Pride: Bringing Home The Beacon Series

Long Branch Baptist Church

Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Enter to Worship

Prelude David Witt

Meditation & Invocation Psalm 8

*Opening Hymn #182

“For the Beauty of the Earth”

Welcome & Announcements

Morning Prayer [See Insert]

*Hymn #622

“Humble Thyself”

*Responsive Lesson [See Right]

*Hymn #633

“Open our Eyes, Lord”

Offertory Mr. Witt

*Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise him above, ye heavenly host / Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

*Scripture Romans 12:3; James 4:10

Sermon

“Bringing Home the Beacon”

Invitation Hymn #147

“How Great Thou Art”

*Benediction

*Congregational Response

May the grace of Christ our Savior / And the Father’s boundless love

With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.

* Congregation, please stand.

Depart To Serve

RESPONSIVE LESSON

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are.

Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.

The Lord mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble.

I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart.

You rescue the humble, but your eyes watch the proud and humiliate them.

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

So humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus:

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ro 12:3;Pr 11:2;16:18;29:23;3:34;1 Pe 5:6;

Ps 34:2;2 Sa 22:28;2 Ch 7:14;Php 2:3-11;

ANNOUNCEMENTS

THE NEXT FEW SUNDAYS WE’LL BE TREATED TO SOME GREAT GUEST PREACHERS:

4/29 MIDDLEBURG HOSTS FMR PASTOR, REV. CHAN GARRETT

5/6 REV. JOE ANDERSON

5/13 OUR OWN BILL MATLACK

I WILL BE HERE 5/6, BUT WILL BE OUT OF TOWN FRI 5/11 – SUN 5/13. IF NEEDED, YOU CAN REACH ME N MY CELL PHONE (703) 307-0065.

5/20, 7PM, IS OUR SONG SERVICE. MARSHALL AND MIDDLEBURG BAPTIST CHOIRS WILL BE HERE, AND A COLLECTION WILL BE TAKEN FOR COREY KEELEY.

PRAYER LIST

Long Branch Church

Cory Keely; Andy Phelps

Debbie Grigsby; Susan Schulz

Warren Lee; Martha Puryear

Irene Griffith

Steve, Jeff, Zane, Bruce

and other missionaries in Central Asia

JAMES 4:6, 10

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. … 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Title: Bringing Home the Beacon

Text: James 4:10 (Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up)

MP: Confidence is good, Arrogance is bad, and the grace of humility is needed to see which is which.

Outline:

1. Story of Henry Winstanley

2. Confidence is Good

a. Confidence can get things done

b. Self-Esteem can be overrated

c. But to denigrate God’s workmanship isn’t right either (Rom 12:3)

3. Arrogance is Bad

a. Lighthouse joke – it’s all about perspective

b. Arrogance is blindness

4. Humility lets us see which is which

a. Humility comes from the word ‘humus’ (earth)

b. C.S. Lewis definition of humility (the cathedral)

5. See the power – God lifts up, not us. He’s better at it anyway

Henry Winstanley never for lacked for confidence. Becoming a man as England was becoming the mercantile juggernaut in the late 1600s, Henry Winstanley was a man who knew how to make a name for himself. He made his money as a showman, and then invested it in ships. A proud man, he knew that confidence was key to success. He knew what it meant to bet it all on a good hunch.