The Call to Humility
by David K. Bernard
September 25, 2025 · St. Louis, Missouri
Kind: sermon
Scripture: James 4:6, Proverbs 3:34, Titus 2:11-12, Acts 4:33, Romans 6, 1 Peter 5:5-6, Genesis 37, Genesis 38, Genesis 37:26, Genesis 44, Philippians 2:5-8, Luke 4, Matthew 18:4, Matthew 18:6, James 1:21, 2 Timothy 2:24-25, Galatians 6:1, Ephesians 4:1, 1 Peter 3:15, 1 Peter 5:1-5, Psalm 18:27

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--the-call-to-humility
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
Praise God. Amen. You may be seated. I want to say a few comments about this special occasion. You've heard about the 80th anniversary. We've mentioned it some services, but I want to be sure and cover a few things tonight for the sake of the audiences here and the online audience. And let me just say personally, my grandfather Walter Bernard died before I was born, but he was a member of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ. He never made it into the UPC. He died shortly after the merger. My parents, Elton and Loretta Bernard, were credential ministers of the UPCI for over 50 years, pioneer missionaries of the UPCI to Korea. And so I stand here with a great sense of heritage. This pull pit represents that heritage. I had the privilege, I didn't know our first two superintendents, but I had the privilege of at least knowing from a distance our interim superintendent, brother Oliver Foss, and then I had the privilege of working fairly closely at different times with brother Nathaniel, Brother Stanley Chambers, then Brother Nathaniel, then Brother Kenneth Haney.

And so I realize what a great heritage we have. Think about it. Tonight is a historic occasion. 80 years ago on September 24th, 1945, the two largest one Pentecostal organizations met separately right here in St. Louis, a few blocks from here, and each of them voted to merge, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, PAJC, and the Pentecostal Church Incorporated, PCI. That evening, Oliver Foss preached a joint service of the two organizations. His title was God's way out and he presented the message of Acts 2 and verse 38 as the new birth experience. The next morning, September 25th, 1945, that's 80 years ago today, the two groups met jointly right here in St. Louis, a few blocks away, and they voted to merge officially to the day. Isn't that exciting how the Lord orchestrated it? Our editor-inchief, brother Robin Johnson, is particularly happy that a Lord arranged it just so.

They adopted the fundamental doctrine. Let me read our fundamental doctrine. The basic and fundamental doctrine of this organization shall be the Bible standard of full salvation which is repentance, baptism in water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the spirit gives utterance. We shall endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit until we all come into the unity of the faith at the same time admonishing all brethren that they shall not contend for their different views to the disunityity of the body. I believe that message is just as relevant, even more relevant today than it was 80 years ago. As I was looking back on it, I personally knew about 50 ministers who were ministers at the merger and knew from a distance at least another 30.

I had the privilege of sitting down and talking and interviewing some of these ministers. What did you believe back then? What did what did those words mean? I interviewed ministers from the PAJC such as Nathaniel, Stanley Chambers, JT Pew, Gary Mangan, many others and former PCI ministers such as David Gray, Ellis Sism, and yes, Murray Burr. And contrary to some revisionist, when I talked to those leaders from both sides, there was an overwhelming commitment to Acts 2:38 and to Acts 2:38 as the new birth. And we're standing on that message today. Amen. In 1945, the PAJC listed 346 churches. The PCI was about half that size. It listed 175 churches. The total was 521 churches. They were operating in 11 nations. Today, 80 years later, we have over 45,000 churches in 203 nations of the world, plus many territories, an estimated constituency of 6.1 million.

Look what the Lord has done worldwide on an annual basis. About 300,000 people are being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and about 300,000 receiving the Holy Ghost through the ministry of the UPCI. Brother Hunley has helped us figure this out. But in the last three years worldwide, over 1 million people have received the Holy Ghost through the ministry of the UPCI. I'm here to tell you more people are being baptized in Jesus' name than at any time in human history. More people are receiving the Holy Ghost than at any time in human history. And we are part of that move. We're not the total move of God. We're not the total church of God, but we are a very important part of what God is doing in these last days. This is the greatest day of revival in human history. We ought to rejoice.

