Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world.
so that all may know Christ. Join us now. For a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church. Located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Go ahead and turn to Proverbs chapter 16.
As I can tell, you're hot and you're warm. We. We will get right to it tonight. I don't want you to get a bad attitude about church and things, and so. Yeah.
We're going to continue in our series on attitude tonight. My wife and I are about done with this attitude thing. I need to start. I need to start preaching on something else. We were on our way to church this morning, and we were listening to preaching on the way in.
And you know, my my car has, you know, obviously we're And some of yours do too, that you can turn the radio up. With behind the steering wheel.
So this preacher's preaching, I don't know what he said, I can't remember it. But he said, now, wives, sometimes you really need to understand this. And I was just driving, and I just pushed that volume up. And it got to where he was just booming in the car. My wife just looked at me, you know, and I was kind of laughing and turned it back down.
It wasn't five minutes on the way to church. This guy said, now, husbands, you need to understand. And my wife went, turned it up. And uh So Oh well for attitude, huh? Proverbs chapter 16, our subject tonight is from haughty.
To humble, not that kind of haughty, okay? H-A-U. Yeah. You should have seen me voice texting some of this outline to John Huffman. I had to keep correcting it.
You kept saying from H-O-T-T-I-E to humble, and that's not what we're talking about here. We're taking this word from the Bible and that's the reason for it. From haughty to humble. And this haughty word is the root of it is pride. But it literally really kind of means arrogance.
And the kind of arrogance it's talking about is not necessarily always just thinking that you're something, but thinking that you've accomplished things, thinking that you've done it, that you're the one that has created success or accomplishment. And that's really what we're talking about here tonight in our Attitude series. And it is what the Bible calls a haughty spirit. is what the Bible calls it. Look at Proverbs chapter 16, verse 18.
Pride goeth before destruction. and an haughty spirit. before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly. than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Let's pray. Lord, I love you. I thank you for all that you've done. As we take these few moments, pray you would instruct us and challenge us and change us where we need to change. Thank you for all that you're doing and for all the visitors we had this morning that we got to speak to.
Thank you for the people that are being discipled right now in our ministry. Thank you for those lined up. For baptism, thank you for Lord, those that have been saved in the past couple weeks, and some that we're praying to be saved, Lord, there's just a whole lot that goes on here that maybe the average person doesn't know, that you're working every day and accomplishing things. I pray you to give us grace. Bless our own attitudes, Lord.
Of all places that. Attitudes can really become a problem. It's in church. And Lord, it's just a hotbed for Satan. to try to get into a person's attitude and to their spirit.
And so, Lord, I pray you would help us as we continue in this, Lord. We will stop it when you want to stop it. But until then, we'll keep obeying you. I pray that you would bless us. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Deborah Smith Paguis is her name. And she is an author, has written a couple different books, and I don't know. A lot of what she's written, I wouldn't recommend it. It's not what I'm saying.
But in one of her books, I was reading, doing a little bit of research. Because she wrote a book on the subject of attitude. And she had a little story in here. I just want to read it to you briefly. because I thought this was interesting.
It's really right along the lines of what we're talking about. And um I wanted you to read this. She writes this story. As I headed to the parking lot, I thought, today I'll finally get my opportunity to shine. After years of doing the detailed analysis, the what-if scenarios, and all the other grunt work with little or no recognition.
I was finally invited by senior management to the venture capital financing meeting with our co-investors. The deal was very complicated, and I knew that I understood it better than any of my male associates. which I was certain was the only reason I was invited. I personally made copies of the presentation to guard against any potential. collaborating glitches by my assistant and carefully placed them in my computer bag.
I check my appearance in the office mirror. I wore a professional cream-colored silk suit. I was able to to button with ease. Look comfortable in it. I know what that's like.
Anyway. I thought it was hilarious. I was able to button with ease and great pride since I just come off my latest crash diet, down 15 pounds.
Now our investment partners will see who the real brain is. behind these deals, I thought. I was overwhelmed with excitement and pride. As I backed out of the parking stall, I felt my tires roll over something. When I stopped to check what had happened, to my dismay, I discovered that I had left my computer bag behind the car.
and had backed over it. The bag was crushed almost completely flat. While the computer miraculously was able to still turn on, the crumpled papers that I had copied and prepared now resembled tostado bowls. In my effort to collect the contents of the bag, I got tire grime all over my cream-colored silk suit. But the buttons button very comfortably after my 15 pounds.
had lost. There was no time left to do anything except get to the meeting.
