The senior pastor of a large church walked into the sanctuary alone and felt an overwhelming sense of God's holiness. He went to the front, knelt down at the altar rail, and began to beat himself on the chest, crying out, “Oh Lord, I am nothing!”
A few moments later, the associate pastor entered the sanctuary. He too felt the overwhelming presence of God and, seeing the pastor at the altar, went and knelt down beside him. He also began to strike his chest and say, “Oh Lord, I am nothing. I am nothing.”
It happened that the whole staff, one by one, began coming in. The youth pastor, the worship pastor—eventually, the whole staff, all kneeling at the altar bemoaning their “nothingness” before the Almighty.
A little while later, the church janitor came in and got caught up in the revival, as well. He knelt beside the church pastors and began beating on his chest, saying like all the rest, “Oh Lord, I am nothing. I am nothing.”
At that moment the senior pastor looked up, saw the janitor, and nudged his associate. “Well, well,” he said. “Just look at who thinks he's nothing!” (Don Aycock, Memphis, Tennessee; www.PreachingToday.com).
Pride is so insidious, so much so that we can become proud of our humility. This is especially true among God’s people who consider humility a virtue. In their quest to earn respect, they try to exalt themselves among their peers. They seek to make themselves appear more virtuous or more worthy than others. But it only makes them look like fools.
So, how do you earn real respect among your peers? How do you gain real honor among people? How do you win the real admiration of others. Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Luke 14, Luke 14, where Jesus tells a group of religious leaders how they can earn real respect with people.
Luke 14:1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully (ESV).
They have exalted themselves above Jesus, sitting as His judge, carefully looking for something about which they might criticize Him.
Luke 14:2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy (ESV).
Dropsy is a painful disease in which a person’s limbs are swollen with excess body fluids. Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day considered such a person unclean and immoral (cf. Numbers 5:27). So how did he get there, since no pharisee would normally allow such an unclean person to dine with them? I believe they deliberately planted him right in front of Jesus to bait him into violating the Sabbath.
After all, Luke records at least five other occasions before this where Jesus violated their Sabbath traditions. On the Sabbath He had cast out a demon (Luke 4:31–37), healed a fever (Luke 4:38–39), allowed His disciples to pluck grain (Luke 6:1–5), healed a man with a paralyzed hand (Luke 6:6–10), and delivered a woman from a disabling spirit (Luke 13:10–17).
The pharisees knew that Jesus would violate their Sabbath traditions again. That’s why they invited the man with dropsy to their dinner party. They wanted to bait Jesus to accuse Him of breaking the Law. So, what does Jesus do? He baits them!
Luke 14:3-6 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things (ESV).
Jesus knows that they would rescue their own sons, even their own farm animals, on the Sabbath if necessary. That’s why they were silent before Jesus. They had no answer. In an effort to exalt themselves, they were humiliated.
My dear friends, if you want to earn real respect, don’t do what these pharisees did. Refuse to sit as a judge over others. Instead, det your judgmental spirits aside and show real love.
PUT COMPASSION ABOVE CRITICISM.
Elevate kindness over piety.
When S. Truett Cathy founded Chick-fil-A in 1967, he decided to close the restaurant on Sundays to reflect His commitment to Biblical principles. Indeed, their corporate purpose is “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us, [and] to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” That’s why they remain closed on Sundays to this day, but there are a few exceptions.
One of those exceptions occurred when the Atlanta International Airport was hit with a complete blackout on a Sunday. This is one of the world’s busiest airports, and the blackout resulted in hundreds of cancelled flights and countless stranded passengers. While Atlanta’s municipal government was busy trying to find accommodations for these passengers, Chick-fil-A opened their doors to provide food (Jon Dykstra; “Chick-fil-A is always open – except when an ox falls into a pit,” Reformed Perspective, 1-30-18; www.PreachingToday.com).