We're celebrating 80 years of what has been. But even more, we're celebrating that we are at a critical moment in history enjoying and rejoicing in what God is doing. Praise God. And I want to share a few personal testimonies. These are not the even the biggest t testimonies of what God is doing this year, but just to show personally in the places I've preached, the people I've met, let me just show you what God has done this year. Kingwood, Texas, I preached for a church that had acquired a new miracle building worth $17 million in trade for a $2 million building and $800,000 cash. They're on the freeway growing many new people. The pastor had booked me a year or two ago. He said, "Brother Bernard, don't preach anything special. Just preach on doctrine. There's so many new people. They need our doctrine." So, I preached Sunday morning on salvation.

Sunday night on the new birth, two services, seven were baptized. Five received the Holy Ghost, including a Muslim woman who was baptized and received the Holy Ghost as she came out of the water. Also in February, I preached in a Spanish-sp speakaking church in Newberg, New York. I met a man who'd been a trinitarian Pentecostal pastor for 20 years. But God spoke to him and gave him Acts 19 and said, "You need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." He found our pastor. He and his wife were baptized. She had never received the Holy Ghost. God filled her with the Holy Ghost. In March, I preached in Merced, California. Just a small church, mostly people whose ancestry is Southeast Asian. Six children were the sum total of their band, their music team. In that those two services of a church of less than 100, two were baptized.

Six received the Holy Ghost. Also in March, a pastor in Houston, Texas, who's originally Chinese, I had the privilege of ordaining him some years ago. He shared a testimony. And he said, "Brother Bernard, I was on a trip overseas. I was sitting next to a businessman from Taiwan. The man asked my occupation." He when he found out I was a pastor. He said, "Well, I'm a new Christian." And our pastor very wisely said in the words of Acts 19, he didn't condemn him. He said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" The businessman said, "I don't know about it." So they spent the rest of the flight in a Bible study. They landed at international airport in China. The businessman said, "I would like for you to pray for me that I would receive this gift." Our pastor said, "We can't do that in China in public."

The the businessman said, "Well, there's a family restroom in the airport. If we go there, we'll be private." So, they went in there. The pastor laid hands on him. God filled him with the Holy Ghost. He's now baptized and a member of our church in Taiwan. I never dreamed that that was how you would get somebody filled with the Holy Ghost. That was not on my agenda. I did not teach that in any seminar. But I can testify, yes, God can fill somebody with the Holy Ghost in a family restroom in an international airport in China. That's this year in April. Usually I'm preaching conferences and all kinds of stuff. But in April, every weekend I just happened to be preaching in a local church. It was interesting because I went north, south, east, west, multicultural churches, larger, smaller, some predom predominantly African-American or black.

So very multi-racial, multicultural. Let me just share just the log. April the 8th, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. One baptized, four received the Holy Ghost. April 13, Modesto, California. Three baptized, seven received the Holy Ghost. April 20th, Brooklyn, New York. Four baptized, six received the Holy Ghost. April 27, Tampa, Florida, two baptized, one received the Holy Ghost. You get the picture. Something is happening. North, South, East, West, Spanish speakaking, English speaking, black, white, anything, anybody you can imagine. God is pouring out his spirit. This is the day of revival. This is our day. UPCI. In June, I preached in the UPCI Spanish Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They had a a service Friday night dedicated to receiving the Holy Ghost. 327 received the Holy Ghost. Same week, I went to Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the Filipino conference. The time I was there and observed, 34 received the Holy Ghost.

One was a Jewish woman who had been a practicing Jew for many years. She was baptized in Jesus' name and she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. July, you already know the testimony of North American Youth Congress. Many of us were part of that. 375 baptized in Jesus name. 1,087 received the Holy Ghost. 105 miracles right here up the road in Indianapolis, Indiana. In August, I met a Methodist pastor in my office. She was from Nashville, Tennessee. She'd just been baptized in Jesus' name, and she had received the Holy Ghost. September, a couple of weeks ago, I was preaching in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I went one night to the Jesus Tent Revival. During those services, 183 were baptized. I watched as many of them after they came out out of the water, the hands were laid on them, they were prayed for, and they received the Holy Ghost.

