If you have your Bibles, turn to James chapter 4. You're at the age, well most of you, I see some of you must be parents or grandparents here, but some of you, most of you here are at the age of your life is, most of your life is ahead of you. Some of you are still wondering what you're going to do with your life. You have aspirations. Some of you just want to be married.

Some of you want a career. Some of you are dreaming about the future. What does life hold for you? I remember being a young man, loved basketball, and I would dream about the glory of being some basketball star. I'd just daydream about it.

I'd go play in the backyard and shoot, and somehow I had an audience watching me. No one was there, but I would pretend like people were watching me and I was the star and I won the game. I mean, I couldn't help but daydream about glory, about receiving glory, wanting glory. I couldn't help it. I think at your age you're wanting glory.

You need glory, you want it. In some way or some fashion. Some of you have some ambitious desires, unrealistic aspirations, some of you have realistic aspirations. Some of you don't think you're going to amount to much, and you're down on yourself, and you're on... And it's a form of pride.

Woe is me, I'm nothing. That's a form of pride, and it's not healthy. But you want something. And I'm here to tell you that God's put that in you. God's put something in you to to achieve greatness, to want to be great.

To want glory. We heard Paul tell us that that's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing to want glory, to want honor, to want your life to count for something. No one wants their life to mean nothing, to be pointless, to live, to die, and no one remembers you. You know, we want a statue when we're dead because we're wanting to think that our life counted, that we're remembered, that we did something worthwhile, we gave our life to something bigger than ourselves.

We're seeking glory And you should seek it. You should seek immortality to do something that will be remembered forever. You know, if you could just have some ointment and put it upon the feet of Christ and know that that would be recorded and forever and ever you would be remembered for something you did. Something that you did and something that would be praised and wouldn't be forgotten. You know in hell, in hell no one's remembering the accolades of all the movie stars.

No one cares anymore. It's short-lived. You want people to like your Facebook post. You want, oh, I got 10 likes. I got 100 likes.

And it's just soon gone. The next day you don't remember. You have to repost something. And you go from seeking some form of recognition or praise or glory from man or from your peers and you find that you're just living a life that's empty and What to do? Well in James chapter 4, 1 through 10, we learned the wrong way and the right way to seek glory.

Now I'm not here to review the first five verses to Show you us the wrong way of seeking glory, but we want to focus This morning on the right way how to find glory the path way to glory get put me on the path That in the end of my days, there'll be honor. There'll be praise. There'll be glory To know that my life actually counted for something. Put me on that path. But let me tell you quickly the wrong path.

It's the lie of Satan, and it's a path that we've been on, you've been on it, some of you probably are still on it. It's a pathway of pursuing glory, but it leads to nothing but shame and disgrace, a feeling of emptiness, worthlessness. We're not going to go back, but if you go back to James chapter 3 and you look at the difference between the wisdom that's from above and the wisdom that's from below, heavenly wisdom and demonic wisdom is this. Heavenly wisdom is humility, servitude, lowliness. Demonic wisdom is used the word selfish ambition.

Selfish ambition. That's the lie of Satan. That's the lie of the world. That if you're gonna Live your life and get something out of it. You're gonna have to be focused on number one, yourself.

Gotta live for yourself. You have to have some ambition, but the ambition is self-serving. Selfish ambition. So we come to the end of James chapter 3 and we learn that selfish ambition is demonic. And then we see in the first few verses of James chapter 4 where this demonic self ambition pride leads.

It's the wrong way to glory, but it's the way that seems natural. If I'm going to receive glory, then I've got to promote myself. I've got to lift myself up. I've got to seek glory for self and I have to seek the praise of men. But we see that that form of glory, living for the world, living for now, living for self, is destructive.

It leads to shame. We see the pride of life, seeking fame, fortune. This is the way the world. It leads to six Terrible, destructive things. Or let's say three destructive things.

When you're self-ambitious, when you're prideful, arrogant, it'll ruin your relationships. That's what it says. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you. Why do you fight with your brother and your sister and your parents? Why do you fight with your friends?

Why do you fight with people around you? Why are you not getting along with? Why are you hard to live with? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder, you covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

So the problem is that you're self-focused and you're seeking after the world. You want more. You're not content. You want this world. You've got to have it.

