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If you would, in your Bible, to 1 Samuel, chapter 15. 1 Samuel 15, which is back toward the front of your Bible, 1 Samuel, chapter 15. I'm going to preach tonight on the subject of humility. Humility, being humble. Now, that's a subject that is sometimes misunderstood, what it is to be humble, what does it mean to be prideful and arrogant, the opposite of being humble. But what does it mean to be humble and meek in your heart? Well, I'm going to show you some examples in the Bible of people that were very humble, and then I'm going to show you some people that were very prideful and arrogant in the Bible. But look at 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel, chapter 15, and look at verse number 16. Now, we're going to read this story just briefly about Saul, and I want you to know this. David is one of the central characters of the whole Old Testament. I mean, if you took the whole Old Testament and looked at how much of it is about David, it's a pretty big section. The whole books of 2 Samuel, the whole book of 2 Samuel is all the life of David. A whole lot of 1 Samuel is about the life of David. The whole book of 1 Chronicles is about the life of David. And then 2 Chronicles is all about David's descendants. Then you have the longest book in the Bible, the book of Psalms, written by David. And all throughout the prophets, references made to David, he's one of the central characters of the Bible, one of the central characters of the Old Testament. Why did God love David so much? Why was David such a great man that was so greatly used by God? Why was David the man after God's own heart? Why was David the king of Israel for so long, and all his children after him for all eternity would reign, the Bible says. Why did God use him when you look at some of his faults? I mean, here's a man that later on in his life committed adultery. He committed murder. We talked about that last Sunday morning. Why would God use him, and I'm going to tell you one word why David was so greatly used by God, because he was humble. Let me show you that here in 1 Samuel 15, look down at your Bible in verse 16. It says, Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. This is David's predecessor, Saul. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, notice those words, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel. And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Mamalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God and Gilgal. And Samuel said, Have the Lord as great delight, in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry, because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. So what made Saul be a man that would be chosen by God to be the king? Because he was little in his own sight, because he was a humble man. But then once he'd become king for a few years, he began to be puffed up. Here Samuel comes to him, the preacher, preaching to him God's word, telling him where he's wrong, telling him what he's done wrong. He said, You didn't obey God. God said to utterly destroy the sinners of the Amalekites. God said to kill them all, and here you've saved the king Agag alive, and you've saved all these animals alive, and he said you did not obey. And instead of Saul humbling himself and saying, I'm sorry, I violated what the Bible says, I've done wrong, he begins to argue and fuss with Samuel, and Samuel says, You know what? You were little in your own sight, but because you rejected God's word, God has rejected you. And later on, Samuel would tell him, I'm not going to turn there for the sake of time, flip over to Samuel 18 and 18, just three chapters forward. Later on, Samuel would tell Saul, God has chosen a king. He's chosen a man that is better than thou. He chose someone better than you. Now look at the humility of David. The first person I want to talk about tonight is David. Look at 1 Samuel 18 and 18. And David said unto Saul, look at his attitude, Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king? Do you see his attitude? It's a very humble and meek attitude, saying, I don't even deserve to be a son-in-law to the king. I mean, I can't even understand why I would have that privilege and that honor just to be the king's son-in-law. Flip over if you would, actually the same chapter, look at verse 22. And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath delighted thee, and all his servants love thee. Now therefore, be the king's son-in-law. And Saul's servants faked those words in the years of David, and David said, Seameth it to you a light thing, to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed. Turn over if you would to 2 Samuel chapter 7. Just go forward in the Bible, separate pages from 1 Samuel to 2 Samuel, look at chapter 7. You see, being humble means you're little in your own sight. It means that you don't think that you're above God's word. It means that you don't think that what you believe and what you think supersedes what God says or what an authority figure says. It's when you realize that you are just a human being, just a person. You know this world's been around for 6,000 years without you, and you know this world's gonna go on after you're