 It's one thing to talk about how everyone else failed, but Corey, what about how you failed? I used to think that I was the toughest, no matter what. I was the best, no matter what, that nothing can stop me. Part of that came, this little competitive nature came from having all these brothers. I was the youngest of all the boys in the family. I think there was one boy cousin that was younger than me, but all the other boys in the family, brothers and cousins, they were all older than me. So in order to hang around them, I had to do what they did and there could be no excuses. And I made it in my mind that I'll do what they could do and I'll beat them at what they can do. Sometimes I had successes, sometimes I didn't. That was part of the problem. Now, it helped me, but it also hurt me. Why? Because when you feel like you're invincible and then you get some successes, then guess what? Who do you give the credit to? Especially if you're not a Christian, you give the credit to yourself. Now, let's be clear. That word that I'm describing, that thing that I'm describing, that's called pride. That's called arrogance. I would boast in myself. I would think about how I could accomplish something, that there could be nothing stopping me. To some degree, there's something positive about that in that you want to have confidence and you don't want to be a, you don't want to have a self-defeating attitude, but there can be a thin line between confidence and sin. And here's the difference. Confidence becomes sin when the trust that you have is in yourself and not in God. It's okay to believe that you can do it if God is working in you, but that's not what I believed. I believed that it was all me. Now, obviously I thought that before I became a Christian, but that carried over. Once I became a Christian, I still believed that I was, when it came to sports, the fastest, the best, I could jump higher. Even if I wasn't the strongest, you couldn't stop me no matter what I had more heart than you. That was kind of my thought. That was my mentality, whether it came to athletics, whether it came to something in the classroom, whether it came to something just in general, I was going to win. But Paul makes a statement. He says, don't think too highly of yourself. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to. He also says that if any man thinks he stands, take heed, lest you fall. As a matter of fact, not even really lest you fall, you will fall. And the reason why I fell is because, well, I was just proud. I thought that I was strong enough to handle whatever. And the Bible says, Paul says that when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. Why? Because when you weak, you lean on God. But what if you don't think that you're weak? If you don't think that you're weak, then you won't recognize that you are weak, even if you are. And so if you think you're strong, why in the world would you ever lean on God? Paul says that if we're going to boast, we should boast in the Lord, but not me. I was boasting in myself. And the truth is, guys, I didn't start off thinking that way. Even as a Christian, I didn't think that I was boasting in myself. As a matter of fact, I didn't think that I was really trusting in myself. Looking back on it, it's clear as day, but at the time in the middle of it, I couldn't see it. When the Bible says that pride comes for the fall, without question. The problem is, though, you don't realize how proud you are, even if people say it to you. You think that it's them. They're just either kind of weak or emotionally soft, not very strong themselves. But maybe they see something that you see because truth be told, none of us, none of us can see what others see. And a person that's arrogant, boastful, strong, they don't see the weakness that other people see because, again, they think they're strong, such as it was with me. I had amassed some successes in life and felt like that, you know what? I accomplished this. I accomplished that. Even when I messed up, I could overcome these mess ups and turn those mess ups into successes and who got the credit? God, God, even when I was a Christian, I would, you know, kind of in passing, which is easy. It's easy to in passing say, God bless me, but God bless me because of who I am. I gave God something to bless. And that is a dangerous attitude because you don't realize how close you are to being destroyed. In Opah 1, the prophet is speaking about the arrogance of people, the arrogance of their heart. And they'll even say in their heart that who will bring me down. You don't think that that's what you're saying. But the truth is that really is, in essence, what you're saying. When people pat you on the back. When I say people pat you on the back, I mean men and women. Obviously someone of the opposite sex, when they pat you on the back or they say nice things or flattering things, well, that goes to your head. You might even say to yourself, I'm glad you see what's obvious, right? That's the arrogance side of you. Because, listen, it makes you feel good when someone of the opposite sex does take a notice, even if you have no intent on doing anything or being with that person, it just feels good when someone notices. But can I be honest with you? Even more so when someone of the same sex. Because ever since we were little, who have we competed with? Who have we measured ourselves against? Someone of the same sex. So men would measure themselves against other men, women with other women. The truth be told and someone might disagree, but it's a fact. You can take it to the bank. I don't care if you disagree. If you do so, it's because you are just not willing to accept the truth. The opinions of men matter more to a man than the opinions of a woman. Same thing with a woman. We compare ourselves with others and what they think does matter. And the person says, I don't care what you think. That's