And because you can't have and you're discontent and you you're longing for something and you can never obtain it. You always have to have the new pair of shoes and the new clothes and you just can't be satisfied with what you want. There's an internal disruption in your heart and your conscience and you're frustrated and you're so frustrated that frustration bleeds out on your friends. Why are you fighting? It's because there's a deep-seated discontentment.

Because you're looking for this world to satisfy you and it can't and it frustrates you. Thus it leads you to fight and feud with your friends. This is why it happened. It ruins your relationships. We could go on and talk about the importance of relationships for the meaning of life.

The most important things is being destroyed because you're looking for the things of this world that cannot satisfy you. So that leads to shame and disgrace. But secondly, selfish ambition destroys your prayer life. This is what verses two and three says. It destroys it in two ways.

One, it causes you, when you're worldly-minded, loving the world and things of the world and seeking for yourself to attain the wealth and health and prosperity that the world offers you, you leave off praying. You do not have because you do not ask. The reason you're not happy, the reason you're not satisfied, the reason You're not finding the things you're looking for, it's because you're not asking. You're not looking for it from God. Looking for it from the world.

You're not asking. So it leads to you leaving off your prayer life, thus you're miserable. But also, when you do pray, you're praying the wrong way, for the wrong things. Verse 3, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You see, You're praying for the wrong things.

You're praying for this world. Be careful that you don't make an idol out of looking for a spouse. Rather delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart. See, when you focus on the wrong things, It will lead your prayer life to be destroyed. Thirdly, selfish ambition destroys your experiential relationship with God.

I'm not saying that as a Christian it will undo your relationship with God, but it will remove the sweetness of it because it's considered spiritual adultery. Verse 4 says, you're adulterous people. Now he's talking to, I think, professing Christians. Do you not know, I mean, how can a non-Christian be an adulterer when it comes to the things of God? How can unbelievers cheat on God?

You adulterous people. Do you not know friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You're cheating on God when you're seeking glory in this world. You know what it's like, you know, you got a new shirt, you stand up a little taller and you're like, I hope Sister So-and-so sees me.

You're seeking glory in your possessions. The Bible makes it clear that life is more than the things that you own That this is not where glory is The glory is not in what you drive or don't drive There's no glory in that that's superficial Glory vain glory don't seek that don't give your life to that That's not gonna make your life more meaningful more purposeful. Don't give your life to this world. It's spiritual adultery. And it provokes God to jealousy.

We see that in verse 5. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealousy over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? God has put his spirit in you and the Father is jealous over you. I mean could you imagine your mother cheating on your father and what that would do to your father? Are your father cheating on your mother?

How that would cause him to be jealous with a righteous jealousy? Don't you realize when you go after this world, when you give your life, you're still young and you still got your future ahead of you if you're gonna go I got to make money and I got to have a career and I have to have this stuff do you not realize you who claim to be a Christian that that that pursuit causes God the Father to be envious and jealous towards you? He says, you're mine. I'm espoused to you. You belong to me.

I belong to you. And you're going away from me. You're finding your fulfillment or seeking to find your fulfillment outside of me? You see, this is the wisdom of the world, it's demonic. You and I have bought into it.

And outside the grace of God. And even as Christians be honest with your soul be honest with your conscience you've done it this week you've been distracted some Psalm. You've caused the Lord to be jealous? And what is that? That's your shame.

That's your shame. Could you imagine your mother, your sweet mother, I'm imagining you all have sweet mothers. You have sweet mothers. Could you imagine your mother behind your father's back and you didn't know about it that she's cheating on your on your father and then you find out about it? Would that not be so disgraceful?

Would you look at your mother and go, how could you have done that? I thought you were sweet. I thought you were loving. I thought you loved the Lord. I thought you loved my dad.

And then look at what you're doing it would be the disgrace it would be shame it would be embarrassing she would have to crawl under the table and there's a Just notice that. How embarrassing. Do you feel embarrassed? Do you feel ashamed? Do you want to go on the day of judgment on the day of judgment and you go hey as a Christian I went after this world and I gave my life for this world and I sought selfish ambition, I sought self-praise, I sought to get all that I could, that's what I gave my life for after God gave his life for me!

Is that what you want with your life? Is that how you're gonna put the directory of your life to seek selfish ambition? I promise you it will end in disgrace and shame and embarrassment and you'll have nothing to show for your life at the end of your days. John 12 43 says they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Set your heart today to say I'm going to live not for the praise of man.

