The Way Up Is Down - Pastor JD Howell

Luke, May I direct your attention to the fourteenth chapter

and verses number ten and eleven, please, and Brother Nathaniel

John chapter number thirteen, verses number four and five, and

Brother Jesse Exitus, chapter number two and verse number fifteen. Again,

we miss all who are unable to be here tonight

due to being on vacation and sickness. May God keep

them and protect them. Brother Nathaniel John, chapter number thirteen,

verses number four and five, My brother, he rises from

supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel

and girded himself. After the a he pourth water into

a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and

to wipe them with the towel.

Wherewith he was girded.

Notice that Jesus stooped down to wash his disciples feet.

I want to preach a message the Holy Ghost titled

the Way Up is Down, The Way Up is Down,

Brother Jesse Exitus, Chap To number two, Verse number fifteen.

Now, when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses.

But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt

in the land of Midian, and he sat down by

a well.

You'll notice Moses did not sit down in a throne.

He sat down by a well. He knew what it

was to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, the grandson

of Pharaoh. He stepped down, if you would, He stepped

down to his people's level. And I want to preach

a message the Holy Ghost titled the Way Up is Down.

Let's stand for the reading of our golden text Luke,

chapter number fourteen, verses number ten and eleven. But when

thou art bidding go and sit down in the lowest room,

that when he that bade THEE cometh, he may say,

unto THEE friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have

worship in the presence of them that sit at meet

with THEE. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and

he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Notice these words

are printed in red. And we know God is true.

If every man was a liar, God would be true.

And he said, for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased.

If you lift yourself up, God's gonna bring you down.

Let's pray, Heavenly Father. We love and we praise you.

We thank you for the opportunity to be in your house.

We need you desperately tonight. God, each and every night,

we need you. We need you this hour, Precious Savior,

Anoint this thy servant seat of God in my mouth.

Help me to say the things you would have me

to say, nothing more or less. Annoint the ears of

this thy people, that they might hear what the Spirit

of God says to us as a body here tonight

at the Bethel Holiness Church. Let us have ears to hear. Lord,

I pray these sayings go below the shoulders. Let them

not only be in our head. Lord, we need more

than a head knowledge. We needed to saturate our entire being,

our spirit, soul of mind. We give you praise and

honor and glory. And may we depart this place joyfully

and not sorroyply in Jesus' name in the church said Amen,

looking at Luke chapter number fourteen and verse number eleven.

The Bible says, for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased,

and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Our text

is found in a New Testament Book of the Holy Bible.

The Book of Luke is a favorite for the people

of God during this Christmas season. My son in law,

brother Jonathan, had no idea that I would be saying

this tonight in the opening part of this message. But

I believe most of the families here at to Bethel

Holiness Church begin reading this particular book of the Bible

on the first of December. I know that Sister Hal

and I started this tradition probably two to three years ago,

and we shared it with this church family, and most

of you have embraced him. And as you read one

chapter of this book each morning or evening, you come

to an end. After twenty four days, you've read twenty

four chapters. And after you've done that, you've read the

entire account of Luke concerning the Lord Jesus Christ life,

his earthly ministry.

You have a good knowledge of it.

Then, come Christmas Day, the time that we celebrate the

Christ Child's birth, we cannot help but be thankful for

his great gift of himself to mankind. I can't help

but be thankful that he, the God of all the earth,

would have walked through the quarter of Heaven and walk

down that spiraling staircase called Jacob's Ladder, that ladder that

angels of God ascend and descend from here to there,

and he came down amongst the lowly people such as

you and I. Last night, brother Nathaniel, sister Rachel, and

their family came over to visit us, and while they

were there in the living room, him and I began

to talk about the Bible, and it wasn't too long

after talking about the Blessed Word of God, we came

to the topic of the deity of Christ, and Brother

chip Roy, Brother Nathaniel and I are just like you were,

of that camp that supports and promotes Holy the Deity

of Christ. I'm shocked that independent holiness people and Pentecostal

people of modern times have come to the place where

they believe that Jesus Christ is a created being. They

fell when the Holy Ghost overshadowed that virgin woman, that

Jesus in that moment began to exist. That is heresy.

