—so often we—we try to put on something that associates us not with the lower class, but with something that elevates us, and it's—it's—it's a very similar—a very similar thing.

So we have that pride of association. Who do I want to associate with? Jesus says, "No, you got it backwards—associate with the low—the lowly."

Number 2, pride of accomplishment. "Look what I have done."

There is a great story in Daniel chapter 4 that I'm always amazed of when I read this account. Here we have Nebuchadnezzar, very familiar story. He was actually told this was going to happen, and what did he do? Pride still got him. "All this came upon" verse 28 chapter 4, "All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.

The king spake and said, 'Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?' While the word was in the king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven saying, 'O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall dry thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass as an oxen and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will.' The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws.

And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes into heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the Most High and I praised and honored him that liveth forever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation.

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me and my counselors and my lords sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the kingdom, the king of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."

A very dramatic example of what happens when we elevate ourselves. When we look and say, "Look what I have done," we end up eating grass. We've heard of eating humble pie. I think this was maybe that in its fullest extent.

"Look what I have done." You know, Paul was even tempted with this in 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians 12, he said this, verses 6 to 10: "For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth, but now I forbear lest any man should think of me above that which ye seeeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelation there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord Thrice that it might depart from me, and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak then am I strong."

You know, he was—God knew that Paul would have been tempted to be proud of what he had accomplished, of—of all the revelations that he had. He could have said, "Look what I've—look what I've got." So God gave him a thorn in the flesh so that that wouldn't happen, and Paul learned. He said, "It's the low things, it's the infirmities. I'm going to glory in the low things that have happened to me." And—and so we have Paul being the—being the man he was. Luke 18 is another example.

Like I said, there's a lot of—a lot of passages I'm returning to this morning. He says, "Two men," verse 10 chapter 18 of Luke, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a Republican.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up as much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

The one was saying, "Look what I have done." I—and it was spiritual things. "Look what I've accomplished. I've—I'm fasting. I'm—I'm—I'm giving away money, I'm tithing. Look—look at what I've done." And God said, "The one went away justified, the one who took the low road," and that is—are—are my—my goal this morning.

Thirdly, I want to look at the pride of accumulation. So we have the pride of association, the pride of accomplishment, and now we're going to look at the pride of accumulation. Luke 12, just back a couple verses or chapters, we have the parable—must miss putting in my marker here—of the prosperous farmer, chapter 12, 16 to 21. "And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentiful, and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

And listen to what he says, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall thou—whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." Now it doesn't specifically mention pride here, but whenever you hear him say that there is a feeling that I get of, "Look what I have here around me. Look at my goods, look—look at what I have—I'm good to go now." And I think there is an aspect of pride in that.

Hezekiah is another example. Back in the—in the Old Testament he was a good king for the most part, but toward the end of his life he had some foreign visitors come in and he said, "Come here, I'm going to show you." And he went and showed them all his things that he had and he said, "Look, look at..." and God—God brought judgment on him for that because that—that—that was nothing that he did that he got those possessions. It was only because of God that he had what he had, and that's what 1 Corinthians 4 says.

1 Corinthians 4,

going to read 6 to 16: "And these things, brethren, I have in figure transferred to you—yeah, transferred to myself and to Paul's for your sakes, that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh ye to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now thou didst receive it; why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?

Now ye are fool, now ye are rich; ye have reigned as kings without us. And unvoid to God ye did reign, that ye also might reign with you. For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last as it were pointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sakes, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised."

To see where—yeah. "Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be followers of me."

So here we have these people who were saying, "Look, I'm rich, I'm reigning as a king," and they had an air about them, and Paul was warning them, "Listen, that's the wrong way. What do you have that you weren't given? Where did it come from? It all came from God in the first place. There is nothing you need to—there is—the pride that you're showing is a realization or is a manifestation that you're not recognizing where it actually came from and giving God the glory." So there is the pride of looking at what we have done and accomplished and have accumulated for ourselves.

Fourthly, I want to look at the pride of acclimation.

There is another really interesting story in the Book of Acts that, you know, you couldn't write a book like the Scripture does and have such great stories. I always think about it—Acts chapter 12 is one of those that is so, so—yeah—descriptive of what happens when we get elevated in pride. Chapter—chapter 12, 20 to 23: "And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon, but they came with one accord to him; and having made blastus the king's chamberlain, their friend, desired peace because their country was nourished by the king's country.

Upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal peril, sat upon his throne and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, 'It is the voice of a God and not of a man.' And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory; and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and multiplied."

I would have—there's an aspect of me that would have loved to see what happened here. I—I really don't know exactly what it was, but he took the—the—the glory of men that was coming to him and took it to himself, and God killed him from that. He was eaten with worms, whatever that looked like. I—that's—but it's a very graphic illustration of how God feels about it when we take the pride or the acclimation or the acclaim that was supposed to go to God and we take it upon ourselves.