Jesus says I didn't come here to seek the praise of man. I don't receive it. I don't care about it. I'm coming here for the praise of my Father. I'm living for Him.

Set your heart today. Today I'm going to seek his approval. I want the glory that comes from him. I want him to be proud of me. I fear him.

I've referenced him. I want his Respect. I want his. I want the glory that comes from God, not from man. How do you get that?

How do you find that? Now this is a long-term objective because this is not something I want you to say, hey today I'm gonna get this glory no this is the end of your life you're living for eternity you're living for the day the Lord comes back you're living for the day that the Lord takes your life I've been I've been privileged I've been privileged to be by the death and see the death of many of God's precious saints. I've watched them die. I've watched them monitor flat-out multiple times. Live for that day.

Live for that day. Live for your day of death. Make that the end objective. That's the race, that's the finish line. They say, I'm living for that day.

I'm not gonna live for today, I'm living to the end. To the end when Christ takes me home. I'm actually living for the moment that I get out of this world and I see Jesus face to face I'm living for that moment when I first see him and I want to know what he's going to say to me the first thing he's gonna say to me I'm living for that moment what do you need to do six things as John 5 44 says seek the glory that comes from God. Six things to seek that glory, to find glory, the pathway to glory is my message. Step number one, first step Step number one, first step to glory is grace.

The pathway to glory begins with God's grace. Look at verse six. Now he's calling us spiritual adulterers that provoke God to jealousy, and that's true of us. Be honest, that's true of you. What do you do?

What do you do when you realize that you've committed adultery on God? What do you do? How do you recover as Christians? Now, I don't know what's more remarkable. I don't.

For God to be merciful to you, a wretched sinner, and give you conversion and regeneration when you did not know Him. You know, you were running from God, you weren't seeking God, and he come chasing after you and he gave you grace. That was gracious. Grace, unmerited grace. You didn't deserve it.

You deserved wrath, shame, disgrace. He came to you. Is that more gracious or is it more gracious for God after he illuminates your heart, gives you the law, writes his law on your heart, gives you a new nature, and then you go cheating on him? You know, you can't say ignorance. You can't say I was spiritually blind, I was dead.

I didn't know what I was doing. No, you didn't know what you were doing. You've tasted the goodness of God. How do you recover? What's the pathway forward?

When even as a Christian you've you, even as a Christian you've take God out of the equation, you take grace out of the equation. All you've done, and let's be honest, all you and I have done to add to the equation of our lives is add shame and disgrace to our name and to God's name. Even worse. What do we do? How do we get out of the hole that we've dug?

How do we cure our disease? How do we get back on track? How do we get on the path of glory when we have been traveling on the path of shame? I love this verse, but it gives more grace. He gives more grace.

You don't go, okay, I gotta get glory, I gotta work harder, I gotta repent better, I've got to. Now we'll get to the effort in a minute but it doesn't begin with your effort. It doesn't begin with like okay I've got to undo my shame and start start proving myself as a champion For the faith. I'm just going to out pray everybody. I'm just gonna you can't do it even selfish Desires of that nature is is self-defeating because you're looking for some bad way of getting God's attention You gotta remember that you stand by the grace of God.

That it's by grace, not by works. But he gives more grace, he says, therefore it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. How do you walk in grace? How do you have grace to go on to the future? You've got to humble yourself.

You've got to come to the point like, I don't deserve glory. I don't deserve God's praise. I deserve shame and disgrace and I humble myself before God. You have to go back to the well of grace every morning. Say, Lord, oh Lord, I know I'm your child.

I know you've given me grace. You've saved me. You've been merciful to me. But Lord, I need more. I need grace for today.

You know what God says? I have more. I have more. But he has more grace. You don't just get a little bit of grace to get started and hopefully you don't run out of it.

You begin with grace, you remain in grace, you end with grace. You'll find out on that day when you die, it is all been by grace. I think when God says, here's your crown, and you feel like, oh, there's a little glory that God's recognized we're going to be going take it back take it back I am only what I am I am I got here I got here to this day only by your grace it was grace that kept me it was grace that sustained me it's grace from start to finish and whatever glory I have is actually your glory it's your praise isn't it glorious isn't it glorious no no matter what you've done what no matter where you are at no matter how you feel no matter what weaknesses that you feel is in your bosom and you say, I just can't do it, Lord, this is hard, I'm struggling, I'm lonely, I wish I could be married and I'm not happy this and I'm just I feel like life is I'm just worried I'm big. Isn't it wonderful that God Sustains you by grace And you can go back with grace, looking for grace.