gone. And sometimes we get an idea that we're so important, we're such big stuff, it's all about us. And you know, David had the opposite attitude that said, I don't deserve to be a king's son-in-law. Now think about this in regard to salvation as I get into the message. What is it that will cause many people to go to hell? What's probably the biggest thing that will send the most people to hell? Pride. Pride. Because in order to be saved, you must believe that Jesus paid it all. The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I mean, if you think that you're going to heaven because of your goodness, your church attendance, your baptism, your good life, your this, your that, you will not go to heaven, you'll go to hell. But if you believe that it's through Jesus Christ, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His blood, that's salvation. But many people will miss that because of pride. You tell them it's a gift, the gift of God is eternal life. And they will let me pay for it. How are you gonna pay for streets of gold? How are you gonna pay to have all your sins written? How much would you pay to live forever? How much would you pay, well what do you think the value of your salvation is? If Jesus paid for it with His own blood on the cross. That's a pretty big price there. I mean if Jesus had to be beaten and spat upon, first He had to live a perfect life for 33 years, then He had to be beaten and spat upon, then He had to be buffeted and hit and beaten and spat upon and mocked, then He had to be nailed to a cross, nails driven through His hands and through His feet, then He had to die on that cross, then His soul had to go down into the depths of hell for three days and three nights, then He had to rise again from the dead, and He had conquered death and hell, He paid the punishment for your sins in hell. And you say, well here God, let me pay for my own salvation. And you reach into your pocket and you say, Hey look, I go to church. Doesn't that impress you God? I go to church every single Sunday. Do you think that's good enough? Do you think that matches what Jesus did? You're trying to buy what Jesus already bought with His blood, His sinless perfect life for 33 years, His blood, His death, His burial, His resurrection. You're trying to buy it with your little Sunday morning church attendance? It's not going to cut it. You say, oh not only that, you know, I quit drinking. Ah, ah, God's like six bucks. That's not even going to pay for the doorknob on your mansion. I mean, it's nothing. God, the Bible says, we're all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags to God. We don't have anything to offer Him. It's nothing that we give to Him, it's what He gives to us. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But see, a lot of people miss that because of pride. They can't admit that they're not good enough to go to heaven. I mean, they just can't admit that they're a sinner, and that they would be hopeless without Jesus. And so they'll reject the gift of God out of pride, because they just want to do it. Well, I've been trying to give the Gospel to people, and they say, well you know what, if I go to heaven, I want to feel like I earned it. I just want to go to heaven. I don't want to go to hell. If you want to earn something, the Bible says the wages of sin is death. That's what we earn with our life. But the Bible says that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so pride will keep some people from being saved. They cannot accept a gift. Have you ever known people who just can't accept a gift? You'll try to give them a gift, and they'll reject it and reject it. You know, after a while, it could be humiliating to offer someone a gift that's rejected. And you'll find that sometimes people who are not a very giving person will always reject it. You know, they don't know how to receive a gift. They reject it. They want to pay you for it. They can't just receive the love that you showed them in the form of a gift. And pride is a big part of that. Pride will keep people out of heaven, because they will not humble themselves and accept Jesus Christ as their only Savior, because of pride. They want to be their own Savior. But look down at 2 Samuel 7. The Bible says in 2 Samuel 7, 16, And thine house, this is God speaking to David again, and thine house and thine kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. I mean, his offspring is going to be Jesus Christ someday. His great, great, great, great, great, great grandson. Okay, you know, 28 generations down the road is going to be Jesus Christ. And it says, let me pick up where I left off. According to all these words, verse 17, And according to all his visions, so did Nathan speak unto David. Then went King David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that thou hast brought me into? Who am I? That ought to be our attitude. Who am I that God would put me behind the pulpit to preach the sermon? Who am I that God would give me eternal life and give me a home in heaven? Who am I that Jesus would come and die on the cross for me because he loves me? Who am I, God? What am I to you? I mean, out of six billion people in this world, seven billion people in this world, out of