So I walked in with a cream-colored suit full of tire grease. A handful of papers that were crunched, a computer that was cracked. By the time I arrived, I was so humiliated that I selected a chair. in a remote corner of the room and hardly said anything during the entire meeting. This is what she said.
I had gone from haughtiness to humility. in less than three minutes. She said, This incident happened over 20 years ago. And I'll never forget the lesson I learned. You all know I said this years ago, one of my favorite.
It's just ironic to me. Nobody else seems to like think it's as good as I do. I've traced the roots back, tried to research because if they're going to tell it, I want it to be, you know, from. What I've been able to find in research, it was the boxer Sonny Liston. But he had just earned the right for a heavyweight bout, and he arrived in Chicago.
And his own account, and he said, I arrived there thinking I've finally arrived, I've finally made it, now the world is gonna see what I can do. And he took a train to Chicago and he had his luggage, and he got off that train and he looked at these huge buildings and he set his luggage down and just looked around. And he said, Now the world is gonna find out who Sonny Liston is. And when he turned around to get his baggage, somebody had stolen it. I just thought How quickly?
You and I. Yeah. Let me just put it this way. I think that there's probably some of us in this building that should go from haughtiness. to humility.
in less than 20 minutes. Look at Proverbs 16:18 that we just read. We're going to give some passages tonight, just going to give you some information. And we'll let you go. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly. than to divide the spoil with the proud. I want to give you some very Um Very direct passages about this. I just want to give you some points on them, and we'll let you go tonight. I just believe, you know.
God has a work to do. God will do that work. Just going to give you his word. I want you to notice, number one, what I find here is pride blinds you.
Now why does the Bible say pride goeth before destruction? Why is it that destruction is often Described as pride happening before that happens. Why?
Well, because what it's talking about here is that when you allow pride to enter your life, you're blinded to danger. You're blinded to what's wrong. You're even blinded to your own fault. And you can head straight to destruction. and never see a thing in your life.
because you are proud. Because we had a haughty Spirit. You know what's interesting about the story that I just read about her, I don't know if that's what happened, I wasn't there that day, but you know, sometimes when we're so anxious to let everybody know what we can do, there was just the oversight of leaving the computer bag there. It's just sometimes you and I, if we get so wrapped up with ourselves, it can so blind us to the danger of self. Pride goes, pride blinds you, but notice a second, arrogance leads to humiliation.
This haughty spirit is describing an arrogance there. That I'm better, I've accomplished this, I've done this on my own, and I'm self-made. And you know how I feel about that term. I would just recommend don't say self-made around me. You know, if you say I'm a self-made whatever, no, you're not.
That's God's grace on your life, by the way. If you've had any success in your life. But notice here a haughty spirit before a what? not destruction of fall. Why?
Because arrogance takes you up to the point, look at me, that there's nowhere else to go but down. You're just setting yourself up. to be humbled. When we allow this kind of spirit.
Now, kind of based on the story this year, what was it?
Well, it was a determination to show that I'm more value. Than you think. And you know what? I'm sure that there's a lot of you, even at your jobs, that you are more valuable than they see you. And you have done a whole lot more behind the scenes than they've ever given you credit for.
And you do deserve a whole lot more than they've ever done. Listen, that is not the point. The point is that you and I can get to the To the place in our lives sometimes that we begin to think so highly of ourselves. That there's nothing else for God to do but to have to bring us back down. I want you to notice thirdly out of this passage that God always says that humility is over success.
Humility is always better than success. Notice what he says here. He said, It is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly. It's better to have a humble spirit and have nothing than to divide the spoil than to have.
So, what is God saying? That humility is better than spoil. That a humble spirit in your life is way better than accomplishment.
Now if you can have both, that's great. But God is saying that if accomplishment ends up bringing pride in your life. Then it would be much better for you to have a humble spirit. and not have what it is that caused you. to develop this arrogance.