We do not support that. That is the doctrine of heretics.

And I believe that while Brother Nathaniel and I were speaking,

we spoke of the creator of the cosmos, and I

remember telling him that it's amazing to me that the

creator of the cosmos would become the Christ Child, and

that he would allow himself to be cloaked in human

flesh and be covered up by the womb of a woman,

Sister Root, and he closed himself up in a young

virgin's womb for the standard gestational period. Sister Hammond stood

up in this church last Wednesday night. She said, I've

been undergoing some stress test and she said, put me

in some situations that I'm uncomfortable with, and she said,

I'm klaustrophobic. Coming of you have dealt with claustrophobia. Anybody

in the building. Well, God, God, God put himself in

the womb of a woman. I'm glad that he is

not claustrophobic, Praise the Lord. I'm glad that he's not

dealing with claustrophobia tonight. He's residing in the hearts of

every born again believer. I'm glad that he's omnipresent, that

he's always been God, and he's in every place at

every moment of time, and also throughout eternity, which knows

no time. So Brother Nathaniel and I, as we were talking,

we both marveled at the things our Lord allowed himself

to endure for our sake. I was preaching years ago,

and God prompted me to say, the Trinity activated Calvary's

code when they realized that the free will of man

had failed them, and that mankind, through Adam and Eve,

had made a bad choice, and mankind had this great

need of redemption. And the creator of the Cosmos hit

the activation button and the Calvary code was executed, and

he stopped fingering the throne of his father, and he

made plans to visit the earthlings here on the planet Earth.

And after Brother Nathaniel and I left talking on this

particular subject, Brother Nathaniel, something began to go over inside

of my being, and all through the night I tossed

and turned thinking on this topic of humility, and I

thought of the greatest example of a humble person in

Jesus christ Us, our Lord, and that train of thought

brought me to this point of consideration his humility. Look

at your neighbor right now and say, hey, neighbor, have

you ever considered his humility?

I want to tell you the way up is down.

And the Lord left the portals of glory and descended

into this earth in order to help you and I

I feel like people ought to be in the spirit

of God right now, in thankfulness and total, complete, absolute

gratitude that a king such as that would come down

amongst us. Because of his humility, he was able to

go from a manger in a stable to a cross

on a hill. His beginning upon earth was a most

humble one. We love to hear the rags to richest stories.

We love to hear the humble beginnings of successful people,

do we not? But our savior story is best because

unlike those who come from nothing and who build themself

into something, our Lord Jesus Christ went from being the

sickter piece of heaven to becoming nothing in this world's

eyes in a short span of time. In fact, in

less than thirty three and a half years of time,

he diminished himself until he was destroyed by his old countrymen,

of those people that he created. In other words, the

Creator was destroyed by his very old created beings. But

he was risen again, and he is seated at the

right hand of the Father on high, and he came

down so that he could go up.

Not only did he come down so that he.

Could go up, he came down to rescue us so

that he could take us up there with him. He

came from the higher and the lofty place of eternity, and.

He humbled himself.

Oh yes, he's a humble origin a little town of Bethlehem.

Songwriters have wrote beautiful lyrics of.

This little nowhere place. And the prophet Michael, he.

Got agnorted and asked the seer of that particular region,

and he foretold of this event and circumstance. In Micah,

chapter number five and verse number two, the Bible says,

but thou Bethlehem, Africa of Jude, you're the littlest among

the thousands of Judah. Yet out of these shall come

forth under me, that is to be ruler.

And in Israel, who's.

Going forth have been from old, from everlasting. And even

the prophet Micah supported the doctrine and the identity of

the deity of Christ, and he.

Knew that the Lord.