all the people who have ever lived, God, it's amazing that you would even think of me, that you would do anything for me, that you would even save me, that you would do anything. Who am I? Why do I deserve any of that? That's humility. That's the attitude that David had. That's why he was a man after God's own heart. Later on, when David would sin with Bathsheba, Nathan came to him and rebuked him, much the way that Samuel came and rebuked Saul. Same type of situation. Nathan sticks his finger in his face and says, Thou art the man. Just like Samuel had stuck his finger in the face of Saul and said, You are rebellious. He said, Your sin is on par with witchcraft. But the difference is the reaction. David wept sore, and he was sorry, and he repented, and he felt bad about it. Whereas Saul argued, and then he just continued doing wrong after that. You know, for a little while he said, Okay, okay, you're right. But then he just went right back to his sin. And so you see a profound difference between these two men. Look at 1 Chronicles chapter 29, just a few pages before the back of your Bible there. 2 Samuel, and then you have the books of 1 and 2 Kings. Skip over those and get to 1 Chronicles chapter 17. 1 Chronicles 17. And look at verse number... 1 Chronicles 17, 16. The Bible reads, And David the king came and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord? And what is mine house that thou hast brought me? Now flip over to chapter 29, verse 10. 1 Chronicles 29, 10. The Bible says in 1 Chronicles 29, 10, Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation. And David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all, and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners as were, as were all our fathers. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none of mine. What's he saying? Right now they're offering gold and silver and precious stones because they're building the temple. They're getting it ready so that David's son Solomon will build the house of God, the temple in the Old Testament. And he says, you know, all this money, all this gold, all this wealth that we're giving, it came from you anyway. You're the one that gave me the wisdom to learn how to make this money. You're the one that gave me the strength and the talent and the ability to earn this money. We're just giving back what you've so graciously and bountifully given to us. You know, many times people who are rich are very prideful because they think about all their accomplishments, everything that they've done. They may have built a great business from scratch, from nothing. They've worked hard. They've built it all up. They've done it all. They have the fancy car, and they like their fancy house, their fancy this, fancy that. And there's nothing wrong with making money and being rich, but I'm going to tell you something. God is the one that gave Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or any of these guys who've used their mind to make all kinds of money and build things and invent things, God is the one that created them with that knowledge. God's the one that gave them that wisdom and understanding. God's the one that allowed them to wake up every morning and gave them the strength to live and to breathe. God is the one who allowed them to have the talents and the abilities. I have talents. You have talents and abilities. They came from God, and we ought to stand up and be prideful. Look how well I can sing. Look how well I can preach or look how well I can play the piano or look how well I know how to play basketball or baseball or whatever it is. The talent and ability that God has given you, you've got to be humble and say, that came from God. And the Lord gave, and the Lord can take away. My pastor back in Sacramento, California, the church that I was in when I was a teenager and learned so much there, our pastor told a story where, you know, he's a preacher now, obviously, pastor. But back when he was younger, he was interested in singing, and he has a great singing voice to this day, a marvelous singing voice. And in those days, he was into country music. You know, he listened to all this country music, you know, garbage. But anyway, he liked, you know, he told the story how he liked country music, and he was even going to sing in a band. And some of the members of that band actually went on to be some famous country group. I don't know what it is, but anyway, he was going to sing in this country band, and he lost his voice for months. And the doctor wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to speak again. He lost his voice. It's like God just took away his voice because he was misusing it. You know, and it came back later on. But God used it to kind of show him something, to show him a lesson. Hey, I'm the one that gave you that voice. I can take away your voice. And you ought to use your voice for what I want you to use it for. I might as well just take it away from you. And so he went on to become a preacher. But I'm going to tell you something. You need to acknowledge that everything that you have comes from God. Don't be all high and mighty. Don't get on some kind of a high horse. Everything that you have comes from God. Don't look down your nose at people because they're poor, you know, or because they don't have as much. Or maybe you're very good looking. There's nobody here. