Learning the Value of Humility - Life of Christ Part 48

Now, I guess you know, of course, that Billy Joel and Elton John are coming to town this summer and the seats sold out in a day.

They're all gone. Now, you say, well, how do you get best seats in the house for those? I mean, how do you get front row seats for this show? The guy who did it, actually, if you read the paper, spent almost a week camped out in front of RFK Stadium. He was the very first guy in line. He got seats right on the very front row. And when a reporter asked him whether or not it had been worth a week in front of RFK Stadium to get the best seats in the house, he said, absolutely.

Now, I don't know about you. I don't think I would spend a week in front of RFK Stadium to get tickets to Elton John and Billy Joel, would you? No. But think now for a second, what event is there that you would so much like to go to, that you'd so much like to have the best seats in the house for, that you might do something radical like this guy did? What about the Super Bowl or the World Series or the Final Four, would you do it for that? No, say, Lon, keep going. Well, how about Olympic figure skating or Phantom of the Opera or Pearl Jam concert, would you do it for that? Yeah, keep going. How about for the Masters Golf Tournament, Indy 500?

How about to see the Bullets play the Dallas Mavericks? No? Okay.

Well, I'm not sure what I would either. But what's interesting is as we look at the passage we've got this morning in the Bible, we find people there jockeying for the very best seats in the house and doing some pretty radical things to get them. And Jesus capitalizes on this to teach us a lesson in humility.

And so I want you to come along with me and let's look at what he has to say about humility because it's very 20th century and I think it'll work for your life. So let's look beginning at verse 1. One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. You need to know that in these days, prominent rabbis often would throw big banquets on the Sabbath and the guest list would look kind of like a who's who, you know, in town. And Jesus was invited to one of these.

Verse 2. And there was in front of him a man suffering from dropsy. Dropsy is a condition that results from poor kidney function. Your body tissues swell up and your whole body swells up.

It's very painful, very debilitating. And the Bible says, verse 3, that Jesus asked these rabbis, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or isn't it? But they remained silent.

They wouldn't answer him. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. And then he asked the rabbis, look, if one of you had a son and he fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you pull him out?

And if even one of you had an ox or an animal, one of your animals fell in a well, wouldn't you pull him out on the Sabbath? How much more, Jesus says, a hurting human being. How arrogant can you guys be that you would dare stand there and say nothing when I ask you if it's okay to heal a hurting human being? And even again, verse 6 says, they had nothing to say. What is it about these rabbis that really stands out in this passage?

Well, I don't know about for you, but for me, what really stands out is their massive arrogance, massive arrogance. And look what Jesus says. They're so arrogant that they said, hey, we're so much more important than the average person that even though you're not allowed to heal the average person on the Sabbath in our mind, if our ox fell in a well, we pull our ox out because he's ours. That's how much more important we are than regular people. But regular people, they've got to wait until weekdays to get worked on.

They can't get worked on on the Sabbath, only us. Man, the arrogance in his banquet was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. And this wasn't the only way these rabbis displayed their arrogance. Jesus had been studying their behavior all night. And he says, hey, fellows, look, as long as we're on the subject of arrogance, let me make one more observation.

Verse seven. When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this story. In Jesus's day, the seating arrangement at these banquets, these rabbinic banquets was a matter of status. It was a status symbol where you got seated at the banquet. And you know what a status symbol is, right? A status symbol is something that supposedly shows how important we are. Now we have our status symbols today, don't we?

Sure we do. For example, what country club you're a member of or what golf course you're a member of can be a status symbol. You know, people say, oh, you know, I'm a member of such and such a country club and cost a lot of money and not just anybody can get in there.

You know, I mean, you've got to be voted on and only the muckamucks get into this country club, you know, and I'm in because I'm a muckamuck. Well, people do that. Or maybe what kind of car you drive. People see you drive by in a Mercedes or a Jag or a BMW and they go, oh, man, she must have really made it.

Now don't tell them you're leasing it, okay? But they say, oh, man, look at that. Or maybe the jewelry you wear. People see you wear a Rolex and they go, a Rolex? Oh, man, look at that. Rolex?

Man, you must be doing all right. Well, I tell you, I can take you to New York City on 50th Street and we can buy 100 of them for about 40 bucks. So you don't really know, do you, whether they got them in New York or over at Tyson's too.