I'm telling you this is our day. So here's my summary of that those testimonies. As our founders hoped, we have attained an amazing unity of the spirit as well as unity of the faith. We aren't arguing over doctrine. We aren't debating in our business session our doctrinal beliefs today. I don't have to tell you this, but recent events remind us our world is polarized politically, socially, racially. We've got to be careful not to let the polarization of the world attack and divide the church. We may have some different opinions, but we're united on the new birth. We're united on the message of holiness. We must respect the fact that we have an amazing diversity within our ranks. That means we must work extra hard to maintain what our founder said, quoting from Ephesians, the unity of the spirit. It's hard work, but we've got to be committed to working.

Every man and woman on this platform, you come from different backgrounds. You represent different ministries and different constituencies. But we got to work together hard to pray for one another, to love one another, to talk to one another, to hear where we're coming from, to hear where our constituencies are coming from, and maintain the unity of the spirit and the unity of the faith. But we can do it. Our fundamental doctrine says we can do it and why is for the sake of our mission. Now I believe we should be a witness in society. I believe we should exert political and social influence but our mission is the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church. Don't let anything detract from the mission. Don't let anything destroy the mission. I don't want to say anything from the pull pit or on social media or in personal conversation that will undermine my influence and ability to proclaim the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church.

So that was my introduction. Let me read a passage of scripture. I'm going to read several so you don't necessarily have to stand. But I want to turn your attention to James 4:6. It it quotes from Proverbs 3:34. I'll use the New King James for this one. James 4:6. But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I want you to notice the priority of grace. The unique message of Christianity is the grace of God. every other religion and philosophy. It talks about humans search for God. It talks about how humans can improve themselves, better themselves, save themselves. But only the gospel of Jesus Christ says every human being is a sinner. Nobody can save themselves. The only hope for the world is the grace of God. That's our unique message. Now, we understand Acts 2:38, but what I'm saying is the priority of grace.

Acts 2:38 is God's gift to us. We don't earn it. We don't purchase it. We don't work so hard that we get it. You can't pray enough hours to merit salvation. You cannot fast enough days to merit salvation. You cannot give enough money to merit salvation. You cannot live such a holy life by your own ability that you could earn your way into the kingdom of God. It's by God's grace. Grace is God's gift. We must understand that repentance is a gift. That when we receive remission of sins, that's not because the water did it. That's not because the preacher did it. That's not because we did it. It's because God did it. That's why we always call on the name of Jesus. Because we know the saving element when we're baptized. It's not what we're able to do, but it's the grace of God given to us through the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He's the only savior. and his name is the only saving name. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the gift by definition. It's grace. Grace is God's gift to us. Many denominations say that, but they miss the next half. Not only is God's grace his gift to us, but it's God's work in us. Grace finds us in our sins, but does not leave us in our sins. Titus 2:11 and 12. The grace of God that brings salvation. I didn't give them this. They just have to wing it. Uh, you know, I'm just preaching. The grace of God that brings salvation is appeared to everyone, teaching us that denying ungodly lust. We should live soberly, righteously, and holy in this present generation. Grace teaches holiness. You can't earn your salvation by works of holiness. But God's grace will start changing you from the inside out. It changes the way you think.

It changes your relationship. It changes the way you talk. It changes the way you dress. It changes your choice of social media expression. It changes what you read. It changes what you watch and view. It changes what you search on the internet. Grace will change you. And if it's not happening, that means you're probably not letting grace work. Which does ultimately say you can't be saved if you don't let God's grace work. Grace is God's gift to us and God's work in us. But I want to go to my next verse of scripture. Acts 4:33. The early church. We're apostolic, right? So here's a picture of the apostolic church. Acts 4:33. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. With great grace, it's a gift, right? So with great grace comes great power.