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, maybe you're very, just kidding. You know, maybe you're very good looking. Don't look down at somebody because they're a little bit homely. You know, don't look down at, oh man, you got hit with the ugly stick or something. Hey, that's not right. Because you know what, did you earn the right to look the way that you do? No, that comes from God. Okay, God is the one who created every single person. The way they look is the way that God wants them to look. And so you got to not look down your nose at people because of their financial lack, or look down at their lack of appearance, or look down at anything. Hey, you got to not be prideful and arrogant. You got to be little in your own sight. Then say, you know what, I'm just a little person. Now, God could use me greatly, and God could use you greatly, and you could do great things, but it's going to be through Jesus Christ. It's not going to be of your own ability. I mean, honestly, I can tell you right now. Let me tell you how I feel about myself. Okay, this is how I feel about myself. I believe that God could use me very greatly. I mean, I think God could use me to win thousands of people to the Lord, to pastor a great church, and to do great things. I believe that in myself. But at the same time, I see myself that, you know what, God really could have used a whole lot of other people to do the same thing. That would have more talent, more ability, better this, better that, but the difference is that I'm just a willing vessel that says, here are my lords and me. That's the difference. It's not that I'm a great this or talented this. It's that I'm willing to be used by God. That's the way I feel about myself. But as soon as I start to think, oh yeah, I have all this talent, I have all this ability, I'm so smart, I'm such a great spirit. Hey, that's when God's going to say, you know, let me take you down a notch. Because you're getting prideful and arrogant. You need to have humility if you want me to. The man that I exalted, David, was a man who was little in his own sight. And he was a man who said, who am I? I'm nobody. I'm nothing. Thank you, God, for even choosing to allow me the privilege of serving you. That's the kind of humility and attitude that we set. But let me show you another humble person. Look at Numbers chapter 12, verse 3. And while you're turning there, I'll read you something else. Right at the beginning of your Bible you get Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Fourth book, Numbers chapter 12. Another great man in the Bible who was very humble was Moses. And I'm going to show you this in Numbers, but listen to this verse. This is Exodus 3.11. And Moses said unto God, who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. I don't even feel qualified. I'm not good enough. And God said, go in my might. I'll give you the power to do it. But look at Numbers chapter 12 and look at verse number... Well, let's just start reading in verse number 1. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. For he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, had the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Had he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses, watch this statement. The man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. Now what does the word meek mean? And don't mix up the word meek with weak. If anybody was not weak as Moses, I mean Moses was a very strong, powerful leader. But the Bible here makes a very strong statement. It says, this was the meekest man on the face of the whole earth. That's a pretty strong statement. I mean, he was the most humble, unassuming, meek man in the entire world at that time. That's a pretty strong statement. Why is it... I know, isn't that an interesting coincidence? That the man that God was using as the greatest leader was also the meekest person in the world? Do you think that's a coincidence? Or do you think God chose the man who was the meekest? He chose the man that was the most humble and said, this is who I'm going to lift up and make a leader. You know, Jesus said, whosoever exalted himself shall be abased, but he that humbledth himself shall be exalted. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up, the Bible says. But here we see Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth. You say, oh, Moses was a wimp, was he a sissy, was he just letting people push him around? Is this the same Moses? You remember when he was 40 years old, he went out to see his brethren. Big, strong Egyptian taskmasters got a whip in his hand. You remember this? And he's beating one of the Hebrews. Wham! He's whacking him with that whip and beating him. The Bible says that Moses looked this way, he looked that way. He went over, took the whip out of that guy's hand, and he killed the guy with his bare hands. That's not a weak man. I mean, that's a tough guy. That's a pretty strong man that can take a weapon out of somebody, a big, strong Egyptian soldier, take the weapon out of his hand and kill him with his bare hands. Now, he