But, okay, so a Rolex is kind of a status symbol. How about the neighborhood where you live or maybe where you vacation? Oh, you go to Aspen every year? Oh.

You ever see Burt Reynolds? Oh. Or maybe where you shop for clothes, you know, that can be a status symbol whether you shop in Macy's or Saks or needless markup or wherever you happen to go.

You understand? Those can be status symbols. Now in Jesus's day, one of the big status symbols were these banquets. Not just getting invited, but where you got seated.

And the yardstick was the closer you got to the host, the more important you were. And so naturally when the butler came out and said, dinner is served. Man, these people fell all over each other trying to fight one another and out jockey one another to get the best seat in the house.

Jesus watched all this happen. It's kind of like musical chairs, you know what I'm saying? They stopped the music, you know how this, everybody runs and grabs the seat.

That's kind of how this was. Now King Arthur had the same problem, but he fixed it by creating what kind of table? The round table. But see, they hadn't thought of that yet. So they had a problem. Now Jesus looked at them and he said, you know what all this shows me? When I watch you guys scramble for these seats like that so you can have the most important seat in the house, you know what that tells me? That tells me what's really in your heart. It tells me what an arrogant bunch of guys you are. Because the reason you want the most important seat is because you really believe you're the what? Most important person. Uh-huh.

That's why you want it. You believe you deserve the best seat because you believe you're the best person here. And that's arrogance. So Jesus said, let me tell you all a little story.

Verse eight. He said, when someone invites you to a wedding feast, don't take the place of honor for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. And if so, the host who invited both of you will come up and say to you, give this man your seat. I need that seat for him. Then humiliated, you will have to take the least important seat. So what do you mean? Why didn't he just move one seat down?

Don't you remember? Everybody else has already got those seats. They all fought for you and you climbed over them and got the other one.

They're all filled. You're all the way at the end of the line, buddy. But Jesus said, when you're invited, take the lowest seat so that when your host comes in, he'll say to you, oh, friend, you can't sit down here. You need to come on up.

You're much more important than this. Then you'll be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. You understand the story, don't you? A guy comes in, somehow claws his way and works his way and promotes his way to the number one seat in the banquet. He kicks back and he says, ah, made it. Number one seat. Then Henry Kissinger shows up and they say, oh, man, Henry, you got to come right up front and sit. They walk up to you and say, I'm sorry, you got to give up this seat.

This is Henry's seat. You go to the back of the bottom here and they kick you out and you're humiliated. Man, nothing's more embarrassing than when you promote yourself and climb over people and finally make it and then they kick you out. You know, I coach little league. I've always enjoyed doing this.

I've done it for years. A couple of years ago I coached Babe Ruth. I had 14 and 15 year old kids. That was fun.

That was marvelous. This year I have nine year olds. Ooh, man.

My greatest challenge is keeping them from playing in the dirt so they don't get hit by a flying ball and put in the hospital. But anyway, I love doing it. It also gives expression to my creative and my competitive juices, you know, and I got a lot of them. Before I leave the house to go to any game, Brenda always says to me, remember, people are watching you. In fact, we have this little signal we come up with. So if I start getting like too intense, you know, on the field, Brenda has this little signal she gives me that means kind of calm down, goes like this. I don't know if anybody else picks up on it, but when I see you're doing that, I say, oh, I'll get a little bit too intense out here, huh? So anyway, we were at practice a couple weeks ago and we split into two little squads and we have little inner squad games because that kind of, that's good.

It gives them a little game experience and I pitch. So the best hitter on our team came up and he was on one team and he comes up and he bangs his bat, bam, bam, bam, bam on the plate. And he said, that's a nine year old now, and he stands up and he says to me, coach, he says, I'm hitting the ball over the fence. I just want you to know that. I said, okay.

I said, son, I hope you do. I mean, nothing make me happy until you hit the ball over the fence. So I threw him the ball just like I thought everybody else.

And he did one of these Casey at the bat swings. You know what I'm saying? You know, and the ball went ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding right back to me. So I picked it up, threw him out, went over later to him and I put my arm around him and I said, son, you know, there's only one thing worse than dinking the ball to the pitcher.