I'm telling you, this is why this is step number one. Don't do it in your own power. Don't think that you can just muster your way in and seek glory because you can do it. No, humble yourself and seek grace. God will give it to you.

It's a promise. He gives more grace to the humble. Humble yourself before God. Be lowly in your own estimation and God will give you grace. The Bible says, from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

We move one day to the next within the grace of God. Romans 5 2 says we stand in the grace of God. There's grace for you who have yet not come to the Lord. You haven't committed a spiritual adultery because you're not a Christian. Let me urge you that you can come to grace.

If you see that your life is a shame, you're ashamed of your life. In fact, you can't be saved until you know that your life is a shame. You're embarrassed. You have nothing to take to God. You come to the end of yourself and say, hey, I have nothing to show God.

There's There's grace for you and for you who are Christians. You. You. You. You.

Me. Me. Me. I need grace. I need grace.

But there's grace to be received. There's grace to be gotten. Start there. Seek glory by seeking grace. There's no other way outside of grace.

Second step. Surrender yourself to God. I did that when I was seven, no I mean do that now. It says in verse seven, submit yourselves therefore to God. Every day you need grace and every day you need to crucify your flesh.

You need to submit resubmit your life. There's no glory in being the Lord of your life. That's the message of Satan. Rise up, be captain. Rise up, be the chief.

Rise up, no one's gonna tell you how to live. Rise up, you pursue your own dreams. No. There's no glory that way. But shame and disgrace.

Submit. Become low. Come underneath God's will and commands. Turn away from worldliness and selfish ambition. I will tell you something about my son.

I have a 14-year-old son, he'll be at this conference, but the Lord saved him when he was 12 and I was so mad at him. I was so mad at him, I was going to have that pornography talk. And, because someone told me by the age of 12 most kids have seen pornography in the day that we live in. I was like this cannot be true. Not my son.

No, not my son. But how do I know? How do I know if he has or not? And so I was gonna go talk to my boy, I was gonna talk to my boy and I was like, okay, work up the courage to talk to him about this topic that I don't want to talk to him about. He's 12 years old, I don't want to introduce, you know, as a parent you don't want to introduce a concept that their minds completely off that concept.

You don't want to introduce that concept to them. It's like the wisdom of knowing how to handle such a conversation and I remember him coming to me. He's like Martin I need to talk to you this really serious He goes what dad? And at the time he he played with these little toys They're called blade blades or little top thing spins You spin them and he had several of them. It was easy for his birthday, I knew what he wanted, I just bought him one of those, 12 bucks.

You know, and he carries them around and plays with them and I knew that was the toy of interest for him and he had one in his hand and I said Martin and that for some reason I I didn't talk to him about pornography I couldn't do it but I did talk to him about his soul and I said to Martin I said Martin why have you not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ? Why have you not surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why? Why? You're 12 years old.

What's kept you from surrendering to the Lord? He goes, I don't know. I said, well, Do you love your toys? I mean you're more interested in your toys than God. Do you love your toys more than God?

I mean God would say you have to surrender that and give that up and forsake that. Is that you're going to go to hell because you love that little toy in your hand? And it made me so mad. I was so furious with him. He looked at me in the face and says, I guess I do.

I can't, I wouldn't, couldn't give this up. And I almost went unglued on my boy. I was like, what are you talking about? You fool. You're full.

You're gonna go to hell because of a stupid twelve dollar toy? I said Martin what would you do if I said, and his bedroom is upstairs, I said if you go upstairs and clean your room what would you do if you if What do you think I would do to you? He said I wouldn't want to find out. I said you're telling God no. What do you think he's going to do to you?

He went upstairs and I just began to weep before my son. I said, Lord have mercy upon him. I'm so sorry that he's treating you this way. He's mad at him. He came back down 10, 15 minutes later with his toys in his hands.

I don't want them no more. I want God. He can have them. That's what you and I have to do every day on the pathway to glory. Selfish ambition.

I hope God provides you a spouse. It's a good thing. Marriage is wonderful. Don't make it an idol. Surrender your life.