shouldn't have done that. Right. Shouldn't he have done that? Is that wrong? Yeah, that is wrong. Yeah, that's right. When you just grab people and just kill them with your bare hands, that's wrong. It's called murder. Anyway, God chastened him for that and he had to go do some time out in the desert and everything for that. He had to flee the land and he was wrong when he did that. Yeah, he committed murder. That's not good. And yet, God used him. Why? Because he was a very humble and meek man. He knew who the boss was. As the sermon was this morning, he knew who the head was. He knew who was in charge. And God said, that's what I'm looking for. A man who's meek. Not a weak man. Not a sissy. Not a wimp. Not somebody who just lets everybody push him around. Well, Pastor Anderson is just so meek, you know. Anything goes down a faith-forward Baptist church. Any music goes. Anybody can push him around. The ladies run the church, you know, and whatever. And he won't preach this. That's not what meekness is. Meekness is humility. Meekness is not seeing yourself as so important, but seeing others as more important than you are. Esteeming others better than yourself. It means this. If either I have to fail or you have to fail, I'm going to fail so that you can succeed. That's what meekness is. That's what humility is. Willing to sacrifice yourself and your success, so that somebody else can be successful. You say, Pastor Anderson, do you want to be a successful pastor? No. I want you to be a successful Christian. And so I'm going to be the kind of pastor that will make you successful in your Christian life. You say, will that make you a success as a pastor? No. No, because if I wanted to be a success as a pastor, I'd go up and smile, like Joel Osteen or something. And I'd just preach only positive, and God's so good, and we'd have all kinds of jiving music up here, and it'd be like a party up here. Hey, that's how I'd be successful as a pastor. I could pull up like the guy that's around the corner in the parking lot here who drives a... There's a church right in this parking lot. The pastor drives a Jaguar convertible. The license plate's God's man. He's driving a $75,000 car. Hey, that's success. I don't want success. I want you to have success. And sometimes I have to preach something that makes people get up and walk out. It makes the revolving door of Faithful Word Baptist Church to spin as people come and go, come and go, come and go. It doesn't matter, because you're going to succeed if you stay here and listen to the preaching and get it. And I don't care whether that revolving door spins so fast that people are coming in, going out, coming in, going out as fast as they can go. That doesn't bother me at all. Hey, as long as you succeed, it doesn't matter if I succeed. It matters if you succeed. That's the kind of pastor I want to be. That's the kind of leader I want to be. I want to be like Moses and David. I want to be humble and little in my own sight. I'm not trying to get my name in some history book somewhere. I'm not trying to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. I'm not trying to be engraved on a plaque somewhere. One day, this body's going to turn into dust, and one person's going to be exalted in that day, the Bible says, when I'm rewarded for anything that I've done for Jesus Christ, Christ alone is going to be exalted in that day. And that's fine with me. He must increase. I must decrease. Hey, you must increase. I must decrease. That's humility. Putting other people as more important than yourself. You want to have a good marriage? Put your wife or your husband above yourself on the importance level. That's humility. Now, I'm not saying that a husband, and if you weren't here for this morning's sermon, you would be on tape. I'm not saying that a husband should let his wife tell him what to do, because that's wrong, because the husband is the head of the house. Amen and amen, and we taught that from the Bible this morning, on and on and on. And if you go like that, then you get a Bible and read it sometime. But all you have to do is get to Genesis 3.16. You won't even have to read that much. You say, I'm not a big reader. Just start in Genesis, just get to Genesis 3.16, and you'll figure out who's in charge. But the bottom line is, humility is what God is looking for in a leader. Humility is what God is looking for in a Christian. Humility is something that needs to be a part of your life if you want to be what God wants you to be. But let me show you some bad examples. We saw two very good examples. David and we saw Moses. And Solomon also. I'm going to skip that for the sake of time. But let's look at Daniel chapter 4. We had an example of Solomon exhibiting a lot of humility, but I'm going to skip that for the sake of time. It was in 2 Chronicles chapter 2, verses 4 through 6. But I'm going to show you in Daniel chapter 4 verse 30, a man who was an example, a bad example, of a very prideful man. Look at Daniel chapter 4 verse 30. And all along as I read Daniel 4.30, the Bible reads, The king's faith, this is Nebuchadnezzar. And watch his attitude here. And said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken. The kingdom is departed from