You know what that is? No coach, it's dinking the ball to the pitcher, son, right after you just predicted you're going to hit a home run. That's worse. And there's a verse in the Bible that has to do with this. The verse in the Bible says, pride goes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

That doesn't go exactly like that, but that's the point. Now, if you were giving advice to this little kid, what would you tell him? You'd say, well, gee Elon, I would tell him, keep your mouth shut and just hit the ball, son. Don't go up there and tell everybody what you're going to do before you do it. Just go up there and let your hit and do the talking and if you can really hit the ball over the fence, don't worry, you'll get plenty of accolades.

You'll get plenty of praise. You don't have to bring it on yourself. Let you hit and do the talking.

That's good advice. But you know what? All this little boy was doing out on the little league field was acting out the way us big people live in real life. You know that? That's the way we live in real life.

We go around promoting ourselves and puffing ourselves up and tell everybody how great we are and then we end up dinking the ball all over the place. Hey, if Jesus said, I got a better piece of advice for you. When you go into a banquet, here's my advice, scramble for the lowest seat and don't worry, you won't have any trouble getting it because nobody's going to be fighting you for it. Take the lower seat and then there's no way you can be embarrassed if you got the lowest seat in the house because there's no place to go any lower. The only thing that can possibly happen is you go where? Up.

That's the only place to go. Jesus said take the lower seat and let others promote you when they recognize your value. Don't promote yourself. There's a verse in the Old Testament says the very same thing. Proverbs 25. Do not claim honor for yourself in the king's presence.

Do not exalt yourself as though you were a great person for it's better that it be said to you, come on up higher than for you to be demoted and humiliated in the presence of everybody. That's good wisdom. Albert Einstein put it like this. He said, do not try to become a person of success. Try to become a person of value.

And if you become a person of value, success will take care of itself. Good wisdom. Now that's the end of what Jesus said, but it leads us to the really important question. You know what that is, don't you?

What is it? So what, right? What difference does this make for me, Lon, in the 20th century? Well, you know, you're smart people, you know as well as I do, Jesus was not trying to be Ann Landers and give out banquet etiquette. That's not what this is all about. Jesus is trying to tell us how to be a success at life, right? And what Jesus says is humility is one of the keys to being a success at life. Let's define what is humility?

Let's make sure we're all talking that same thing now. What does it mean to be a humble person? Well, I find it often helps to talk about what it doesn't mean before we talk about what it does mean. Let me tell you what humility does not mean. Humility is not self-deprecation, self-degradation, you know, dump on yourself theology. People who go, I'm no good. I shouldn't even be breathing the oxygen in the world. I'm a worm. Step on me.

Squish me like a worm because that's what I am. Now, folks, that's not humility. That is mental illness.

That person needs a therapist. That is not humility. Jesus was the most humble human being ever to live. You ever hear him saying stuff like that about himself?

No way. That's not real humility. And don't let the world convince you that it is. He said, well, Lon, what is humility then?

I'll tell you. Humility is a perspective. Humility is an outlook. Humility is a way that we see ourselves in relationship to other people. A humble person recognizes, listen carefully, that everything they are, everything they have, everything they've accomplished, everything they'll ever accomplish is only because of the mercy of God.

And that profoundly affects the way they see themselves and the way they see other people. Now, whenever I share this, I always have people go, now, wait a minute, wait a minute, hold on just a second. But I did do it. I did go out there and turn that company around. I did go out there and turn the bottom line around. I did win that contract. I did do that report. I did make those grades. I did earn this honor. Don't tell me I didn't do it.

Don't tell me God did it. Well, now wait a minute. You know, when talking to business people, something many of them tell me, they tell me that their success often was suspended on the narrowest of margins, that it was just a few little things that if those few little things had gone the other way, rather than being the success they are, they might've been in the soup line today. Just a few little tiny things. Well, let me ask you something.

Who made those few little tiny things go their way instead of the other way? Huh? They didn't. You say, but I'm smart enough that even if they'd have gone the other way, I'd have compensated. Really?

Okay. What if your heart had stopped beating? You're smart enough to compensate for that? I don't think so.

I don't think so. Who kept your heart beating so you could even take advantage of the opportunities that came your way? Who gave you the talents and the gifts and the opportunities and those little things that went your way instead of going the other way that puts you where you are today? You didn't do it. God did it for you.

And if that's true and it is, then how can you possibly get arrogant about it? You didn't do it. I like what first Corinthians chapter four says in the Bible. Paul says, what did you have that you didn't receive? Well, if you received it, then how come you getting arrogant about it like you didn't receive it?