Say, Lord, if you don't want that from me, I'm your vessel. I'm your vessel. I've been bought with a price. I don't belong to myself. I go wherever you send me.

I'll do whatever you ask me to do, I'll give you my life, I'll give you everything I have, if I don't have much silver or gold, take my life, take my soul, commission me, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to do, I'll do whatever, whatever command you tell me, I'm going to be willfully your servant surrender yourself to the Lord there's no group if you want grace humble yourself surrender if you want to be saved forsake your mother father brother sister yay even your own self The third thing on the pathway to glory is, and you're gonna have to do this, there's no way to heaven without fighting Satan. I don't want to fight him. Is there a pathway around this? Is there any glory without fighting the evil one? Do I have to fight Satan?

Do I have to fight his demonic forces? Here's a command, resist the devil. He's after you. That selfish ambition is the wisdom from below. It's demonic.

Satan is always whispering it into your ear. You want glory, You've got to have the praise of man. You want glory? You've got to have your possessions. You want glory?

You got to live for yourself. You want glory? You've got to have this world. That's the whispering of Satan and he's after your soul. He's after your glory.

He wants you to have shame and disgrace and you're gonna have to resist them you're gonna have to fight him you're gonna have to bow up and face the devil resist him Ephesians 4 17 do not give the devil a foothold this includes cutting off all temptation Make no provision for the desires of the flesh. Some young man says, I've been counseling with him, he's been dealing with pornography, and he's had some victory and victory and victory and victory and victory, and finally he's got all the software on his phone and finally he came to me and he's like, the Lord's really been helping me, really helping me here, but I'm still got a back door into something and I sometimes find myself looking at some stuff that I shouldn't. It's not as bad as it used to be and I said, why are you still having a smartphone for? Make no provision. Cut off your right hand.

I mean this... Fight Satan. Resist him. Proverbs 7 says it's the fool who walks by the harlot's house. And the fool doesn't want to go into the harlot's house.

He doesn't want to actually partake. He just wants to be curious enough to see what the house looks like. Lead me not, we're to pray, into temptation, but we often leave temptation around us, purposefully. Cut it off. Resist Satan.

He'll flee. You don't have to fear him. You want some glory? I don't know who's the weakest one of you. I mean it's me.

I know I'm the weakest one. But the second weakest one out there. I don't know. Let's just say it's you. Yeah.

Let's pretend. Okay, you're the second weakest person in this room. Our weakest guy's gonna beat Satan! I mean the weakest one of us is going to overcome Satan and to overcome Satan and crush Satan's head under his foot that is glory good job you can do it You may feel like you're the weakest one and you just may be, but greater is He in you than He in the world. You don't have to fear Satan.

You're going to have to face Him. But you're going to be overcomers. You're going to overcome. Just believe This is the victory, your faith which overcomes the world. Resist Satan, he will flee from you.

Poor fleet. Oh, this is important. Pursue God. Look at verse 8. Hey, resist Satan, he'll flee from you.

Pursue God and he'll come to you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. I mean what a promise. What a promise. What a promise.

Do you understand that? Do you understand how close he is to you? Do you understand that you could have God coming after you? Could you understand that? Draw near it?

He's like, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready to draw near to you. I'm ready. You've made me envious and jealous. You provoke me to jealousy, but I'm ready to come back. I'm ready to fellowship with you.

I'm ready to have communion again. You know, we don't just simply fight Satan and worldliness by just saying, I'm not going to do that no more. I'm not going to do that no more. I'm not going to do that no more. You can't just live in a void and take stuff out of your life.

You got to feel it Jerry bridges says how then can we deal with our tendency towards worldliness? Is it not by determining that we will not be worldly? But by committing ourselves to become more godly. Psalm 27 eight, you have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, oh Lord, do I seek.

The Lord tells you, come. He's asking you, seek me. Draw near to me. Come after me. It's a command, But it's also a promise.

It's a sweet promise. You can have as much of God as you want. How much do you want? More of Him? More of Jesus?

Seek Him. Psalm 16, 11, you make known to me the path of life in your presence. There is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. You know who's going to have the most glory in heaven?

Those who are closest to God. You know who has the most glory here on earth It's not Michael Jordan It's not these disgraceful shameful movie stars They don't have any glory another shame It's that old lady that prays and has sweet communion with God every day. That's glory. The psalmist says, my glory is God, that I know God. I know God.