Notice number four, I see here, there's the principle in here. I don't know if you've seen it, and that is to avoid corrupt company. He said this: Listen, it's better for you to keep a humble spirit with, notice what he says, the lowly.
Now, why is that?
Well, the lowly here would describe maybe some people that they don't have a whole lot of area to brag about. They don't have a whole lot of maybe accomplishment to. Get arrogant about. And God says: listen, it's better for you to have a humble spirit and be around humble people. Then for you to divide the spoil, notice what he says, with the proud.
He's saying you better make sure who you hang around. You better make sure that the people that are influencing your life are humble, not proud. And may I just say this just as a freebie? I know when I was a kid, you used to think every older person is just mad at everything that every younger person does, and that is just not the case. I'm just not that way.
But I do want to encourage you, you young people, that sometimes who you let influence you through music, through sports, through entertainment, you better be careful that you're not trying to emulate dress and action and talk from people that are full of arrogance and pride. You better make sure. Listen, I know it's not cool and it's not suave and all those things, but can I tell you, it would be far better for you to find one of these dear saints of God. around this church. That have stayed faithful to each other through thick and thin, that have loved each other through sickness and disease and everything else.
And no matter what happens in their life, they're here Sunday morning and they're here Sunday night and they're here Wednesday night and they're faithful to God. You ought to let those kind of people influence you. And may I say, even in this day, religious trend. is everybody promoting themselves. Everybody telling you why they're so great and why this, and it just becomes a trend.
It's trendy, and I'm going to be honest with you, there's a whole lot of young audience that's just flocking to that. Here's what's interesting: once that trendy place is not new anymore, guess what they do? They flock somewhere else. I've been around even just this area long enough to watch that.
Something will tell them there's the popular, everybody's going there. Guess what? Four or five years, it's not popular anymore.
Now there's a new dog on the street, and all these people go over there. And they just follow where the trend is. And can I tell you something, Corona Baptist? I just want you to know I appreciate you. You're a church that's faithful, and you support your church, and you help, and you support, and you give.
And I just want you to know I appreciate that. Listen, if I could just wave a magic wand and come up with a couple million dollars, there's a whole lot of things I would change around here. We are in desperate need right now. Can I tell you something? We really need this time.
We need a foyer. You know how long for years at Curl Baptist Church we had a very, very tiny foyer over there at Myers Auditorium? And we finally were able to build a drive-through that extended, just put, you know, little one-seater bathrooms out there in that foyer. And we finally had a little room to breathe. And guess what?
We outgrew everything, and now we're over here. And then we got all these people trying to get out of a really, really tiny foyer. Man, I wish we had the drawing, we have the plans. I wish we had the money that you could immediately come in and have room and fellowship. And today, man, I'm trying to talk to one visiting couple, another visiting couple, another visiting couple, and you're in the way and you're standing around.
And I'm going to tell you something, we need something like that. And I wish that we had. Listen, we met with a church in Winston and I went and met with their pastor and looked around their facility. And we're looking at stadium seating in here. I think it would work.
Our architects think it'll work. We think, and listen, we're to the point that on some Sundays we're really full in here and we're to the point we need it. And we talked about a balcony and that's doable here, but the stadium seating thing is something that would be very, very nice and probably a little bit less expensive. And man, since the day I count here, 13, 14 years ago, we've been trying to take what buildings we have. And on a hairline budget, we've tried to make everything as nice.
Our guys and Brother Jeff and his crew, man, they've built our own sound panels, hung our own lights, we've hung our own screens, we've hung our own, we've done everything that we can do. But can I tell you something? Church is a lot more than what's trendy. Church is more than a facility. Church is more than the facade.
We're doing everything we can do to make that nice. But you need, as a person, to understand: God says it would be better for you to maybe not go to the church that has the fanciest whatever. If you get around a bunch of humble people, than for you to, in your life, gravitate to where there's pride and arrogance. It creates a haughty spirit. We look down.
I want you to notice this last thing: true wealth is character according to this passage. True wealth. is character. God said, you might have a bunch of spoil over here, but With spoil you get spoiled. He said it'd be better for you to stay over here with nothing.
and keep a humble attitude and a good character. From a haughty spirit to a humble Spirit. I want you to look at this verse, John chapter 15, verse. five. Let me remind you about this verse.