Huh? If God's mercy is responsible for where you are today, my friend, what right do you have to boast about it? A humble person realizes this deeply and it affects the way that person looks at themselves and the way they look at other people.

It makes you say, I don't deserve any special treatment for where I am today. I didn't do it. I didn't give these talents to myself.

God did. And if God had given them to somebody else, somebody else might even made more out of these talents than I made out of them. Moreover, I realize God didn't give me these talents to exalt me with. He gave me these talents to serve other people with. This is humility.

Humility is this. All I have is from God. I deserve no special treatment. I'm here to serve other people attitude.

Listen again. It's an attitude that says, all I have is from God. I don't deserve any special treatment and whatever I've got, God gave it to me to serve other people. That's a humble human being.

And you know what? You can drive a Jaguar and be humble and you can drive a Yugo and be arrogant. You can live in McLean, Virginia and be humble. You can live in Southeast Washington and be so arrogant. You can make straight A's and be humble and you can make straight F's and be as arrogant as the day is long.

It doesn't have a thing to do with where you live, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the watches on your arm, the grades you make. It's all how you see yourself and other people. You understand what I'm saying?

Now let's go back. Jesus said that humility is one of the secrets to living a successful life. Let me give you three reasons why. Number one, because humility will never humiliate you.

You understand? Arrogance will humiliate you. What humiliated this guy here was his arrogance.

If he'd have taken the bottom seat, could he have been humiliated at the bottom seat? No. Can humility ever humiliate you?

No. So if you want to live a successful life and not be humiliated, let me give you a piece of advice. Humility will never humiliate you.

Be humble. Do you follow? Good.

Okay. Number two, the reason that humility is a part of a successful life is because Jesus said success in life comes from serving others. Remember when his disciples were arguing and fighting about who was the greatest? Remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, the greatest among you will be what? The servant of you all. Now let me tell you a secret.

Shh, don't tell anybody. You cannot be a servant unless you're humble. You know why? Because servants put the needs of other people ahead of their own.

And that's the very definition of humility. John F. Kennedy, do you remember where you were with the day John F. Kennedy was shot? If you're old enough to remember John Kennedy being shot, you probably remember where you were. I was in high school. I was in health class.

And we're in health class, which is incredibly boring. We sat in this little open courtyard and our class was on one side and there were classes directly across from us. And they came on the loudspeaker and they said, President Kennedy has just been shot.

We don't know his condition, but we know he's been shot in Dallas, Texas. I'll never forget looking out the window across the little courtyard, about 30 yards, and there was a class on the other side, like I said, and the teacher walked over to the window. Now she had her back to the class, but I could see her face because she's looking out the window and she started crying. I'll never forget it as long as I live. I'd never seen a teacher cry my whole life.

I'd seen a whole bunch of them make us cry, but I'd never seen a teacher cry my whole life. And as long as I live, I'll never forget that moment. John F. Kennedy. But John Kennedy said one thing that I think we should never forget. He said, don't ask what your country can do for you.

What did he say? Ask what you can do for your country. See, a humble person is a person who's a servant and a servant's motto is, don't ask what other people can do for me.

Ask what I can do, what? For other people. Jesus said, that's the mark of greatness in the kingdom of God. And only a humble person can do that. Third and finally, why is humility so important in making us a success? Because not only will humility never humiliate you, not only will it make you a servant, which Jesus said is the greatest people in the world, but third and finally, and most importantly, because God promises to supernaturally exalt humble people. Look at verse 11 right here. Jesus said, for everyone, that's pretty inclusive, who exalts themselves will be humble.

Didn't say might be, said will be. And everyone who humbles themselves will be exalted. Now, how can God make that promise?

I'll tell you how, because God himself steps into the events of the world and makes sure it happens. In Peter's first letter, Peter said this. He said that we should humble ourselves, that God is opposed to the proud. He gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, Peter said, and he will lift you up when the time's right. You say, well, Lon, how does God exalt humble people? Well, let me tell you, the first way he does it is by granting them eternal life. How does God bring down and abase arrogant people? The first way he does it is they end up in hell.

That's where it all starts. That's bottom line. You can't give your life to Jesus Christ and become a Christian unless you're willing to humble yourself. Because to give your life to Christ, you have to be willing to admit that you can't do something for yourself, that only God can do it for you, that you're helpless. Well, that's the language of humility, folks. And humble people start off, the first thing they get from God is eternal life.