thee, and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen. And his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird claws. Here's a man, Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the entire world at that time. He had the Babylonian empire, and he's the one who built it, in his mind, by his own might, and by his own power, and for his own glory. When in reality, God had prophesied, long before, by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, he said that his servant, God's servant Nebuchadnezzar, he would give him all the kingdoms of the world. But Nebuchadnezzar said, I've done it! Look how great I am! I've done more than anyone has ever done in the history of the world! And he had, but it wasn't through his own powers, because God gave it to him. And he said, I am the greatest, most dreadful king in the history of the world. I've taken over everything. I am the king of the world. And while the word was still coming out of his mouth, God looked down at him and said, the kingdom is going to be taken from me, and you're going to be driven from men like a wild animal. And basically, what God did was struck him insane. He struck him insane, and gave him the heart of a beast, the Bible says. And he went out like a madman, you know, like I'm on all fours, running around and everything. And they said, get him out of here! And they threw him out, and he went outside, living with wild animals. He had the dew on him, it means he just slept outside, all night, just exposed outside. The Bible says the hairs of his head became like eagle feathers, kind of like those guys from Jamaica, where they had the dreadlocks, you know what I mean? So, you know, they don't wash their hair, and it grows out and gets nappy and everything. Well, he had this dreadlocks going, he had like eagle's feathers, his hair was, and his, his hair was like eagle's feathers, and his nails were like bird claws. You know, his fingernails just grew out. Can you imagine him outside? He's eating grass like an animal. You know, he's got his face down in the grass, he's chewing on grass, he's got these claws, he's all dirty and bad. And God's looking down and saying, no, how great are you Nebuchadnezzar? No, how hooked up are you? Now you think you're so great, I can do that to you in a moment! I can just snap my finger and boom, your heart is the heart of the beast. Your great genius that built you this worldwide kingdom is gone. Your power, your speaking ability, your leadership is gone in a moment. Because God is the one that gave it to him, and God's the one that can take it away. I mean, did you see that in the story? Look down at what he says at the end of it. After seven years of being an animal, not being an animal, but acting like an animal. It says in verse number 34, And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, till God gives him his sanity back. And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom... See, it's no longer my kingdom is so wonderful, my dominion. He says, his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. Are you seeing the similarity between all these different stories we're reading? And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and my Lord saw unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extoll it on with the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. You want to walk in pride? God will abase you. God will bring you down, one way or the other. Here's a man who, after those seven years of being like a wild animal, he's dirty, he's been sleeping outside for seven years, the hair of his head's been growing all this time, he's got the claws and everything, he came back to his house, he walked up to the door, and all his counselors, all his lords, all the leaders were there, and they accepted him back as the king. This is a great man, they wanted him in charge, they wanted him to keep this thing going. And so they brought him back on, he got his hair cut, he cut his fingernails, he scrubbed off all the dirt and everything. I mean, how do you think he felt while he's cutting his fingernails? What have I been doing? He's sitting there cutting off his dirty, filthy fingernails, shaving off his filthy dreadlocks, he's cleaning himself up and everything, and he didn't walk so pompous the next day. He said, no, it's all God. God's the one who gave me everything I have. And notice it says that excellent mercy was added unto him. He actually ended up being more powerful, having more glory after this happened. Because he was so humble, God said, okay, I'll give it back to you, because you understand now that it comes from me. And so that's a great story in the Bible. God knows how to obey those that are prideful. Let me show you another kind of pride. Look at Genesis chapter 4, all the way to the beginning of your Bible, Genesis chapter 4. You know, pride is something that will creep into your life, and it's so destructive in your life. You say, what can pride do? Well, the Bible says only by pride cometh contention. But with the well advised it is wisdom. You see, pride will cause you to fight with people unnecessarily, because you're just never wrong. You see, humility says, sometimes I'm wrong and I can be corrected. And if