Wasn't from everlasting. And the New Testament writer put it

this way. After peering her into the portals of glory,

he said, he is the ancient of days, Brother Nathaniel,

he who inhabits eternity, stepped within the weak boundary lines

of time for the likes of you and.

I, oh, praise be to the Lord.

Tonight the songwriter wrote a song and the lyrics go

something like this, Who am I that a king would

bleed and die for the people of this generation? They're

so heady, and so haughty and so high minded they

would not even sing the lyrics of that song because

they feel themselves to be somebody.

Can I tell you if you're.

That person to night that feels so lowly, honestly, humbly

and sincerely you consider yourself.

To be of no reputation?

Can I tell you you're keeping company with Jesus? The Bible said,

he made himself of no reputation. You would take the

earth that had the fingerprint of God on it, would

have known own that the man that created every living

creature was on the face of the earth, and that

the creatures would have followed suit.

And haradled in a parade. The King is here, The

King is here. You see.

Those men came from the Orient, and they asked the question,

where is this King of Israel?

And a few holy.

Shepherds that were tending their flocks by night lay soul

exactly who he was. In fact, for a brief moment

in time, the heavenly angelic choir of the celestial City

begin to sing Glory to God in the highest and

on earth, peace goodwill to o men. Can I tell

you when the pripet Michael preached some seven hundred years

prior to his arrival, and he would come up into

a little town of Bethlehem that night when Mary was there,

she could have looked at Joseph and said, I've been

pondering some things.

Mary, did you know?

She knew very well who it was kicking her in

the ribs. Anybody that's been visited by an angel, they

know what the angel said.

Michael knew what.

The angel had said, and Michael said, the ruler is coming.

It all happener in Bethlehem. Of course she knew, and

Joseph knew too. Are y'all with me in this house?

But I know she may not have knew the lyrics

of Mark Lowry so titled Mary did you know? But

she probably knew what the prophet of old had said.

And brother Jesse, they had no room for the king.

You the thought every place would have made a vacancy

for the King of Kings and the Glory Child to

come in, but they did not. There was no room

for him whatsoever. And that's where we're at today. People

have crowded themselves with so much, including themselves, that there

is no room for the King. How do I know

this because there's no room for him. There's no room

for his word, there's no room for his precepts, there's

no room whatsoever.

How many of you have heard.

Us saying about somebody being full of themselves. I want

you to know a preacher and is preaching holiness and

righteousness to a generation that's trying to escape the flames

of hell. It's not one fool of himself. He's one

fool of the Word of God. And I want you

to know here the night Michael was not a fool

of himself. It was about the king that would come

seven hundred years later. And I want you to know

here tonight, it ain't about brother high La. It's about

where will you be seven hundred years from now?

Will you be with the Lord?

Seven hundred years from then, my canoe, somebody's gonna be

with the Lord?

Will they entertain him?

Our great revivalist Charles Finney introduced the altar service and

the altar call and good old time sanctification and preach

that we should have works and brother chiproar, There's been

a lot of Calvinists over the years that has despised

the process of what Charles Finney told the American people

we are to do. I tell you we ought to

feel just like Jesus did, that there is something to do.

I know that we cannot add anything at all to

our salvation. It is true. Grace it is true. The

blood it is true. The goodness of God it is true.

The faith of God it is true, his faithfulness. I'm

telling you, God's got everything in the world to do

with it. But when you are His child, and you

are just that, you are His child, and you have

a new nature.

I said, you have a new nature.

Why did Jesus come in such a lovely state to

show us earthlings that it can be done? You see,

if he had an aboorded the mission during the testing

of Lucifer upon him, when he split forty days and

notts being tifted of Lucifer, if he'd a hipp of

button and aborded the mission, mankind would have been annihilated.

The flames of hell would have come out of the.

Sandy dude of the city and the wilderness and all

of humanity would have been annihilated and destined to a

devil's hell. He'd has still been God. I said, there's

still been God. But they humbled himself. I said, they

humbled himself not to obedience.

