Take A Chance on Humility

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to God’s living room,

Most people love stories. Some won’t admit but they still watch tv shows that are really stories. Jesus told a lot of stories. One of the stories he told 2K ago is recorded for us in Luke 14. The setting for the story was at a church leader, called a Pharisee’s, house. Pharisees were religious, pious, and proud of following rules and regulations. And they primarily did it in front of other so they could seen and esteemed wearing their Niemann Marcus gowns and flashing their season tickets to the box seats in the synagogue. And when they gave, they gave out of their abundance again in front of the people so that all could be reminded that they were better than the regular people. The Pharisee invited other Pharisees and Jesus to his home for a dinner party. In those days the table arrangement was in a U shape. The host would sit in the middle and the distinguished guests would sit right next to him, the most distinguished on his right and then the next on his left. The others sat down in descending order of importance. So Jesus goes to the party and as he arrives people are in a mad scramble for the seats of honor. They want to be next to the host in the top spots. And Jesus tells them this: (Luke 14:8-14) 8"When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

How embarrassing would that be? You get there early to the party and set up shop with your name tag, drink. You drape your coat over the chair and as you sit down you wave to the regular people with a smile. And then the host comes says, “Excuse me. You are in someone else’s place. I’m going to have to ask you to move.” and by now all the other seats are taken except the very last seat farthest way from the host. And now you have to get up with your coat draped over your forearm as you carry your drink head down to the last seat. That would suck.

Jesus says, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.” Reminds me of another saying: Whoever gets too big for his britches will eventually be exposed in the end. Why does Jesus make such a big deal about this pride issue? Why at this party? What in so many places in Scripture too. Check out: Proverbs 16:5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. And how about this: James 4:6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Why does God feel so strongly about pride, arrogance, and ego? Why are we constantly being called to the contrast of pride, to humility?

God knows how much damage pride is doing in business, political, education, family, friendship and even church arenas and the damage it does to souls everyday. Let me take a little survey to show how pride ruins relationships. How many of us love to be around people with big heads? How many us would just love to go the Brewer game or to Summerfest his coming weekend with a conceited jerk? Pride ruins relationships. And nobody wants to humble themselves, admit they are wrong, ask for forgiveness or extend forgiveness. Proverbs 13:10 says, “Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.” Business relationships that were solid like a rock are now a heap of pebbles. Marriages which were united in love have been separated by the detonation of pride. Some parents never admit that they are wrong and children grow up devastated all because of pride. People struggle with finances, morals. Addictions, sin and they are too prideful to open up and say, I’m in over my head and I need help.

And elderly couple became friends in the nursing home. The man became infatuated with the women and one evening asked her to marry him. She quickly responded yes. The next morning the man wakes up and remembers asking her but can’t remember her answer. So he sheepishly seeks her out and says, “Last night I asked you to marry me but I can’t remember your answer.” She was delighted. She said, “This morning when I woke up I knew I had said yes but I couldn’t remember who asked me.”

To acknowledge short comings, to say I goofed, isn’t easy. But those who can humble themselves at work, marriage, with the kids can repair so much damage. Some of us are living in very fractured relationships right now. And they are going to stay that way until one or both of us humble ourselves. When a person is humble they don’t have to be right all of the time. It is easier to handle criticism, to say I’m sorry, I was wrong, please forgive me. Relationships excel in humility and crash in pride.

Another reason why Jesus makes such a big deal with pride is because pride can walk right by real people with real needs. I see pride every time I look in the mirror. And if I ignore it, you and others will know when I do because then I walk right by people with needs, pains, and problems because I am focused on my agenda, dreams, plans, schedule, calendar. Pride walks right by people with real needs, doesn’t have time for others. Philippians 2:3 says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Pride is a roadblock to happiness in so many of our lives. Everybody wants to be happy. Many are in a frantic search for happiness and there is no shortage of advice on how to be happy. I typed in How to Be Happy on Amazon.com and it came up with over 1500 books. There has never been more advice on happiness. So why aren’t more people happy, colleagues at work, spouse, kids, you, me? Happiness in counterintuitive. We think it is found in external circumstances. Like if the Brewers win we are happy. If the car repair bill is less expensive than we thought we are happy. But Jesus teaches happiness is determined by what is happening within us. The first step to happiness is humility: Matthew 5:3 says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed or happy. To be in poor in spirit doesn’t mean that we are down in the dumps. It means that we recognize who we really are. To recognize our shortcomings, misbehaviors, moral slip ups, failures and sin and all of this in the presence of a holy, righteous, pure and loving God. The engineers at Boeing aren’t impressed with our paper airplanes. We don’t make a shot on the playground and look Kobe Bryant in the eye and says, “I got game.” So we certainly can’t boast about how good we are in the presence of the holy God. People poor in spirit recognize that we don’t’ measure up to God’s standard of holiness and that’s humility. I’m destitute, overdrawn, bankrupt and I can never repay. I need God who can lift me up out this situation who can meet me in this condition. Jesus is saying, Happy are those who acknowledge I need God because God gives grace to the humble. The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who trust that they don’t deserve it.

So my question for me and you is: Is pride in the way between us and God? Is pride in the way of our happiness? Do you want to know how to break the back of pride? Do want to know how to be humble in a me first world? Then you we are going to have to take a chance and acknowledge who I really am before God and to other people. Admit that we are utterly dependent on God to get me out of this hole so deep no oil company can drill down far enough to get me out. James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Now I know this is hard for us to do especially because deep down we like to think that we have made ourselves and deserve all that we have. I worked for it or I made some really good decisions right?

A CEO at a mega corporation and his wife were driving when they needed to pull the Mercedes in for gas. The CEO of course pulled the car up to the full service side and waited for the attendant to come out. As the attendant comes out of the gas station the CEO’s wife gets out of the car to go buy a cappuccino. As she does she greets the attendant and they actually end up talking for a while before she goes and gets her drink. When she gets back in the car her husband says condescendingly, “that was a nice conversation I bet.” His wife said, “Oh, I know him. I used to date him.” Her CEO husband responds, “I bet I know what you are thinking. You are thinking how lucky I am to have married my husband who is a CEO instead of man who is a gas station attendant.” “No,” she said, “I’m thinking that if I would have married him he would have been the CEO and you would have been the gas station attendant.”

Here’s the deal. None of us would be anything without God who has made us. None of us who be anything without God who gave us our gifts and abilities. None of us who be anything without God who gave us opportunities. None of us who be anything without God who gave us his only Son to die for us.

Second thing: Get outside of yourself and serve someone. Luke 14:12-14 "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Don’t invite the rich neighbors, invite the poor, the cripple, the lame etc., Humble people get outside of themselves and serve others. Serve people who can’t serve you back because they don’t have the means or the ability. Matthew 23:11 (The Message) Do you want to stand out? Then step down.” Take a chance on humility in a Me world. Jesus did.

Prayer