Voice of the Nazarene 9-22-24

Coming to you from North Central Ohio. We share with you the voice of the Nazarene, a week by week, venture into the Word of God sponsored by the buchars Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle, and the voice of the Nazarene.

I want to talk to you not only in the present, but I'd like to share with you what I think is needed for the future of this ministry. Been thinking about just trying to start a leadership class, but don't know if we'll ever get around to that, but I want to do it from the pulpit. This ministry is going to need new leaders. I've been here 31 and a half years, and I have seen leadership passed off and passed off several different times on the board, and if we don't raise up new leaders, every ministry begins to get into trouble. And so that's what I'm talking about. There's one quality that every leader needs. And let me talk to you about the benefits of humility. Humility. Here's what the Bible says the Apostle Paul is writing a letter to the church down in Philippi, and he wanted them to know and understand the value of humility and what it meant to be a true servant. And he writes, Do nothing out of selfish ambition, our vain conceit, rather in humility, value others above yourselves. The Bible's so

12. whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. James 4:6, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, unmerited favor. Then in Matthew 18, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Ezekiel

James 4:6

26, exalt that which is low and bring low that which is exalted. It's all over the Bible. This whole focus and light and energy and understanding and teaching is all through the Bible about humility. Humility. Mario Scobee, for over 40 years, was the personal assistant to Billy Graham and and his wife, Ruth.

He almost lived with the Graham's. Somebody asked Mario, they said to him, Scobee out of all the qualities about Billy Graham, and said he's been so great and had such an impact, what would be the one quality that makes him different than everybody else, without any hesitation, without stuttering, without having to evaluate, without thinking about it, he answered quickly with one word, humility. Said he's humble. He's a humble man. Do you know what the opposite of humility is?

Could I just mention that for a moment? You can. Thank you.

It's frightful, opinionated, egotistical, judgmental, envious fault finding, arrogant, disdainful, halty, coveting, greedy, spiteful, autocratic, hard headed, vain. Man, we need a revival to the church world, don't we? And get back to humility. There are 400 leaders in the Bible and 400 men and women who were leaders. And out of those 400 only 80 finished faithful. That means that only 20% out of all the 400 leaders, only 20% actually ended up in their lives finishing faithful.

Now, as I researched the common qualities of these leaders that finished faithful, there was one overriding quality that they had that the others seemed to neglect or lack. It was the fact they were humble. The number one quality of the leaders that finished faithful was humility.

And you know, the corporate America recognizes this quality.

Jim Collins wrote a book entitled Good to Great, and it was a study of organizations that were good but became great.

And he said the quality that every one of the leaders of these great corporations that went from good corporations to great corporations was the quality of humility. The leader had humility. Now if you study the life of Christ, Jesus never said that he was good, he never said that he was great. He never said I am holier. I am love. But if you'll study Matthew, chapter 11, verse 29 Jesus tells you what he was like. He said, I'm meek and lowly. Now you want to identify with him or not. He didn't say, I'm holy, I'm powerful, I'm I'm magnificent, I'm all of. He said, I'm meek and lowly. He made himself of no reputation. And boy, I watch people out maneuvering and trying to get into number one spots in the political world and in a little world of the town that I live in, and people running for offices and and how great they are and how bad everybody else is. Hey, Jesus made himself of no reputation, meek and lowly. And as a leader, and particularly a Christian leader, I don't know of any quality any more needful than that of humility. You see the benefits of humility. Number one is, God is with you. Do you know where God dwells? According to Isaiah, 57 verse 15, God dwells in two places. God dwells in the heavens and God dwells in the humble. You need to write that down. There'll be an examination on it. God dwells in the heavens and God dwells in the humble.

Matthew 11:29 Isaiah 57:15

Let me read it for you, For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabited eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and a holy place. Catch this with him also, that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Now, when we moved from the 350 some seating auditorium that we did have, we call it the event center now.

When we moved from that and built the grand foyer and built this sanctuary that said to seat a little more than 900. I was over in the old sanctuary where I'd preach so many times, fact of the matter, a number of years, twice on Sunday morning.