Don't glory in your strength, the Bible says, or your wisdom. Glory in this, that you know God. Or more than that, that God knows you. I can't explain it. I can't explain it.

I can't explain it. But the God who created the heavens and the earth knows my name. He knows me. I'm bragging. Let me brag a little more.

I talk to him. He listens to me. He listens to me. Oh, you'll go from this conference, I got to meet Paul Warshur. I'll give you a little feather in your cat.

Good. You're looking at someone is that actually God listens to. And here's our weakest Christian and he listens to him too. I like picking on him, he's a happy guy. But isn't that amazing?

That you can know God and you do know God and He knows you? Seek Him. That's glory. Fifth, pursue holiness. Look at verse 8.

Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded. Now he's talking to spiritual adulterers that have provoked God to jealousy And not that God has left them, but they have left God. They have left their glory in pursuit after shame and disgrace. What do you do? You need grace.

You start with grace. You don't clean yourself up, then go get grace. You come to God in your sins. Let me go back to a point because this is, I think, important. You who are struggling, if you're struggling here with a sin, especially you men, you're struggling with a sin and you don't want no one to know.

In fact, you'd be so embarrassed. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if, I don't know you men, I, Young men, I actually assume that this is the best group in the world right here. I actually believe that. I believe probably you're probably some of the best people in the world in this. I'm not, I don't know you personally enough to know that you're not, but I wouldn't be surprised that some of you haven't done some disgraceful things this past week.

And how disgraceful is it that you've done that as you knew you was coming to this conference and you're double-minded? You're double-minded. You're committing adultery, but you want to seek the Lord, but you're seeking the world. And it's like you've got to cleanse your hands. And like, okay, we've got to understand this cleansing the hands only comes after you percome to the fountain of grace.

I know I was struggling with a sin when I was in college. I was struggling with it and then I was getting victory and victory then there would be like six months and I would find myself fell back into it like and it was just like a moment just a moment of like then you know what happens when you fall into sin after you had some victory you feel so embarrassed and so shameful you know no one watched it no one saw it and only God's seeing it and God saw it and it's enough to embarrass you and you're like I can't pray no more I can't go to God I'm not worthy to go to God so you just kind of quit off you lay off praying you lay off seeking the Lord because you don't feel like you can. Why help me more than anything is that in the middle of my sin even before I quit sinning go to God grace But after you find grace, after you find the strength, Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts. You're double-minded.

Commit yourself today. I mean, I want all my love for all this, this whole room, every one of you, every one of us, every one of us, not one missing, not one that's going to go to hell, and not just be Luke 1 Christians and just struggle away through... No, why don't we all be not the... Okay, here's our weakest Christian, but may he be the weakest Christian, is still the strongest Christian in the world. Why not?

Why not? Why not? Why not? John Owen says, we all profess that we are bound for heaven in mortality and glory. But is there any evidence if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world, which we must leave behind us and have only occasional thoughts of things above?

We're not to cleanse our hearts of this lukewarmness, of this double-mindedness, of trying to serve two masters, the world and God. You know, often I have people in my room, I'm counseling, I said, you're the worst sinner and the worst Christian. You're not good at sinning, you're not good at living the Christian life you're walking two paths you're terrible at both go ahead and just choose one if you're gonna be a sinner go ahead and be the best sinner go ahead and live it up I mean do a good job at sinning if that's what you want. But if you say, I don't want that, then stop it. And give your life fully dedicated to pursuing holiness.

Purify your hearts. Do not just honor the Lord with your lips, but your hearts be far from Him. Jesus says you cannot serve two masters. Elijah says how long will you hesitate between two opinions? The Lord is God.

If that's where glory is found, honor and immortality, then follow Him. Set your heart, I'm following the Lord. Put away your distractions. Put them away. Whatever it is, the sin so, the weight of sin that so easily distracts you those besetting sins put them away Six but not least Humble yourself before God look at verse 9 and 10 Be wretched and mourn and weep This is talking about you who know that you're a spiritual adulterer.

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord. You know, you got to go to grace. I mean, okay, You want glory but you don't get glory without coming to terms with your shame.

Be honest. Be honest. I'll be honest for you. Take grace out of your life, take Christ out of your life, and that's all you are. That's all you are.