Through the death of the cross.

And about this holiness attire stuff. Your long sleeves will

not save you. But the same person will feel the

need to be modest, and a same person will feel

the need to cover up. They persecute of people that's

trying to keep His commandments. They persecute people this striving

to be holy, because He's holy. We all know, after

the spirit of God has touched us, we feel differently.

This past Sunday night, I mentioned something that came to

me while I was preaching, and we titled it the

white shoes syndrome. And I'm telling you some people came

to me after that message and said, my wife's got

a pair of white shoes. And another man piped up

and said, sod as mine, and brother Jesse said, my

wife cannot stand to have one mark on them white shoes.

He said, when she's wearing anything else, she doesn't seem

to have an awareness of it, but when she puts

on them white shoes like you talked about, pastor, she

walks nipper live just like you said you did. Oh

come on, now, are you with me here tonight? And

I want you to know Jesus who walked through it,

not only to cover you, but to show you you

can do it. Yes, you can do all things through Christ.

What strengthens you. The problem people have with righteousness, yes

they do not have the new nature, but the reason

he came.

What's the destroyer? The adamic nature?

And yes it tries to resurface. Yes, dead men try

to come back alive again. This is why the apostle

Paul said, I die daily, how.

Crucify myself daily?

He didn't say, I just cover myself by the imputed

righteousness of Jesus each and every day, and go out

in the white garment the marriage guard, which is Jesus himself,

and drag Jesus through the muck and the mire.

How many of you know what mock is.

There's a lot of people out there trying to act

like they're okay with taking Jesus through.

The muck and the mire. I'll tell you he's humble. Yes,

he was the lamb, but he's a liar of the

tribal of Judah.

You gotta come down to go up. I want to

ask y'all a question. If Jezabel lived today, how would

she dress? Would she dressed like Sarah of old and

Irish land woodin or what she dressed like Kim Kardashian

and some other A list celebrity answer that question if

Jesabel was alive today, If Sarah Abraham's wife was alive today.

Who would she dress like?

Alexandria Courtes, Hillary Rodmy Clinton, one of these BONI fie

true blue curvanilla? Great, Hey, holiness women, I'll tell you

what the apostle said. He said, in like manner them

holy women of older, they chose not to adorn themself.

I had somebody ask my wife a few years ago.

She said, when are y'all going back to your own nature?

You were pentecostal, you were a charismatica the win. Are

you gonna stop her humbling yourself? I tell you when

we're gonna stop her humbling ourself the day we die,

because who exalts himself he shall a base, and whosoever

humbles themself shall be exalted. My wife ain't no Christmas

tree somebody said, you Christians need to get rid of

them Christmas trees OUTSI idolatry.

I laughed.

And then they sighted that Scripture and the Old Testament.

They said, a man out there was it the prophet

Jeremiah was preaching against that idollar tree. And they talked

about ten people going out there and cutting down the

trees and going in and fashioning idols under themselves of

wood and worshiping them. Listen, if you're gonna throw a

Christmas tree out that you have put in a pot

of water, are y'all.

Listening to me?

You better throw every bouquet of flowers you ever get

from the town forest because they're be decked with ribbons,

they got big bows on them. You better stop bringing

full arrangements to the graveside of your loving shoe. Idollar

try I'm telling you, whether it's a Christmas tree in

a pot of water or a fur arrangement.

Then a pot of water. This hypocritical.

If you don't do away with anything whatsoever that's been

fashened up for wood, stop.

Get that bird off your wall, e bird worsiper.

They worship themselves, They ornate themselves, they ornate their person

and one of the ugliest ways to ornate yourself is

the spirit of pride. To bedeck yourself with a spirit

of pride. And sometimes the holiest of them all, come on, now,

the holiness of them all, stand in the mirror and say, mirror.

Mirror on the wall. Who is the most holy of

them all.

That's the spirit of a Pharisee to look out over

everybody else and live holiness just because they're unable to

do it.