Boy, that's a pretty good gift. Arrogant people who say, I don't need God. I don't want God. I can handle this myself. I can work my way to heaven.

I'm all right. What does God say? He says he brings those folks down and where does it start? Well, if no place else, it starts when they end up in hell after they leave this life. And then even once you're a Christian, man, God keeps on rewarding you to the degree that he can in light of your humility. But God brings Christians who get arrogant down too. That's the eternal law of God. God's opposed to the proud. He gives assistance to the humble. If you're smart, Jesus says, you'll get humble.

You say, well, Lon, I hear what you're saying. How? How?

How do you get more humble? Are people just born that way? Take it from me. They're not.

You ever raised a two year old? You know, they're not. I want this. I want that.

I want this. I don't care whether you slept. I don't care whether you got any sleep last night. I don't care. I don't care.

I don't care. People don't start humble. They start with complete arrogance, total, absolute, all consuming arrogance. If people end up humble, it's only because they learned how to be that way. But you can learn how to be that way. Let me tell you how.

I got four quick suggestions and we're done. Number one, how you going to raise your humility quotient? Number one, as a Christian, remind yourself, start every day out, reminding yourself that it all comes from God. That the reason you're breathing this morning is that it came from God.

That the reason you got a job to go to and a car to drive and a house to live in and clothes to put on and people at the office who love you and respect you and a salary and a position, it's all from God. Don't ever forget that. I've had people who say to me, Lon, why don't you leave McLean here and go to California or Colorado because those are the only other two places in the world I'd really ever want to go and start again and do what you did here and build a big church there.

Maybe you could even build a bigger church there. But folks, you know what? I got to tell you the truth. I kind of blow those folks off because I know I didn't do this. You say, are you just being falsely humble? No, I'm not. Trust me. I know I didn't do this. God did this, not me. I just consider it a privilege to be a part of this thing. If you want to know who really built this church, you look at my staff. My staff works harder than I do and with all that I've been through in the last year or two with some family crises and health problems, it's the staff of this church, the men and women who are on the staff who've been running this church and make it successful and you need to know that. Don't give it the credit to me. I don't deserve it. It's the staff that did it and you people who did it. And the idea that I could get arrogant and say, oh, I did it.

Oh, I'll go out to Colorado and do it because I can do it. I mean, that's arrogance. And I have watched men and women get that kind of arrogance and watch them pull out of places where God put them, where God was blessing them, where God was using them, where the chemistry was right to go off in their arrogance and do it someplace else.

And you know what I find 20 years later, they've never achieved again the success they had in the first place where God put them where they should have stayed before they got so arrogant. Hey, I'm smarter than that. I'm not going anywhere else.

Are you kidding? You guys are going to have to throw me out of here. I know where it's good. I know where God's working.

I know where God put me. I'm not going to get arrogant enough to say, well, I'm doing it. I can go anywhere and do it. Are you crazy?

No, sir. And be careful. Be careful when you go to your company. Be careful when you go to your job. Be careful when you go anywhere that you don't let that kind of arrogance take over your life.

It'll cause you to make some real bad decisions. Remember, it all came from God. Just consider it a privilege that God let you be a part of it. Number two, second suggestion is get real about your mortality.

Get real about your mortality. President Nixon died this past week. You know, that made me feel real weird because I remember when he was president. I remember marching in the streets as a hippie against the Vietnam War when he was president. I remember, you know, the Vietnam War ending. I remember the Watergate break in. I remember him standing up and going, I am not a crook. Remember that?

I remember him resigning. I mean, all that happened and now he's gone and he's dead. And it's like, I feel real old. And I don't know, I just felt weird watching that. The world's going to hiccup and keep right on going, folks.

I mean, that's all. And I got some bad news for you. When you and I die, the world's not even going to hiccup. Just going to keep right on going. My advice is get real about your mortality. Don't overestimate yourself. Don't overestimate yourself. You know, in business they have a saying, there's nothing deader than yesterday's executive.

And that's true. Man, people forget about you real quick. Don't think you're more important than you are. Get a realistic perspective on yourself. Number three, compare yourself to the right standard so you can get some proportion in your life. You know what I'm trying to say? We get up and we compare ourselves to other people and we go, huh, I'm doing pretty good here. You know? Well, that's the wrong standard, guys.