All the gifts of the spirit, all the five-fold ministry, all those are gifts, right? Where does that come from? Grace. The source is grace. So if we want more power, we Pentecostals are preaching about power. We're preaching and teaching on the five-fold ministry. We're preaching and teaching on the gifts of the spirit. We're preaching and teaching on the priesthood of believers. I'm behind that 100%. But where does that come from? If we want more power, we need more grace. Think about that. Some people say, "Well, maybe if we sin a little bit more, God's grace will be revealed more." The Apostle Paul said in Romans 6, "Absolutely not. We don't live in sin to get more grace. But on the other hand, grace will lead us into a holy life." So how if we want more power, we more want more gifts, we want the five-fold ministry, we want the gifts of the spirit, how do we get that grace?

Well, how do we get grace? We can't earn it. We can't pray it down. I mean, we believe in prayer and fasting, but you can't pray it down by your ability. You can't fast it down by earning it. How do you get more grace if it's free? If it's a gift, none of these works could actually give you more grace. But my text says God gives grace to the humble. So last year I preached on an apostolic ministry. I preached on miracles. And we all know if you want to have an apostolic ministry, you want to have miracles, signs and wonders, spiritual gifts, you have to have faith, right? But I want to remind us you must have faith and humility. Could it be the reason why we do not operate in the five-fold ministry gifts of the spirit preached to the believers as much as we would like?

Could it be that we are at preaching it, we're teaching it, we're having faith now, but if we don't have humility, God's not going to entrust us with very much. God gives grace i.e. gifts i.e. power to the humble. The key is faith and humility. Let me read another verse. 1 Peter couple of verses. 1 Peter 5 5-6. If you read from verse one, which are not, he addresses the leaders, the spiritual leaders, the elders, the pastors, the bishops. So it's in the context of leadership that he makes this statement in 1 Peter 5 5-6. Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Now before the elders start shouting about it, he goes on to say, "Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility." And then he quotes some proverbs. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. So, I didn't forget the IT people. I do have a title. Here's my title. A call to humility. This is what I feel burdened on the 80th anniversary of General Conference UPCI. I'm not trying to preach the rafters down, although I do hope you respond. I'm trying to preach a call to humility. Just listen just for a few more minutes as I explain this. If you start with the book of Genesis, it starts with the creation story, how the whole human race originated. But then it starts narrowing the focus on one race or one nation through whom the Messiah would come and salvation would come to the world. So it quickly focuses on Abraham and then Isaac and his brother Esau and then Jacob and then the 12 sons of Jacob and then Joseph.

In fact, if you count the verses, onethird of Genesis tells the story of Joseph. That's pretty significant. So you start in verse 30, chapter 37, how Joseph is sold into slavery. Judah takes the leadership role. He wasn't actually the oldest, but if you read the scripture, the three older brothers all disqualified themselves by serious sin. And it seems that Judah actually assumed the leadership role. And he was the one that convinced his the brothers to sell Joseph into slavery. That's in Genesis 37. So then you hear this, you read the story of Joseph, but the very next chapter of chapter 38 is kind of strange because it switches to Judah. It's really supposed to be about Joseph, but it switches to Judah and it tells the horrible sin of Judah, which you know, you can't even read that in bedtime Bible stories. And so, you wonder why would there be this intrusion in the story of who is really the obvious hero?

And I won't tell you the whole story, but Judah sinned with Tamar. But here's the critical point. when his sin was revealed, instead of covering up, instead of making excuses, instead of asserting asserting authority, he made this significant statement in Genesis 37:26. She hath been more righteous than I. So when he was confronted with his sin, he humbled himself. No, I'm the sinner. No excuses. And so then the story continues. as you probably know it, so I'll be very brief. Joseph is elevated to the throne in Egypt. His brothers in the course of time, the Palestine or Israel is in famine. The brothers come to get food from Egypt. They don't recognize Joseph. He recognizes them. He puts them to the test. He says, "You've left one brother behind. You got to bring him." They said, "No, he's the favorite brother. He's the baby of the family.