I am the vine, Jesus says, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
Now, listen, here's our point. For without me, Jesus says. Ye can do nothing. That right there will keep you and I away from any kind of a haughty spirit. You ought to remind yourself, and I ought to remind myself every time we undertake any kind of endeavor or there's any kind of thing that's blessed in your life that God uses you to do.
Listen, you need to remind yourself without Jesus, I can do nothing. This is not because of you. It's not because of me. As I look at this verse, I just want to give you three principles from this verse. Number one is: remember your position.
What does he say? I'm the vine. You're the branches. Guess what? I don't know if you've ever thought about this.
The vine can exist without some of the branches. You all know that? you can break a branch off and that vine will still grow. But I will tell you one thing: there is not a branch that can make it without the vine. The vine can make it without the branch, but the branch can't make it without the vine.
And this verse reminds us: listen, you and I need to every day just remind ourselves of our position. He's the vine. And in the vine is everything that we need to do anything that needs done, to have any kind of success, any kind of accomplishment. That comes through the vine, not me, the branch. We need to remember our position.
Second, we need to realize the reason. For the success, notice what he says. Jesus says, He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth what? Much fruit. The reason you have fruit.
is because You're in the vine.
So you and I need to not just remind ourselves of our position. But we need to realize the reason for any success in our lives. It's because God brought fruit out. Not me creating fruit. A branch can't make fruit.
It has to be connected to the vine. Notice, thirdly, we must remain dependent on the Lord. Without me. You can do. Nothing.
Let me just say this tonight. of all the destructive attitudes. that we have dealt with some I didn't even know about. Haughtiness is among the worst. You say, why is that?
Because God hates it. Did you know that? That's very strong language in the Bible. when it says that God hates something. Proverbs 6, 16, look at the verse.
These six things Doth the Lord hate? Hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto him. What is number one? A proud Look.
Don't you love? Of course, I love the Bible, and you know that, but just that phrase, a proud look. What does it mean a proud look? It means looks could be deceiving. You can think you're something.
based on what you see. But God knows the real person. Why does God hate a proud look? Why does God hate pride? Why does God hate?
A haughty spirit. Why is it that God hates this? And in the list of six or seven, this is number one. Why does He hate it so much? Listen to me tonight, Coron Baptist Church.
We're almost done. Listen to me. I want you to get this. Because this robs God of His glory. When we attempt to take credit for what we could not have done without him.
Let me say that again. God hates pride. because it tries to take the glory for something that we could not have done without him. It's glory that should go to him. It's credit that should go to him.
He's earned it. He's the one that made it happen. But pride in our life means I'm trying to steal the glory. No, we would all sit there and say, I don't want the glory. I'm a behind the scenes person.
I don't want anybody mentioning me, oh really. Try something going on and nobody mentions you. Try it from my perspective. You'll find out. People aren't always just behind the scenes type people.
Listen to me. I want you to get this. You give me a statement. I want you to see this. Pride is your attempt to take the glory away from God.
That's what pride is in our life. It's our attempt. to take the glory away. From who deserves it. From Hadi?
to humble. in less than three minutes. What is the object of your pride? Is it your possessions? Is it maybe your place in society, as somebody would say?
I don't know about that. Is it your position or your job? Is it your profits from your position? or your profits from your profession. Maybe your glory is your past achievements.
Do you really believe that you got those things on your own? Let me ask you this way: Do you really believe that you did it? I didn't take time to give you the scriptures, but the Bible gives a parable about a rich fool. Yeah, yeah, and the rich fool was very successful. The Bible says God.
Had blessed his ground, which means God allowed his ground to multiply. And this guy began to think that he's the one that had built the empire. He started off as a rich man, but he died a rich fool. Why?
Because he thought this is my barns and my goods and my plenty. He had begun to think he had done it. Gonna give you another verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Actually, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, sorry. Reminds you of this verse if you remember it.
It's a very, very good verse. For who maketh thee? to differ. from another.
Now just think about that.
So what is it that makes you think that you're so much different than someone else? What is it that makes you think that you're so much better than someone else?
Now look at the verse. And what hast thou? That thou didst not receive. Do you understand what's going on? You're saying, so what is it in your life that you have that you think makes you better than someone?