the person who doesn't want you to know that he does care what people think because that's just the way human beings are wired. If the attention that we seek is negative and we do seek it, we all are insecure. Let's just be honest. Every single person on the planet is insecure to some degree. It's the truly insecure people who will say that they're not. But we all are. We are emotionally fragile. And when you start having some successes, it builds up that it builds up a wall, a hard shell around your emotionally soft side. And so when things were going well, what did I think? I'm not going to let anything fail. As a matter of fact, my pride would not allow it to fail. Matter of fact, even more so, my pride wouldn't allow people to know that things weren't going as well. So my thought was, since I can fix anything I've done in the past, I can fix this, even if it meant to resort to illegal means. Why? Because I'll eventually fix it. I'll fix it. And then guess what? Covered up, no harm, no foul. And guess who still looks like the hero? Me. Because guess what? I don't mess up. But again, pride comes before the fall. Even if you don't think it's pride, God knows what it is. First of all, God is not going to get any glory out of your sin. He will get glory out of breaking you because of your sin. And that's what he did. Now, the good news for me is it's better to be who you are after being broken by God versus on your way to being broken or in the process of being broken. After you've been broken, and you can kind of look back and see how things were, where you failed that, and know the mistakes that you made, and decide that you're not going to do those again, it's much better to be in that position. So I'm thankful that I'm on the other side. Do I boast? I boast all the time in the Lord. I boast about His work. There's nothing good or great about me. And I make that known. I am $5 worth of dirt on a good day. And guess what? That's YouTube. But for me, I recognize there's nothing good in me. There's nothing of value in me. As a matter of fact, give me the opportunity to do the right thing. Lead up to my own devices to do the right thing. I'll do the wrong thing. Why? Because that's just how flawed and fallen I am. And I wish I could have had that idea before, but I put too much stock in me. And so the reason why I fail in business, in ministry, and even almost in my family life, is because of my pride. Not wanting to share with people my weaknesses, not wanting to let folks know, not necessarily the particular weaknesses, but just that I am weak, that I'm frail, like everyone else, putting on this tough outward appearance. That's what will get you in trouble. Now, there are people who fall in ministries, specifically, who should never have been in ministry. Any of the other positions as well. But specifically, ministry, who never should have been there in the first place. If you're in a position that you should not be in, that God knows you should not be in, well then a fall is soon to come. Now, hopefully the fall won't be as great or as graphic, but depending upon how proud, how both of the individual is, then he's gonna have a great fall. God has no problem. And I mean no problem making an example of you, whether you are called or supposed to be in ministry or not. And that brings me to me. I believe without question that I should be in ministry, that I wanted to devote the rest of my life in serving the Lord. But I can't do it under my own terms. And so what will God do to get you to see? He will break you. Ask David, did God wanna use David even after his fall? Sure, but he wanted David to have something that he didn't have before. A broken and contrite heart. Because guess what David didn't do? David did not suffer great defeats. David grew up kind of humbly, but he would always have successes. As a matter of fact, he would tout his successes. How he touted his successes previously was how the Lord would use him to deliver the sheep out of the hands of a lion or the paw of a bear. But after these successes, what ends up happening is especially when people sing praises to you because you've defeated Goliath and so forth and won wars like the people of Israel were doing, singing great songs, it goes to your head. And so what happens, you fall. But like David said, a broken and contrite heart, that's the sacrifices that God is looking for. A broken and contrite heart. He wants a clean vessel to work with. And oftentimes it takes a breaking and a putting back together by God to do so. And so guys, if you don't ever hear me say anything else that's of value, hear this. Do not let pride go to your head. But Cory, I'm not a proud person. Well, even if you say that you're a confident person, if your boast is in you or your ability, if you think highly about what you can do, then you are on your way, my friend. I'm sorry to say you are on your way to a fall. Why? Because you're being proud. And that is an abomination to God. How dare we, how dare me, think that I can do anything. I cannot. And so for me to say, to think, to act like, to pretend like that I'm in control, no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm barely hanging on. If it were not for the Lord, who knows where I'd be. And so even though it's a thin line, it's a steep fall from confidence to pride. Confidence though, and that in and of itself can also be a sin, as long as the confidence is in God. Don't trust or lean to your own understandings, but acknowledge him and all your ways. And he will direct your path. But I promise you, if you're leaning on your own understanding, who knows where you're gonna end up? Well, wherever you're gonna end up, wherever you end up, you won't like it. And so how did I fall? Why did I fall? Pride. How would you fall? If you're going to fall, pride. Why? Because pride is the root of sin. Me, me, me. Don't fall victim to pride. Amen.