We can't bring him." Joseph says, "You've got to." And that's his full brother, fullblood brother. So he knows if they had would mistreat anybody, they would do the same to Joseph that they did to Joseph, they could likely do that to Benjamin. But they brought Benjamin. And then Joseph frames him with theft, says all the brothers can leave, but but Benjamin has to stay. And in chapter 44, Judah stands up as the leader. But this time he says, "Let Benjamin go free. Let me be your slave instead." What an amazing reversal from the brother who took the leadership role in selling his little brother in slavery to the brother who took the leadership role saying make me a slave let my brother go free. A total reversal. I think the turning point was when he recognized his sin and he humbled himself. As a result, when you go to the end of Genesis and Jacob is choosing who is going to have the lineage of the king, logically it should be Joseph.

He's the hero. He's the man of God. And Joseph, God always chooses the young, seeming the younger instead of the elder. Seems like he should have chosen Joseph, but he chose Judah. Now, we could speculate. I don't know. I can't document it for sure, but we do know for sure that from Judah came the royal line. From Judah came King David. From Judah came Jesus, the Messiah. Why Judah? Could it be? The first three brothers had excluded themselves by sin. We never find that they truly changed their character. But we do find that Judah was just as sinful. But he humbled himself and he totally changed from being a leader to put the brothers into slavery to a leader who would take slavery so his brother could go free. I submit to you perhaps the reason why Judah was chosen to be the lineage of the king is because Judah humbled himself.

What about Jesus? Our supreme example. Philippians 2 5-8. Let this mind be in you. We're supposed to be like this. We look at Jesus as the unattainable hero and obviously he was the only perfect human. We could never be like him. He was God manifest in the flesh. We will we can't be that. But in some way we can be like Jesus. Let this mind be in you which was 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, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion of man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Now, that's a great one to scripture, but you got to unpack it. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh.

That means he had the right to visible glory, honor, and recognition. He had the right to ride into town on a stallion and the whole world bowed down before him. He had a right to a retinue of angels visibly displaying divine glory. God in the incarnation was every bit equal to God before the incarnation. But Jesus as a man did not try to demand equality with God. But he humbled himself. He emptied himself. He made himself of no reputation. He humiliated himself. He was born in a lowly condition in a small obscure nation among a persecuted group of people. He was rejected and betrayed by his best friends. He was obedient even to death. So Paul says, "Be like that." You want an apostolic ministry, humble yourself. Be obedient. If that's not enough, look at Jesus own example when he started his ministry. Read it in Luke 4.

The temptation of Christ. I'll cut to the chase. One of the temptations the devils talk brought him to the pinnacle of the temple. Said jump down. The angels will catch you and protect you. Isn't that what the psalm says? The whole world will see this magnificent miracle. The whole world will see that you are the son of God. That you are the favored one. That you are the protected one. That you're the miraculous one. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? In an age of media, if I could have one spectacle that would prove to the whole world that I could do miracles, that's a shortcut to where we have revival, right? I mean, who wouldn't want to do that? I mean, that's the advertising campaign to end all advertising campaigns. But Jesus said, "No, you're trying to tempt me. Get behind me, Satan." He resisted the temptation for a shortcut to glory, a shortcut to fame.

We don't have to think of any names, but how many famous preachers, maybe even could be some apostolic, couldn't resist the shortcom. And where are they today? Our forefathers, most of them don't, we don't know our names unless we study history. But here we are 80 years later, 45,000 churches. Those famous flashes in the pan, they took the shortcut to fame and glory and there's nothing left. Jesus resisted that. But if you read Luke's account when he returned from that wilderness experience, the prayer, the fasting, the temptation of the devil, it says he returned in the power of the spirit. Yes, he was God manifest in the flesh, but in his human identity when he humbled himself, when he resisted the temptation to fame and glory, that's when he entered his spiritled, spiritfilled ministry, he humbled himself. He taught us Matthew 18 4, whosoever therefore shall humble himself is this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