It was interesting in my studying—I was listening to—I was listening to a message that was given at Dallas Theological Seminary, and what did they do? Whenever they introduced the—the speaker, they got up in front and they went down through all the credentials that he had, where he had studied and what he had done and all his titles, and then they talked on humility.

I was like, "Wow, somehow I think we're missing it." But in Matthew 23, he also talks about that. He talks about the titles that we were giving. Matthew 23, 5 to 12, he says this—he's speaking of the scribes and Pharisees. He says, "But all the works they do to be seen of men, they may broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi,' and be not—but be ye not called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man 'Father' upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven.

Neither be ye called 'Masters,' for one is your Master, even Christ; but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." And here's this verse that we see repeated many, many times: "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

That is not—we are not to take the honor to ourselves, it's pride. When we like to have those little titles that go along with our name, it can be pride, it is pride.

John—Jesus said in John 7, verse 18: "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." So that's the three—four areas that I thought I would look at as far as the pride part goes.

So here we are, and you know, like I had said earlier, pride weaves its way into all areas of our lives, and it's like, what—what doesn't—what isn't affected by pride? So the question I guess I had, what's the solution? What—how do we get rid of this pride that so wants to rise up within us? First and foremost is we must be converted.

It's something without the Lord's help, without the Holy Spirit within us, you are not going to ever accomplish on your own. You might push it down, but it's like the whack-a-mole, and it pops up over here.

I find it interesting—Jesus repeatedly told the disciples, "You—you—this is not the way to act." And what did you find them doing? It would go a little bit, and all of a sudden they would be fighting about who's going to be the greatest again, and you have it happening clean up until the Last Supper.

They're like, "I'm going to be the greatest, I'm going to be the greatest." But it's really, really interesting what happens after the Pentecost happens, and they're filled with the Holy Spirit. You have—if you look back—what happened to what was Paul saying, "I'm glorying in the low things."

What did James, the half-brother of Jesus, say when he opened up his—they were saying, "I'm the servant, I'm the slave of God. I am taking the low road." He didn't get—introduce himself as in his thing as, "Listen, I'm the half-brother of Jesus.

I have it all set up here. I have it won over on you." The rest of the disciples are, are you know, a little lesser because they were not related. "I'm—I'm half related to him." That was all gone.

In fact, you don't hear anything about that. If it wasn't mentioned somewhere else that James was the brother of Jesus, we probably wouldn't even know it. In fact, I guess there is some argument over whether it was or not, but I find it interesting that they didn't—they didn't go out and pull out all their credentials.

And in fact, when Paul did pull out his credentials, he said, "I count them, but dumb." He counted them as less than nothing, and instead he gloried in the—the low things of life. So first of all, we must have—must be converted.

The second thing that I—or the—so the first—that's just a kind of a baseline, but the—one of the—the ways to actually get a true view of who God is is going to help us in our walk or in our humility.

Get a vision of who God is, focus on Him. You know, Isaiah 6—that is a passage that always amazes me or inspires me. Isaiah goes into that, and he has a pic—he has a vision of God. Holy, holy, holy God, and what does it do to—to—to Isaiah? He falls down on his face and says, "I'm unworthy. I am undone. I am down here," and he feared for his life because you're dealing with a holy God.

I don't know how many of you have ever felt like, "Hmm, I can do pretty good at something." Maybe you're a woodworker, maybe you're a—maybe you play an instrument, and you think, "That—that could do an okay job." But then you meet somebody—maybe he's a—a real fine artisan woodworker, or you meet a classical violinist who can just—and all of a sudden you kind of, "I really can't do very much at all."

But you know, it's because you're in front of a—somebody who is greater than you. And if we keep that God, the greatest of all, the one who has everything, is everything, it's where we get everything. If we keep Him in focus, that puts ourselves out of the picture. We are humbled at that point. As he said in Corinthians, "What did you have that you were not given?"

By who? By God. And I think about that some days I go into some of these homes, and they're—yeah—you really don't want to ever have to go back because it's filthy, it's—yeah—you can just tell the life is—is a—is a mess. And I think, "What did I do that kept me from being born into a situation like that?" There's nothing I did. I could have been born over in India and with—in the caste system where they clean out the sewers.

Here I am, born in a good home, living in the U.S. where we have plenty to eat, plenty to live, and what did I do to deserve it? It's not anything I did, and yet somehow we take credit for that when it is a gift from God.

So let's—let's keep God as—in focus, keep the life of Christ in focus, and if we do that, it should bring us to our knees as it did Isaiah.

Think about the—the count where they were seating themselves around the thing. Where should the focus have been? Shouldn't it—it was a wedding feast. It shouldn't be on me, it should be on the bride and groom, correct? That's where the focus should be. It's—don't look at me, look at the bride and groom. They're the ones—the center of attention.