somebody corrects me, I can receive that correction and say, you're right, I'm wrong. That takes a humble person to be able to do that. And you know, none of us is above that. None of us is above, and that's what we're going to see here in Genesis chapter 4. None of us is above having somebody tell us, you're wrong, change. You know, we get to the point where we just think that everything we do is right, everything we say is right. Every single one of us needs to be to the point where somebody can correct us. And if we can't be corrected, that's pride. Look at Genesis chapter 4, and I'll show you Cain in the Bible, verse 3. It says, And in the process of time it came fast that Cain brought up the fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought up the first things of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel unto his offering, but unto Cain unto his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth in his countenance hell. He's angry. He's upset. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? He said, Why are you angry? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And what's Cain's reaction to God rebuking him and telling him, You're wrong, do it right, don't get mad at me, change. Do it the way I said. This is his reaction, verse 8. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. He had too much pride to just say, Okay, I was wrong, let me do it, you'll wake up. And Cain got mad, he got upset. He couldn't take somebody rebuking him. The place that we read in Proverbs 9, you don't have to turn there, but this is the chapter that we read. Verse number 8, the Bible says, Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Did you hear that? The wise person, if somebody comes to them and rebukes them and says, You are wrong. You are wrong. Now look, if I'm wrong about something, I want somebody to come tell me I'm wrong. Why would I want to continue on in wrong? You understand what I'm saying? I remember when I was in church, before I was a pastor and I was a churchman, I used to just want to come to church. It's like Gabriel said to me before the service. He said, Man, you've got to just rip our face off tonight. And it was something like that. And so, that's the way I was. I just said, I just wanted the pastor to tell me I'm wrong. I wanted him to rip my face. Why? Because I wanted to grow. I wanted to learn. If I'm wrong about something, I want to change it. That's humility. Nobody's perfect. Nobody's arrived. And so, if you're wrong about something, you ought to want somebody to tell you. Think about this. What if I came out here, you know, it's funny, I put on a pair of pants this morning. Huge rip in the back. Huge. I put on these pants. Can you imagine if I said, all right, let's go to church, and my wife sees this giant rip in my pants. And it was not in a good place. And she sees this giant rip in my pants, and I see her looking at me kind of funny. I said, Is everything okay? Is something wrong? And she just said, Don't worry about it. Do you think that's what I want? Do you think I want to come to church and rip in my pants? Hey, if I've got something wrong, I want somebody to tell me that I'm wrong. Now, don't come tell me I'm wrong when I'm not wrong. You know, but if you got something in the Bible and say, look, this is what the Bible says, you're a little off on this. You know, in meekness. You know, and you ought to not come to me. You idiot! Why did you say that? Look what the Bible says. Are you nuts? That's not what I'm talking about. There's a way to kindly rebuke somebody and say, Hey, you know, have you seen this verse? You know, somebody said something to me this week that was totally wrong, and I said, You know, I said, Have you ever looked at this verse right here? You know, I didn't say, like, that's so wrong. I just said, Look, have you ever seen this verse right here? Have you ever looked? This is really neat. And it just totally just, you know, blew out of the water what he was saying. But, you know, that's the way to rebuke somebody kindly, but I'm going to tell you something. If I've got a rip in my pants, can you come tell me about it? I mean, if there's something wrong, shouldn't you want somebody to come and say, Hey, look, let me rebuke you here. Let me help you here. And so the Bible says, If you rebuke a wise man, and he'll love thee. I think about some of the people who've rebuked me throughout my life, and today I love those people for rebuking me, for helping me grow. And that's a lot of what preaching is. Sit down and be rebuked. Sit down and have somebody tell you everything you're doing wrong, okay? Because that's what the Bible says. Preach the word, be in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. And it says, Give instruction to a wise man, and you'll be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Now here's the ironic thing about it. You'd think that the dumbest person in the world would be the easiest person to teach, because they don't know anything. So they're like a sponge, you know, and you just teach them, and they just absorb, absorb, absorb. That's not the way it is. The more a person knows, the more that they will learn. I mean, your learning in life will either