That's the wrong standard. Compare yourself to Jesus Christ and you'll get a better sense of proportion as to how you're really doing. I'm a golfer. I'm not a very good golfer, but a few years ago, had the chance to go over to congressional golf course, you know, and see the Kemper and some guy got me tickets and we went in. I'd never been to see these guys play in person.

Ooh, baby, you ought to do this sometime. You think you're good? I guarantee you by the time you go watch these guys, you're going to be ready to break your clubs and have them throw them in the Potomac river. You're no good. And I'll tell you how to show you you're no good. You go out there and watch these guys shoot and you'll know you're no good. And I came back from that going, Solomon, you're no good at golf. Don't even pretend like you are.

These guys are good, not you. But you see, I got a whole different sense of proportion in my life by comparing myself to a different standard, the professionals and folks, I'd like to suggest to you, you want to get a good sense of proportion in your life when it comes to humility. Don't compare yourself to your neighbor, your sister, your brother, your coworker, your husband, your wife. You compare yourself to Jesus Christ.

It'll bring some proportion in your life. Fourth and finally, how are you going to get humble? Number one, remind yourself every day that all you got came from God. Number two, remind yourself of your mortality.

World's not even going to hiccup when you're gone. Number three, get a sense of proportion. Compare yourself to Christ.

Number four, and finally decide, decide, you got to make a decision. It's not going to happen naturally. Decide that you're going to dedicate whatever talents God gave you to serving people, not exalting yourself. Make that decision that you're going to worry more about serving than about status. You're going to worry more about being helpful than about being powerful. You're going to worry more about being a blessing than being a blowhard.

Make that decision because that decision is what God can then begin working on your life with and making you a humble human being. You know, Abraham Lincoln, I guess when we think about humble people and humble leaders, Abraham Lincoln has got to be one of the first people that comes to mind. I think of Mother Teresa.

Some of the people that we honor as being such great people, we honor them because of their humility. Does the name Edward Everett mean anything to you? Edward Everett?

No, not a thing. I remember an Edward Everett Horton. He was the guy that did Mr. Peabody on Bullwinkle, but, and he was named after this guy. Anybody Bullwinkle fans here? Oh, God bless you for your good taste.

That's a great, you know, it takes real intellect to understand Bullwinkle the way I look at it. But anyway, no, it's not the same guy. He was a senator. He was the secretary of state. He was the governor of Massachusetts. He was the president of Harvard University.

You say, wow, where does he live? Well, he lived 100 years ago, so you probably don't know him. But the reason that I want to bring his name up is Edward Everett was the man who was invited to give the speech at the Gettysburg Cemetery that was dedicated in 1863.

And because he was the foremost orator of his day. And he started working on the speech and working on the speech and working on the speech. And a month before they were ready to have the dedication seminary, he said to them, my speech isn't ready.

I need you to move the dedication date back two months to give me more time. And they did it. Can you imagine the president saying, I'm sorry, I'm not ready for that meeting.

You need to move it back a couple months. No, I don't think so. But they did it for this guy. About two weeks before the event, suddenly somebody remembered, oh, we didn't invite the president.

So two weeks beforehand, they invite the president. They said, oh, he'll never come. Well, he did.

Well, then they didn't have a spot for him on the program. Nobody even thought he was going to come. So three days before the event, they got in touch with him and they said, Mr. Lincoln, we want you to say a few words. He wrote the speech on the back of an envelope as he traveled in his buggy to Gettysburg and finished it the night before the ceremony.

Now, Everett Everett's been working for months on his. They get up the next day and Edward Everett has a two hour speech completely memorized. And here's how we started. He raised his hands up to the sky and he said, standing beneath the serene sky, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God in nature. And then he went on for two more hours like that.

President Lincoln sat there the whole time, astutely paying attention. When it was all over, they said, now, ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, clap, clap, clap, clap. He came up and everybody knows how he started, don't you?

How did he start? Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent. Every school kid in America knows that. You know, he spoke for less than two minutes. And yet how many people today remember a single word Edward Everett ever said? He said, Lon, you just told them to me and I can't remember. Okay, fair enough. Which one of these two people did God exalt?

Huh? Which one of these two people did God lift up? The arrogant guy who said, move the ceremony back. I need more time for my soliloquy. Or Mr. Lincoln who had three days to work on it and had two minutes worth of time to give. And when he was asked why he sat there and paid two hours of attention, so close attention to this man, his answer was, the man worked hard on the speech.