They put the needs of others above their adherence to a strict, legalistic standard. Now, if you respected them for their commitment to Biblical principles, you have to respect them even more for putting compassion at the center of their commitment. You do the same. If you want to gain the respect of others, 1st, put compassion above criticism, kindness over piety. 2nd…
PUT OTHERS ABOVE YOURSELF.
Count others as more significant than you (Philippians. 2:3), and choose the place of service over the place of honor. Look at what Jesus said to those who tried to exalt themselves.
Luke 14:7-9 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place (ESV).
You will take the walk of shame to the lowest place, the servant’s place.
This reminds me of what Solomon said in the book of Proverbs: “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble” (Proverbs 25:6-7). Instead, Jesus said…
Luke 14:10-11 …when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (ESV).
Now, the highest place was the place closest to the host of the party. It was the place Judas held at the Last Supper (Luke 22:21; cf. John 13:26). The last place was reserved for the servant, who washed everybody else’s feet. It was the place Peter held at the Last Supper (John 13:6, 24). Tell me. Who was exalted and who was humbled? That’s right. Peter, who started off in last place, albeit reluctantly, ended up a leader in the early church. Judas, who started off in first place, ended up killing himself out of shame for betraying Jesus.
It’s like Jesus said: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
It’s also what Jesus did! Philippians 2 says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by 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” (Philippians 2:5-11).
Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place in the universe. By His death on the cross, Jesus became your Savior and the Savior of all who depend on Him. More than that, by His death on the cross, Jesus became your Sovereign and the Sovereign of every creature who ever lived, dead or alive, in heaven or in hell. His cross led to His crown!
To which Paul says, “Have this same mind” (Philippians 2:5). Adopt this same attitude, for “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Nik Wallenda is an American follower of Christ who has become the most-watched high wire artist and daredevil in the world. In fact, a billion people across the world watched two of his feats in 2012 and in 2013. In 2012, Wallenda walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls. In 2013, Wallenda became the first person to walk a high-wire across the Grand Canyon.
Wallenda knows that he will be tempted by pride, so after the huge crowds and the media fade away, he engages in a simple spiritual discipline: he walks where the crowds have just stood and quietly picks up trash. Wallenda once wrote:
My purpose is simply to help clean up after myself. The huge crowd left a great deal of trash behind, and I feel compelled to pitch in. Besides, after the inordinate amount of attention I sought and received, I need to keep myself grounded. Three hours of cleaning up debris is good for my soul. Humility does not come naturally to me. So, if I have to force myself into situations that are humbling, so be it… I know that I need to get down on my hands and knees like everyone else. I do it because it's a way to keep from tripping. As a follower of Jesus, I see him washing the feet of others. I do it because if I don't serve others, I'll be serving nothing but my ego (Nik Wallenda with David Ritz, Balance Faith Words, 2013, page 207; www.PreachingToday.com).
I love that attitude. It’s the attitude of Christ when He washed His disciples’ feet and died on the cross—serve others not your ego.
Walt Disney once said, “As far as I can remember, being a celebrity has never helped me make a good picture… or command the obedience of my daughter, or impress my wife. It doesn't even seem to help keep fleas off our dog, and if being a celebrity won't give one an advantage over a couple fleas, then I guess there can't be that much in being a celebrity after all” (Walt Disney, Leadership, Vol. 8, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, don’t seek to be a celebrity. Seek to serve!
If you want to gain the respect of others, 1st, put compassion above criticism; 2nd, put others above yourself; and 3rd…
PUT GIVING ABOVE RECEIVING.
Put generosity above compensation, and bive without expecting anything in return. Do good to those who cannot repay you. This is what Jesus said to the host of the dinner party.
Luke 14:12-14 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (ESV).
Get your reward now or later.
You see, the host had invited his guests for one of two reasons: 1st, to pay them back because they had invited him to an earlier feast, or 2nd, to be put on their invitation list for a future feast. But Jesus tells him, “If you want God to bless and respect you, invite people to your party that cannot pay you back. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind (vs.13).