They got to be like a child. That doesn't sound very intuitively rational. Especially in the first century, children really were to be seen and not heard. They would even consider people. I I have to mention verse six. But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck, he were j the depths of the sea. Let me say something. It's not about being politically correct or socially correct. Sometimes the world draws attention to things, but the world is not always wrong. There is a biblical principle. We've got to protect our little children and our young people. There's no place in the kingdom of God for child abuse. We can't cover up in a mistaken thought that we'll protect the church. We're going to sink the church if we're not careful.

But we're not going to sink the church. We're going to do what's right. We're going to teach what's right. We're going to preach what's right. We're going to build a healthy culture. And if something does happen that's wrong, we're going to stand up for the kids. We're going to stand up for the little ones. We're going to stand up for the vulnerable teenagers. We've got to humble ourselves. Don't take a shortcut glory by covering up wrongdoing, but deal with the wrongdoing. And even the world will recognize that there's righteousness and holiness and humility. That's the teaching of Jesus. So here's what I'm trying to say. We all face trials, temptations, adversity, failures, even our own fails, our own mistakes. We don't seek them. And I'm not suggesting we should. We pray for God to deliver us out of them. Even when it's our own fault, we still pray for God to deliver us.

That's right. But I would just suggest that these things are inevitable. So when they come, pray for grace to endure and pray for grace to be delivered. But in the midst of the trial, the adversity, the failure, the temptation, look for the opportunity to be humble. Humble yourself. Don't fight against what God may be doing. Fight against the attack of the devil. Fight against sin, but don't fight against the purpose of God. If he wants to humble ourselves, if he wants to humble us, you know, I'd rather God I'd rather humble myself than God have to humble me. I'd rather have to learn through the trial to rely on God than for God have to take take me through that lesson over and over again and humble me before the whole world. The general board will know what I'm talking about. I'd rather humble myself than everybody else have to humble me.

We need to humble ourselves. You know, I was raised in the mission field and I have some great testimonies. I saw some of our leaders and I could tell about my parents what I've told about them before. But they're going to show some pictures. One of our great leaders was Brother Chin, another brother Cole. They're going to show both of those men. Brother Chin, as a young man, teenager, he decided to follow Jesus Christ. His family were ancestor worshippers, and they believed you must honor the ancestors. On the Korean Thanksgiving, you go to the grave of the ancestors, you'll pour out wine, you fix food, you eat the food, you offer to the ancestors, you worship them, and that will give you good luck and blessing for the year. But when you're a follower of Jesus, you can't pray to your ancestors. And so, the father felt like this is going to destroy our family.

So even though he loved his son, he couldn't convince him otherwise. So he took his son, began beating him. His son would not give up. He beat him till he was senseless, left him on the side of the road for dead. His father thought he'd killed his son. We don't know for sure if he actually died or just went unconscious, but either way, God raised him up. Brother Chin went on to be baptized in Jesus' name to receive the Holy Ghost to pastor one of our leading churches in Busousan, Korea, and become a great leader of the UPCI. And yes, I'm happy to tell you after that, his father, mother, and family did come into the apostolic faith into the church. But he had to humble himself. He had to go through adversity. He had to take the humble road, not the road to glory.

next to him, brother Co. he was one and he's they're both still alive but in poor health. But brother Co started a great revival church, many miracles. It grew rapidly in the city of Chunju. He he built a wonderful church for that time, a new building. They were coming to the first service in the new building and suddenly collapsed, began bleeding profusely. They rushed him to the hospital. A severe case of tuberculosis. It seemed at that time incurable. They call my father. He was able to rush down and actually conduct the verse first first service. But he stayed for prayer and fasting. And in three days, God raised up brother co completely healed him. And he went on to a miraculous ministry. But he had to go through adversity. He had to go through the route of humility, not just a shortcut to glory. Another minister, Brother Lee, a similar story.