And finally, for six years, every Sunday morning, I would preach three times. I was in there praying. I was so familiar with that location then this location. I was in there praying, and I said, God, how in the world is a guy like me going to pay for this thing and fill this thing, and as if the Holy Spirit Himself spoke and whispered you didn't fill this one, and you're not able to fill that one. I'm the only one that can. Boy that brought me down to size after that, I didn't have to worry about it anymore. I just said, Alright, God, you pay for it and you fill it up. It's yours. I'll just preach. I'll just be the conduit. I'll just be a channel, and actually, nothing more. I'll tell you the benefit of humility. You have no agenda of your own. You have nothing that you have to prove or defend. It's all God's, and we just humble ourself in his sight. I thought of King Saul and Samuel went to him when he became arrogant and big and halty in his own mind and no longer would listen to the Prophet. And he thought he knew it all. And the old prophet sobbed. He said, When whence I was little in thine own sight, back when you could be taught something, back when you could be spoken to, back when you would take advice, back when you were a learner. But now you know it all, when thou was little in thine own sight. May I say?

Secondly, a benefit of humility is God gives you wisdom when

2 says, pride leads to disgrace, but humility comes with wisdom.

Now perhaps Abraham Lincoln probably led America through the greatest, toughest time in our history, the Civil War. Brothers fighting against brothers, a dumb war, an uncivil war. Say whatever you want to. We didn't accomplish much from it, did we?

And he took us through that war, and he made this statement in the heat of the battle, he said, I've been driven to my knees by an overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go my wisdom and all about me seemed insufficient for the day. God gives you wisdom when you humble yourself. And as leaders, we ought not to make arbitrary decisions, because when we make this decisions, it affects many, many lives for many, many years.

Therefore we ought to get wisdom from God for every decision.

Wisdom and the third benefit of humility is God gives you direction. Psalm 29 verse five, it says, The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way. And I thought of Moses, probably the greatest leader of all times on human Earth, led somewhere around 3 million for 40 years, disgruntled crowd, but he led them. He was meek. The Bible

3, Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men upon the face of the Earth. So meek and God guided him. And when he didn't know where water was, he'd ask God.

And when, when he didn't know how to feed 3 million, he would ask God, and God just swept the table clean in front of the angels and give him angels food for 40 years. Another great benefit, God gives you grace.

James four, verse six, says he give it more grace. Wherefore, he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.

Grace, unmerited favor. And then another benefit God will exalt you. Whats interesting James, chapter four, verse 10, humble yourself in the sight of God, and he shall lift you up. God will lift you up when you are little. In his sight and in your own sight. We'll have revival when big men get little enough to be big in order to be little, to be big. Some folk are too big to be little, and some folk be little in order to be big, be too big to be little. G.K.

Chesterton said, How much larger your life would be if you would become smaller in it. How much bigger would your life be if you'd become smaller in it?

Maybe I need to mention that the third time, I'm not sure. Do you know that Lucifer got lifted up and said, I want to be like the most high and he was cast out of heaven? Do you ever read about Nebuchadnezzar? Maybe that's not a story you're used to, but read the book of Daniel. It'll share a little of that account.

Nebuchadnezzar, God lifted it up in himself, and God brought him low and let his mind go and out there in the field, he ate grass and was on all fours for seven years, for he realized he was nothing. Let me just read it to

20, Nebuchadnezzar became proud and stubborn, so his power was taken away from him. He was taken off the royal throne and stripped of his glory. Then Nebuchadnezzar was forced to go away from people. His mind became like the mind of an animal. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox. He became wet with dew. These things happened to him until he learned his lesson.

He learned that God most high rules over human kingdoms, and he gives them to whoever he wants. Now catch verse 22 but Belshazzar, you already knew this. You were Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, but you still have not made yourself humble. And suddenly a hand begin to write on the wall, thou word weighed in the balances and found wanting. I don't want God to begin to write on the wall of my life. LaSalle, you've been weighed and you're coming up on the wanting side. Humble yourself. Benefits certainly, to humility. But Pastor, what are some practical ways in which we can humble ourselves? The Bible said that we need to humble ourselves. So give me some practical ways. Number one, admit your fault and needs.