In the middle of the third century there was a Christian leader named Lawrence who served as a deacon in the Church of Rome. According to tradition, Lawrence was in charge of the church's treasury and its benevolence fund. In Lawrence's day, public opinion had turned against followers of Christ, and one day the prefect of the city asked Lawrence to gather up and give him “the wealth of the church.”
Lawrence sent back a message: “I do not deny that our Church is rich… and that no one in the world is richer, not even the emperor… I will bring forth all the precious things that belong to Christ, if only you will give me a little time to gather everything together.” The prefect agreed, as he dreamed of what he could do with the money, gold, and silver.
For three days, Lawrence ran about the city, collecting the Church's treasures. But they were not the sort of treasures the greedy prefect was dreaming of. Instead, Lawrence walked through all the alleys and squares of Rome and gathered the church's real treasure—the poor, the disabled, the blind, the homeless, and the lepers. The people he gathered into the church included a man with two eyeless sockets, a disabled man with a broken knee, a one-legged man, a person with one leg shorter than the other, and others with severe illnesses. He wrote down their names and lined them up at the entrance to the church.
Only then did he invite the prefect into the church. “These are the treasures of the Church of Christ!” Lawrence declared as he presented the ragged crowd to the astonished prefect. “Their bodies may not be beautiful, but within these vessels of clay they bear all the treasures of divine grace” (Robert Louis Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, Yale University Press, 2005, pp. 225-226; www.PreachingToday.com).
God treasurers the poor and the disabled, because they are completely dependent on Him.
James 2 says, “God [has] chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him” (James 2:5).
For, you see, the only thing that pleases God is your faith, your trust in Him. That’s what Paul said in Hebrews 11: “By [faith], the people of old received their commendation” (Hebrews 11:2), so much so that without faith “it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
The poor and the disabled tend to have more faith, because they are helpless without any outside help. That’s why God treasures them the most. So, if you want God to treasure you, treasure those He treasures, and do good to those who cannot repay you.
In a newsletter of the Pentecostal Holiness Church, Linda Thomas writes these words:
I was told that John came from a well-to-do family, but because he was mentally handicapped, they rejected him. Somehow John came to our community, and Daddy and Momma took him in. John would stay with our family for a while and then go to another place. This seemed to be his life pattern. I was just a baby at the time, so I have no recollection of John during the time he lived with us.
Sometime in the early '40s, while John was in another community, he was accused of assaulting someone and was sent to Dorothea Dix Hospital, an institution for the mentally handicapped. Apparently, he gave the officials of Dorothea Dix Hospital my father's name as his guardian. Through the years Daddy was one of the few people who kept in touch with John. Every now and then a letter would arrive from the hospital needing permission for one thing or another for John or just simply delivering a message to us from John.
Some years later, the state reversed the Dorothea Dix residency policies, and John was sent to a nursing home in Morehead City. By this time my father was in poor health both physically and mentally. His condition resulted in his moving to a local nursing home. Our family requested that John be moved to the same home, and he was. At this point, Daddy was more mentally deficient than John. John, then, took to overseeing Daddy's welfare. In our daily visits to see Daddy, we always found John's wheelchair right beside Daddy's. If Daddy had a bad day, John let us know it. If Daddy needed anything, John was his greatest advocate.
For all those years Daddy had befriended this man who was a ward of the state. Little did any of us realize that God would use John Sabiston to be Daddy's guardian angel during his last days on earth (Linda M. Thomas, "Today's Woman Touching Tomorrow's World," North Carolina Women's Ministries Newsletter of Pentecostal Holiness Church, undated, p. 6; www.PreachingToday.com).
God rewarded Linda’s dad for his generosity without expecting anything in return, not only at the end of his life, but imagine his reward in the next. It’s nice when people respect you, but when God respects you, that’s an even greater reward.
So, if you want to gain the respect of others and even God Himself, 1st, put compassion above criticism; 2nd, put others above yourself; and 3rd, put giving above receiving.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11).
Or as one old preacher put it, “Christ sends none away empty but those who are full of themselves” (Donald Gray Barnhouse, Leadership, Vol. 1, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com).