You've sinned and you've fallen way short of the glory of God. You have not lived your life for his praise and for his glory. You brought shame to him. And bringing shame to God brings shame to yourself. You know when Jesus died on the cross?

When he died, yeah, we know he took the wrath of God, and we know he took a beating. It was physically painful. I don't know which is worse, the physical pain he endured, or the shame he endured. They put the cross right on the highway, not way up on the mountain where no one can see them. They stripped him of his clothes.

I mean, who here would want to be stripped in front of a group? Stripped. Stripped. And be mocked at. They treated him like a sinner.

I'll put it this way, the world treated him as if he did your life. All the shame, the mocking, the ridicule, the jesting. You know, think young men. You have a phone that has data on there that would embarrass you in front of the world. Would you want that to be exposed on CNN or Fox News?

Would you like the Christian community to see your real heart? Do you want to see that? No, you don't. You want that to be covered. Well you know Jesus Christ covered it for you.

He endured that shame and disgrace. He made himself of no reputation and he endured the shame of the cross. He came and took your guilt, your wicked life, And they mocked him and he endured it for the joy that was set before him. For your sake. Humble yourself before God.

Be honest before God that you are nothing. That you deserve what Christ endured. Weep and mourn. Turn your laughter into mourning, your joy to gloom. There's a time to weep.

And maybe this is the day to weep. Maybe this is the day to be honest with your conscious and be clear. Get it cleared out before God and take your shame. Just take it to the Lord. He already sees it.

He already knows it. He's already aware of everything you've done and say, Lord, I take it, I take it, you can see it, oh Lord be merciful to me, I deserve shame and disgrace, oh please cover it, cover it, I deserve it. What's the last phrase here in our text? Humble yourself and He will take you down here and exalt you. He will glorify you.

He will honor you. He will lift you up. He will take you from the rags of society. He'll take you like I'm the worst one in my family. My parents don't know what I've done.

Only God, he'll take you from that low position and he'll lift you up. You see, Pride leads to destruction. Pride comes before disgrace. Self-ambition leads to disgrace. When the wicked are thrown into hell, everybody's going to be mocking them.

Huh, huh, you thought you were great. You're nothing. But humility leads to glory. James 4 says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. First Peter 5-5, clothe yourself all of you with humility towards one another.

For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble Proverbs 11 2 with humility comes wisdom I mean that's with humility comes wisdom and that's glory an honor Proverbs 15 23 humility comes before honor Proverbs 18 12 before honor is humility Proverbs 29 23 a man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor. Luke 14, 11, For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted first Peter 5 6 humble yourself before to the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time not today not today you're not Living for the day you don't need glory right now, but at the proper time he will exalt you set at the lowest seat of the table don't think I'm the best one come in I'm the worst one set at the lowest become the servant don't think that you have to be the Lord come to serve others and minister to others and make yourself loath think of others more highly of them than you think of yourself and at the proper time you will receive the honor of God God will honor you before all what you do in private God will you don't have to look at my long prayers, look at how righteous, you don't have to display yourself, no just be a servant and lowly in your mind and what you do in secret, God will say look at my servant and let me close with this most important thing in my life that motivates me.

It motivates me. I pray that it motivates me. Everything I do, I know I don't do it, but I long for it. I'm like what Paul Washer said yesterday. I long for it with my whole heart.

I want this. I'm shooting for this. I'm waiting for this. I'm learning. I'm trying not to be...

I'm trying to be like Jesus who says I'm not here to get the praise of man I'm not needing your approval I'm praying that I'm more like that I've not reached that I've not obtained that what I'm seeking for but I can tell you this this is what I do want I want this with all my heart I can't wait I can't wait for those words I think the Lord says he'll say this and I I'm praying that he'll say it towards me." Well done. Would you not live for all eternity in the future? All eternity, you know, think forever and ever, on the day that you see Jesus, the Lord Jesus, your Savior, who died for you. If he said, good job. Good job.

That's glory. That's honor. It's one thing for a weak man to honor you and praise you. What are they? But for God that has nothing but glory and honor and majesty for He who is not impressed with the strength of man's legs or the wisdom, He's not impressed with that, but He is impressed with humility and lowliness in the servant's heart.

If he could say, well done, I'm telling you that's the path to glory. May we strive for glory. May God give it to us. Amen.