Junior high student. He decided to believe in Jesus Christ. His father kicked him out of the house because they were ancestor worshippers. He had no place to live. He found work at a factory as a teenager. The factory owner let him sleep in the factory floor at night. He had to scr for his own food. He couldn't really cook. A lot of times he just ate those rammen or the raw noodles and that was his meal. He found a night school. He finished high school. He felt the call to preach. He applied to go to Bible college. Dad gave him a scholarship to for his tuition, but it couldn't cover his room and board. So, dad said, "Look, you can live in my office. You can put out your little cod at night and sleep in the office, but first thing in the morning, you got to hide in the closet, hide all your stuff so nobody's there knows you're there and so I can have my office."

And that's how he went to Bible college. That's how he graduated. He's now a pastor of one of our churches. He had to go through humility. I took my family to Korea, trip of a lifetime, so they could see where I grew up, see why I act the way I act. And uh they did learn some things. They learned that I have this habit. If you notice of doing this and they looked all the older gentlemen in Korea on the side of the road, that's what they were doing. So they realize I'm more Korean than they thought. But anyway, so we went to the minister seminar. We went we're going back to the airport. A young minister was driving us in a van back to the airport. Assistant pastor. So I was telling our f my family members, well you you saw brother Lee, here's his story.

You saw Brother Co, here's his story. You saw Brother Chen's son, here's their family story. So I was doing all that and the driver was brother O. Well, I'm showing you. and he could speak a little English, so he was knowing a little bit. So I started translating Korean, going back and forth. And when I finished these stories, he's a young man, maybe 30. He says, "Well, brother, that's my testimony." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, I was saved in Brother Co's church, the man you're talking about." But he said, "Yeah, when I was in high school, my father kicked me out of the house." He said, "I lived in the Sunday school classroom in Brother Co's church till I became adult and went to Bible college. Now I'm a preacher of the gospel." It's not just stories of 50 years ago.

It's happening around the world today in our own United Pentecostal churches. I could tell you many more stories. Brother Hunley could tell you stories. We could tell North American mission stories. We could tell multicultural ministry stories, Spanish evangelism story, building the bridge stories. We've got stories of heroes that are unknown that they're sacrificing. They're taking the humble right. They're route. They're enduring persecution, suffering, hardship. We talk about the miracles, but it's not always an instant miracle. We pray and believe and we shout and rejoice and we share testimonies of the instant miracles, but many times there's a route of humility. So pray and believe through a miracle, but don't fight against the route of humility. James says, "Humble yourself." Peter says, "Humble yourself." Let me just share, and I'm almost closing, but I looked up some New Testament verses. There are several Greek words, which I won't bore you with all that, but they're they're variously translated as meekness, humility, gentleness.

So, depending on which translation you look, you might see different words, but for our purposes, it all encapsulating the same basic thought. Here's what we're supposed to do. I'm preaching to all saints, but I'm preaching to preachers. Here are the things the New Testament specifically says we're to do in humility. And I wonder how many times we do them, but we forget about the humility part. Receive the word in humility. James 1:21. Preach, teach. Even when we're correcting people who are in error or in opposition, do it in humility. 2 Timothy 2:24-25. Administering discipline, restoring a sinning brother in humility. Galatians 6:1. Dealing with differences and conflicts. That's pretty much my job. Aside from the positive vision casting, bearing with one another in love, but we're to do it also in humility. Ephesians 4:1. Answering questions and objections. Sometimes they're sincere questions. Sometimes they're rebellious questions, but answering questions and objections in humility.

1 Peter 3:15. Exercising authority. I believe in real spiritual authority, real pastoral authority. But again, if you go back to 1 Peter 5 1-5, even when we're exercising authority, it should be with mutual submission. Yes, it should be with accountable. That's accountability. That's why we have a United Pentecostal church. and also in humility. So, let me summarize. This has not been the running the aisles message, but I've learned never to underestimate the power of God and never understate the word of God. There's there's going to be a deep move of the Holy Spirit in the next few minutes. I want you to prepare your hearts. First Peter 5, my text, humble yourselves. That's my appeal. United Pentecostal Church International. And I'm preaching myself. If you think I'm lacking in it, you're probably right. But I'm trying to preach myself to humble myself. You know, humility is that one virtue that when you realize you have it, you lost it.