I'm not living holiness to bully somebody and show them up.

I'm living holiness because his word indicates from me to

be separated from the world.

And we have a lot of out programs. Don't anybody

twist what I'm saying. He that was the holiest of

them all descended from heaven and he came down and

he sensed something that incensed him. It infuriated him, that haughtiness,

that headiness, that high spirit. Just because somebody turns you

onto something, it doesn't mean you should be there on

Facebook and Instagram and Google and find an idolatry and everything.

Because I learned a long time ago, if you're gonna

do it pow, you better go all the way because

your children will figure out that you're a hypocrite. And

I also will tell you this, if you take the

wrong turn and you go to excess and something that's unbiblical,

like homemade dresses, and you make a doctrine none of that,

or doing away with ever a picture on the wall.

Can I tell you that the man that got so

holy he wouldn't even use a red back hymn noise.

I heard him testify about it one night. He said,

I don't know how them men lived. He said, I

don't know the men that wrote that song. And he

got up there and struck a chord in that song,

a song that some hill billy in Kentucky had wrote

in modern times. And I heard him testify about pictures

falling off the wall because they come to an understanding

them pictures shouldn't be on the wall. I agree that

the posters of Captain America had warned the woman and

batman and all that stuff shall come off the wall.

But you can make an idol out of your family.

I've seen a lot of people marcidos out of people mercidos,

lot of grand babies macidos.

How of superstars are you with me right now?

But rom was eighteen and twelve said, before destruction, the

heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility.

Christ wasn't one to be full of himself. And John

chapter number thirteen, verse number four and five the Bible said,

he rising from supper, and laying aside his garments, he

took a towel, and he girded himself. To keep this short,

I'm gonna move on. After that, he poured water into

a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and

to wipe them with a towel, wherewith he was girded.

And verse number six tells us Peter didn't understand this

attitude of servitude. He didn't understand this gesture of servitude.

Why is he getting on his knees and washing my feet?

That's the God I serve. You got to get down

before you get up. And he got down on his

knees before he got up and hung on that cross,

and he got down in that borrowed tomb before he

went upset on that throne in glory.

He got down before he got up.

Luke chapter number fourteen, verses number ten and eleven said,

but when now we're bidding and this is our golden text.

Go and sit down in the lowest rooms, that when

he that bade thee cometh, he may say and to

THEE friend, go up higher. I feel this in this

place tonight. The Pharisees knew where they wanted to sit

in this narrative. They were told, when you come in,

you sit in low seats. It was customary, Brother roke

Cap for the Pharisees to sitting up most seats in

the higher rooms, while the others take the lower rooms

and seats. I don't have to increase and make up

things in order to be superior. I have friends that

I feel like are living holiness simple because they know

others are weak, and they feel like, because of their exterior,

their superior to those other people. But if you were

to take them to Jesus, Jesus would say, your attitude

stinks and their dress code stinks. Now I want to

tell you in heaven and that's celestial city, Lucifer was

dressed right, Lucifer looked right, Lucifer was singing the right songs.

Lucifer was in the right company. But here's the birth

of Pride. But Ruth had to get down to come

up she bowed in the fill of bo Az and

she gleaned, and then she ended up in the queen's seat.

And John the Baptist had an opportunity to be the priest.

But he went into the wilderness and he stepped down,

and he walked down in the river Jordan, and he said,

there's one coming after me. He's mightier than I. I'm

not even worthy to unlatch his shoe. He got down,

he got low, and he said, I must decrease that

he might increase. And he literally diminishes until he's imprisoned

for standing up for the truth that will set everybody free.

And then he injures some kind of period of discouragement.

And Jesus is mindful of him, and Jesus said, go

tell John, Go tell jan The poor still have the

Gospel preach to them, and there's no doubt. The spear

that Chad replied that I want you to know. John decreased,

and I'm telling some of you you're on the very

break of the blessings of God.

But you gotta go down. I said, you gotta go

down before you go U