James 5:16, Confess your faults one to another. Quit covering them up. Quit lying about it.

James 5:16

Confess your faults. And pray one for another that you may be healed. You know, when speaking publicly, somebody said, let people know your faults. They already know em anyhow, they just wondered, do you know it?

But when we express our weaknesses, we become real.

You're able to communicate with people. You're able to connect with people because they're able to see that you're a transparent person. And when you communicate, if you're always the hero of every story, quit communicating. Tell a story sometimes and let somebody else be a hero besides yourself. Some people have to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. I encourage you not to tell a story that makes you the hero, but tell a story that lets somebody else have a little praise. It's healthy to admit our faults and weaknesses.

But here's the second thing, learn to deflect praise. I think Bill Gothard said it, well, if you don't learn to defect praise, praise will destroy you.

Max Lucado, he said, ponder your achievements less. Ponder Christ more. Brag on his works, not yours. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less. We gotta learn to deflect. Deflect praise. Deflect praise. Somebody brags on you just say you're kind. Just say you're kind. I look back over the years and I see why a few that have stood out in my mind and made a difference in my life, they were humble. Martin Luther King said every man can be great because every man can do what, can serve? Here's the fourth thing I want to mention, kneel before God. I mean, if you're physically able to kneel once in a while before God. Doctor Charles Stanley, his son is named Andy. And Andy said very early on, he said, Dad taught me to kneel before God. Do you know when you kneel before somebody else, it's humbling, and if we would kneel more before God, would help us to realize who God is, and God would realize that we know who he is. Here's a fifth thing, express gratefulness to God and to others. Dr Lee Robertson was the founder and the past president of Tennessee Temple University, and somebody asked him once said, You've nearly lived all of your life, if you had it to do over, what's the one thing you would do differently? He said, I'd be more grateful to God and grateful to others. When you do that, you're taking less praise yourself, you're giving it away.

And when we express more gratefulness to God and more gratefulness to others, it's humbling to us. Now this morning, I don't know where your leadership journey might be or your spiritual journey, or your occupational journey, but I promise you that you didn't get there by yourself. Somebody poured into your life. It's said that when you see a turtle on the top of a fence post. You always think it didn't get there by itself. And you're not where you are without somebody having invested in you, and you're standing on somebody else's shoulder. And so it pays to be grateful to others for the difference they made in your life. Don't you wish you could get on the phone and call some who are now in eternity, but they made such an impact, and had such an influence on your life. Let's have an influence on others. And here's the sixth thing, be a worshiper. When we realize who God is, it gives us a right perspective, really, of who we are. That's why the Bible said, Oh, magnify the Lord. We can't make him any bigger than he already is, but we have a responsibility to see him bigger. It was Detroit, Michigan. It was in the 1930s they were riding busses all over the city. Three men on that bus begin to pick on one guy and begin to insult him and begin to try to belittle him, and tried to pick a fight with him. And pretty soon, everybody on the bus was aware of the tension, and they knew the three guys were really egging the one guy on, and he wouldn't say anything. And finally, when the bus stopped, that man headed toward the door, and a couple of the guys got in front of him and blocked him and said, Who are you? He never responded. Just pulled out a business card and handed to them. and stepped off the bus. They looked at the business card and it said, Joe Louis, Boxer. Champion from 1937 to 1949 making him the longest reigning champion in history. Do you know what humility is? It's power under control. Pressure under control. Now let me wrap up the lesson called humility, and let me give you some practical things that might, I guess would be tidbits to help, Okay. As we depart. Number one, keep listening and learning.

It's what you learn after you know it all that really counts, that's a great statement. Put that down too. You might need that on the exam. It's what you learn after you know it all. You say, Did you ever pastor any people like that? I met a lot of them, but I never pastored them.