I liked how Nebuchadnezzar ended. Did you notice how he ended in verse 37? "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase." All of a sudden he realized that all this was because of him, and it said when he looked, turned his eyes to heaven. I found that interesting. He said when he turned his eyes to heaven, then his sanity came back.

That's where we need to keep our focus.

Any glory that we have been given, it's only a mere wisp in the light of the true glory of God.

If I think about Revelations, there you have the four—or the—the elders that are there, and you have all the saints. They have their crowns of gold, and what are they doing? All that praise is not on the glory that they have; it is directed toward God and toward the Lamb.

So that is my—my first suggestion of how we can help in this thing called pride.

The second one is this: serve. We heard it some this morning. We can do something. I don't know whether you noticed, but it says if you try to exalt yourself, you will be abased. But he does say you—and it's a command—you humble yourself. There is something we do in this process. We need to humble ourselves, and how do we do that? And he says by serving. "Him that would be greatest, let him become the servant of all."

If you go back to Luke 14, where we were earlier, I read the end of that chapter or the end of that passage. He says, "When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thee friends," and he gives out to the list, "but when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."

I always kind of separated those two things, but I think he's saying here, if you want to be—if you want to humble yourself, you go, put yourself out and serve those who can't give anything back to you, who are not going to put you up a level.

You know, if—if someone of us said, "Okay, I'm going to have a guest," and you invited in some high and well-known person, you kind of feel good about that. But if you're going up to the room and—and you have those people that come in there, you're probably not going to go around bragging that I had, and you could fill in the names with many of those people up there. They're not going to do much for you as far as lifting you up, but it does provide a focus for you, and it gives you an avenue to realize, and I think one of the things it does is it helps us see the blessings that we have been given, what God has given you, because there's nothing that I did that didn't keep me from being born in the situation that they did.

Now, there are decisions that they made that helped them end up there, and that's what we're helping them to—to try to see. But go serve those kind of people. That's where it's done.

Focus our efforts on those who are the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. Matthew 23:11-12, "But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

The first part is ours, the second is God's, and that is our job is to humble ourselves. God will do the exalting. He also will do the abasing. He will fight against you and bring you down if you're going to exalt himself—yourself.

In Mark 9:35, after discussing who would be the greatest, Jesus said, "If any man desire to be the first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all." Not just the high end, not just those who will give us something, but all, the lowly. And he goes on a little bit later and says, verse 41, "For whosoever shall give a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward."

It is—it is us—it is for us to do—to give that cup of water. That is our job, to be the servant. And Mark 10, he says this, 42 through 45, he says, "But Jesus called them to him and saith unto them, You know that they which accounted to rule over you, the Gentiles exercised lordship over them, and their great ones exercised authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." And as Wendell already mentioned, how did Jesus show that? You have him there at the—at the Last Supper, and he is down doing the slave's work, washing the feet, and I find that is a—just a—a wonderful example that Christ left us of how we should live. And if you want to—to get rid of pride in your life, focus on serving others.

Be like Christ, wash the feet of those who are—who are out there, all those that you come in contact, and Jesus says, you know, in one case where they're talking about, "Who's my neighbor?" and he says, "It's—whoever's in front of you."

And as I thought about this, I thought, well, you know, that brings us right back to the two great commandments, "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself," which if that's where our focus is, if that's where our love is, then the love for self will go away.

The pride that we want to well up within us will disappear because our focus is not on ourselves but on others.

There's one other passage I want to read, and I don't think a discussion like this would be complete without reading it, and that is Philippians. It's that very familiar—very familiar passage, but it says it in no other way that—in a way that no—no other person has been able to say it.

Verse 4, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant or slave, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above—which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow all things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

So even in Christ's exaltation, the glory is still going to the Father, he says here. And—but how did Christ do that? He lowered himself and lowered himself and lowered himself until he was at the very bottom, where he suffered the death that was the most humiliating, the most lowest form of death that you could have, and he did that. Yet he was God. He had a position with God, but he lowered himself and lowered himself, and he says, "Let this same mind be in you."

That's how Christ served, and that's the—the challenge I want with us this morning—to leave with us this morning. It's a challenge I want for myself. When I am tempted to think of myself more highly, let's get a view of who God is and then go out and serve those who are around us. Take the low road, take—and go serve the lowly. Let's let the exaltation in God's hands. He will exalt you, they say—it says—it says he will.

I don't know how that all works out. That's not our job to do. But if we allow God to exalt us, it will be in a good way and not in a proud way. But if the opposite is true, if we try to exalt ourself, he will fight against you. And so that's the challenge I want to take for myself and leave with you this morning.

Let's think of God and think of others, and that will—that will go a long way in—in taking care of our—our pride problem. Any thoughts, comments that you would like to add?