He deserved my attention. That's a humble human being. He said, Lon, is there a precedent here?

I think so. I think there's a precedent here. The precedent is verse 11, everyone who exalts himself will be humble. Everybody who humbles himself, God says, I'm going to exalt them. Folks, you want the exaltation of God in your life? I got a real good piece of advice to give you.

Humble yourself and God will do it. I was in Egypt in 1990 as leading a tour group. We were flying down from Cairo to Luxor. Now Luxor is a little bit south of Cairo, about an hour flight. We were going down and it was early, early in the morning we had to get on this flight.

Oh, so early. And so we got to the airport and it was a 767 waiting to take us to Luxor. Now that's a big airplane. I mean, that's a transatlantic airplane.

When we got on, we got everybody seated in. The plane wasn't nearly full. And I went up and started talking to the pilots and I said to the main pilot, I said, how come you're flying this big old airplane down to Luxor?

You know, I mean, it just seems like it ought to be, you know, a little hop. And he said, oh, well. He said, later on this morning, we're going to fly from Cairo to Seattle, which I thought, well, now that's much better flight for a plane like this.

He said, but we needed one extra flight this morning to Luxor for the tour season. So they asked us if we would just fly this one little round trip before we fly to Seattle. I said, oh, that's cool. So we talked a little bit and I said, well, I guess I'll be kind of, you know, moseying on back here and get my seat so y'all can take off. And he said, would you like to fly up here in the cockpit?

And I went, ooh, ooh, that'd be nice. I said, but you know, in America, you can't do that. In America, you can't even stand up in here when you guys are going through checklists and everything like that. And he said, well, sir, this is not America. This is Egypt. I said, oh, I like that.

I like that. So can I really, he said, yeah, just pull that seat down and put the belts on and buckle in where we're getting ready to go. I said, oh man, this is awesome. So I sat down and they started up and they got out on the runway. Man, you ought to sit in the front and watch what happens from the front when this goes on.

I mean, you can see out the front window what's happening or maybe you shouldn't, I don't know. It depends, but they geared his baby up and away we went and we're driving, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah down the runway, you know, and I'm looking out the front window and the runway. I mean, you know, I mean, it is the end of these things, you know, and I'm waiting for this guy to pull back and he's not pulling back and I'm, you know, we're going, run out of runway by the way. And I'm going, what is wrong with this guy? Why didn't he pull back on this sucker and take this plane off? Finally, finally he goes, yeah, and up we go and I'm kind of like, huh. So when we're up in the air and we're all relaxed and my blood pressure had gone back down, I said to him, you know, I'm kind of curious, didn't you take an awful long time? I mean, why didn't you just pull back quicker, you know, like this?

He said, well, sir, you don't understand. The way you take an airplane off is you hold that thing on the ground until there's so much lift under the wings that you can't even hold it on the ground anymore. It takes off almost by itself.

If you pull back on that thing and try to take it off before you've got enough lift, you'll stall that plane and we'll have a very short trip. Just like that. I said, okay, I accept that. You obviously did it right because we're up and God bless you and appreciate that. But you know, I got to thinking about that later and I thought that's a real good rule for life, isn't it? You know, there's so many of us, the world's telling us, pull back on that thing, pull back on that thing, pull back on that thing.

Go ahead, assert yourself, promote yourself, advance yourself, get your rights, take that baby off. Jesus said, huh? Jesus said, you just keep it on the ground serving people. You just keep it on the ground being a humble person.

You just keep it on the ground being a person of value. And as people watch, the lift will start to build. And when there's so much lift that they start taking you up, that's the right time to head up. And God said, it'll happen.

It'll happen, but it'll happen in my time. Be careful you don't pull back on the stick too soon. That's a good rule for life folks. If I had a piece of advice to give you about success in life, I'd say you keep your plane on the ground till there's so much lift coming from others that it won't stay down anymore and you'll be happy you did. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for the word of God that speaks to our hearts in such a real and practical way. And thank you Lord Jesus for reminding us today that the siren call of the world telling us to promote ourselves and advance ourselves and exalt ourselves and push ourselves forward and promote is just not your way. Lord Jesus, you teach us that your way to success is humility. And help us be willing to be humble men and women and allow you to exalt us when the time is right. Change our lives, change our worldview, change our view of ourselves and people as a result of our being here this morning and our contact with the word of God that we might be a blessing to others and that you might bless our life. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.