Some people are proud of being humble. The truly humble people don't, they don't realize it. They're just not even thinking about themselves. Humility is not glorifying yourself, but it's also not abasing yourself. If you're always abasing yourself, you're wallowing in your humility, which is another form of pride. But when you're not even thinking about yourself, you're forgetting about yourself. You're focusing on the Lord and worship and focusing on your neighbor, your brother, and the the person that needs the Lord, that's probably the closest you will get. But let me summarize by this. If you want God to oppose your ministry, if you want God to take you down, there's one guaranteed way. The Bible says God resists the proud. It's not that he just doesn't like it. He won't bless it. No, God will take you down. It may take a while. You may have your time of fame and fortune.

But sooner or later, if you operate in pride, your ministry or your life will come crashing down. Because pride is the one spirit you guarantee God will always resist. I would think it might be adultery or false doctrine or this or that. But the one spirit because that probably underlies all the other stuff. The one spirit that God will always resist is pride. But the good news is the one spirit God will always honor. No matter how much you get off track, how much you failed, how much you made a mistake, how much you said and did the wrong thing, if you'll humble yourself, if you'll have a contrite spirit, if you'll have a broken heart, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. You can't earn it. I believe in prayer, but you can't log in enough hours to get grace. I do believe in prayer and fasting.

I practice fasting. You can't log in enough fasting days to earn it. I believe in living a holy life, but you can't live so holy that God has to give you grace. But if you want to find a way to get more grace in your life and therefore more power in your ministry, in your church, humble yourself because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. It's stated in Proverbs, stated in Hebrews, I mean, it's stated in in he first Peter, it's stated in James. There's an equivalent statement in Psalm 18:27. You can argue that statement is made four times in scripture. How many times is the same thing stated four times? Only a few. There are a few others such as the just shall live by faith. That's stated four times. But humble yourselves is stated four times in scripture directly many other places.

So, as I come to a close, I'm challenging us tonight. Humble yourself. I'm including I'm not preaching at you. I'm including myself. Let's stand right now. I believe God is going to demonstrate what I'm talking about. If we humble ourselves, grace will pour out. And when grace pours out, the power of God will fall. There's somebody you never receive the Holy Spirit tonight if you'll come and humble yourself. Don't glorify yourself. It's not really in the shout, but if you come repenting, confessing, and then God will lift the burden and you'll start rejoicing. That's how you receive the Holy Ghost. And once you repent, you need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. We have a baptismal tank. If you've never been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, you need to do that tonight. It's a little awkward, inconvenient, right? I mean, they do have clothes, but getting dunked all the way in the water, why can't we just sprinkle?

Why can't we just believe? Why can't we just say it's a thought that counts? You got to humble yourself. There's something about when the preacher pulls you down the water. You have to surrender. Your your your every instinct fights against drowning. But you have to humble yourself to repent. You have to humble yourself to be baptized. I believe somebody needs to repent. If you do, come right now. Somebody needs to be baptized. If you do, come and talk to a counselor. Somebody needs to receive the Holy Ghost. Yes, but there are a lot more of good preachers and preacher spouses and leaders whom I love and respect and appreciate and I honor. But we need to humble ourselves. Would you come? Would you accept this not just as my word but the word of the Lord? Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time.

God's going to speak to somebody tonight. God's going to give a dream and vision to somebody tonight. God's going to confirm a word to somebody. God's going to do a miracle tonight. God's going to have a miracle waiting for you when you get back home. But humble yourself. Take the low route. If you need to repent, repent. If you need to make it right with a brother, make it right with a brother. Humble yourself. Lay aside all of your own devices. Say, "Here I am, Lord. I need you I need a miracle I need grace I need anointing I need a fresh vision