Well, what is it in your life that wasn't given to you? You think you've made it happen. But what is it that really wasn't given to you by a greater power? That means you don't have anything in your life that wasn't given you by God. And yet you think those things make you better.
Notice what it is. Look at the verse.
Now if thou didst receive it, And you did, by the way. Why dost thou glory? as if thou hadst not Received it. Do you understand that? God is saying he sees our weakness in that.
We differentiate and we kind of compare ourselves to people. And God says, What is it you think makes you different from another person? If you think what makes you different is because you have something that they don't, or you can do something that they don't, God says, What is it that you have that I haven't given you? And the answer is nothing. Everything you and I have.
God's given. And then, what God is saying here, well, then, if you were given it, why do you act like. You weren't given it. If I gave it to you, why are you acting like you're the reason for it? Man, it's a really, really good verse.
I mean, I say this. You say, well, preacher, I want to commit. I want to try my best to. Make sure I go from a haughty spirit to a humble spirit. Let me just give you these quick principles and we're done.
Number one. These are just some scriptural principles. Ask the Holy Spirit to change your fundamental beliefs. about who you are. and what you can do.
Look at this verse, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5. Casting down imaginations, we've dealt with this verse a bunch. And every high thing that exalteth itself against God. And by the way, many times that's just us. We think so highly of ourselves that we exalt ourselves against God.
Notice what he says: bring into captivity every thought. Don't you let yourself start thinking more of yourself than you should. Don't you let yourself start thinking that you've accomplished it, that maybe you're better because God's given you something, and now you think you're better than another person. Dear friend, we're not better because God gave us something, God's the one that gave it to us. We can't take credit for it.
Right.
So, you know what, you and I are just going to have to ask God to change. our fundamental beliefs. About us. They're imaginations. We begin to start thinking that.
That's how we start looking at it. That's our perspective about things. And it's a wrong perspective. We're going to have to cast down those kind of thoughts and those kind of imaginations. We're going to have to bring those things into captivity.
We can't let ourselves begin to think that way. Notice number two, meditate on scripture. and allow it to become part of your spiritual fiber. Or our principal, Psalm 119. Verse 11, thy word.
have I hid in my heart. that I might not sin against thee. Can I tell you something? It used to be that I would have to print out a sheet, and I've done that here before, but I listen, I don't even have to do that right now, and I'll be glad if you need that. I'll be glad to do it for you.
But can I tell you something? You've got enough stuff on your phone. It is very easy for you to look up Bible verses on humility. Just look them up. Copy and paste them on a little document.
Constantly read them. Let scripture become part of your spiritual fiber. Number three, it's just biblical. That's what God says to do. Hide God's word.
So that you can Fight against this kind of evil. Notice number three. Focus your attention and interest on others. and speak less of yourself. We can become so full of ourselves that we develop a haughty spirit.
Let me read you the verse, James 1.19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Slow to speak. You ever been around somebody that I don't care what you're talking about?
somehow within three Within 30 seconds, they've made it about them. Come on, how many of you? By an amen. Don't you dread getting around them? You dread to have to have a conversation because you know whatever I whatever I bring up It's going to be about them.
They can't help it. May I say this in all honesty? I struggle with that. And I'll tell you why. Because my wife will tell you she's been witness to this and she's had to help me with this.
I so am intent on connecting with people. And I happened to grow up on the road in evangelism. I happened to have been to every Yeah. State, all the states. I've been to all of them.
I've been to foreign countries and different things. I'm no more experienced than a lot of other people, but I'm just telling you, I did have a childhood very different from a lot of people. And if I meet somebody and they come up and like, where are you from? And somehow, a lot of the time, they'll say something. I have a connection with it.
We have a couple of folks that were here this afternoon. Our deaf ministry had a lunch for people that are helping in the classes and taking classes and taking signs. We had a couple from the Philippines, a brother and sister from the Philippines, talking to them today and finding out where they were. And he's from Manila area, and that's near where I was. And here's what I'm saying: that sometimes my attempt to connect.
Is as soon as I find out something about them, I'll try to tell them what in my life connects with that.
Now that sounds innocent, doesn't it? Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192.
or via the web. at Kerwin Baptist Church.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you.