You can't pastor people that know it all. I was in revival work. 23 years I've been pastoring what, I guess, pestering instead of pastoring 35 years or so, God knows that you cannot pastor people that know it all. How do you teach people that know it all? I mean, they're going to evaluate you.

They're going to critique you because after all, they know it all. And I'm simply saying future leaders, it'll be those of you who keep learning and listening that God is going to use in the future. And a second thing is hang out with ordinary people. Abraham Lincoln said God must really like common man. He made so many of them. The Bible says, speaking of Jesus, common people received him gladly.

Pastor, where do you get this concept of hanging out with ordinary people? Romans, 12:16, mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.

Be not wise in your own conceits. And then a third thing I'll just throw at you as a tidbit, don't take yourself so seriously. Learn to laugh at yourself. You'll never run out of material. Young man was hired by the personnel department of a large supermarket chain, and when he showed up on Monday, his first day and walked in, and he was all excited. I mean, he came in with college degrees and he was going to literally take the place over. And the manager handed him a broom and said, I want you to start sweeping the floor. He said, But I'm a college graduate. Well, he said, Okay, I didn't know that. If you don't know how sweep floor here, give me the broom. Let me show you how. Now I would encourage you take very seriously what you do, but don't take yourself so seriously. Now, I like the story about Bill and Hillary Clinton being chauffeured around at a big limo, and they pulled into a gas station. Limos need gas too, you know. And when the guy came out to put gas in that limo, Hillary recognized him, but hit the power button the window went down and he looked in and saw her, and said, Well, hello, Hillary, how in the world are you doing? And she said, I'm doing fine. When he finished filling the tank, he and Hillary he stood outside, and they talked and conversed a little bit and when they left, and she had put the window up and they pulled out on the highway, Bill looked over at Hillary and said, So you knew him? How did you know him? Well, she said, Honestly, I used to date him.

Well, he said, Aren't you glad you didn't marry him? Nothing more than a gas pumper, and here I am president. She said, Well, if I'd have married him, he'd been President. You'd been pumping gas. Don't take yourself so seriously on this thing of humility. If you think you've got it, you probably don't.

Humility is probably something that maybe we never fully achieve, but it's something we can aspire to and our life will be better. We learn to humble ourselves. I've met some leaders in my lifetime, not a lot, but a few, and I've never met a real leader yet, of what wasn't a humble person. They didn't disdain you, didn't act like they was bored to even have to shake your hand. They were humble. And I promise you that humility will impact and enrich your life. It's the basic to the ways of God that pride humiliates and humility honors us. Remember, there's a breed of humility which is itself a species of showing off, I'm humble. Don't do that. I close by just asking a question, who needs to humble themselves?

Don't wait for God to humble you. Humble yourself, because it's embarrassing to be humbled.

I came home from school, and I'd stopped and I'd ask a couple guys along the way home, as I was walking home to what does this note say? And they made up all kinds of none of them read it the same, and I couldn't read and I got home, and we got in the car, we were going someplace, and teacher told me I had to have my mom or dad sign that note. And so I handed it to mama and said, You need to sign this. Mama read it. She looked back over the seat and said, so that boy in the school has created all that problem that you've been telling us about, is you, Huh? Do you ever get humbled? You may not read the note, but others are reading the note that tells really who we are. Humble ourselves in the sight of God and he'll exalt you, Father, we close this morning, just a simple little lesson on leadership.

If you ever re preached a message that we preached, would you re preach this message to our thinking, long after we're gone and the lights have gone out and the doors are locked, maybe later into the night, would you already preach the little message? Maybe we didn't handle it nearly as well as the Bible shares, but we believe there to be a powerful message from the thought that we need to humble ourselves in your sight in order to find grace or favor.

Help us to take time out for others. Help us to take time to make a difference. Just a kind word, an arm around the shoulder, a moment of encouragement. Help us to live beyond ourselves and realize it's not about us, it's about others, and Lord, it's about you. We love you this morning.

We covet the very best for all of our people, those who have joined us by telecast and those that have taken the time to join us by live stream.

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit bucyrusnazarene.org, you. Do.