accelerate or decelerate. Because people who know the most are able to learn the most. I remember, I remember, I was in high school, and I was, you know, when I was a kid, I used to like acting. When I was in elementary school, I was in a Christian school, and they had these plays, and I loved acting. And I remember I used to act in the Christmas plays and stuff like that, and I enjoyed acting. You know, I got into high school, and the drama department was a bunch of queers. But anyway, you know how that's, you know how that's true in high school. But anyway, I remember I loved acting, and I got into high school, and I took this drama class, and I told my mom, I said, I hate this drama class. I said, I hate it because it's a bunch of queers, actually. But anyway, I said, I hate it, no I'm not kidding. But I hated it because I remember we had to memorize our lines, and we'd memorize pages and pages of lines. Who's ever done any kind of drama where you had to memorize lines? You know, you got to memorize pages of lines. And I told my mom, I said, I said, I feel like my mind is like this bucket of water. And I said, I feel like I'm just pouring all this useless information into the bucket, and pretty soon it's all just going to start sloshing out. All these lines are going to be full. I said, why would I fill my mind with all these lines? I said, I could be memorizing the Bible, or I could be learning something important. But just to memorize these lines per play, I feel like I'm filling my mind with useless information. And my mom said, no, that's not true, because the more that you learn, you know, the more you're going to be able to learn. Because you're only using, what, what do they say, you use like 5% of your brain's capacity, or 8%? You know, that's some really low number. Some are using less than that. But some are using more than others. Because your brain, you're only using so little of it, your brain is actually like a muscle, where the more you learn, the more you're able to learn. The more Bible you memorize, the easier you'll be, it'll be for you to memorize more Bible, and to learn even more. The more you study math, you know, or the more you study language, or the more you study the Bible, it's all just making you a smarter person that's more able to absorb more information. The person who's learning the most, you say, oh, the person who's going to learn the most from your sermon, Pastor Anderson, is the brand new convert, because they don't know anything, right? I mean, they haven't learned any Bible, they walk in, man, they're just learning. You know, in reality, the person who's probably learning the most right now is the smartest person in this room, and they're learning the most from the sermon. You know what I mean? Like, the person who knows the most Bible in here, and who knows who that is, but whoever knows the most Bible is the one who's learning the most right now. Because the more you learn, the more you will learn, and the person who knows the least is probably learning the least, and that'll pick up, that'll accelerate as they learn. That's what God's saying here. The wise man, you give him instruction, he'll get even wiser. You teach him, he'll increase in learning. The foolish man, he won't increase. He won't learn. And so that's what the Bible says, it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. Listen to this verse, Ecclesiastes 4.13, better as a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished. See, he used to be able to allow somebody to admonish him, to teach him, to give him some wisdom, to give him some correction, but now he's to the point where he's become foolish and he won't let anybody admonish him. Check yourself, think about it. Are you one of these people where you just can't be corrected? You can't learn anything new? You're going to be just stuck at the same level of your Christianity unless you can be admonished and have somebody teach you something new. I've learned so many new things in the last six months, I mean the last twelve months, I've learned so many new things from the Bible. And I've had people, other preachers, people I've talked to, that have told me things, and taught me things, and corrected me on things, and I was able to receive that correction, and to learn something, and to be admonished. Don't ever get past that, because as soon as you get to the point where you don't need somebody to correct you, you've gotten to the point where you're not learning anymore, and you're going to begin to move backwards in your Christian life. Because you can't be corrected, you can't be admonished, you can't be revealed, oh I can't believe it, you tell me that I'm wrong about something. Oh whatever, why don't you just suck it up and take it? You know, people that just, oh I can't believe that someone so corrected me. You know, oh I can't believe that you do that. I'm telling you, you've got to get to the point in your life where you welcome correction. The first thing, I've said it before, the first thing I do when somebody criticizes me, and I get criticized a lot, you probably don't believe that. I get criticized a lot, I get hateful letters, hateful emails, you know, and people criticize me all the time. You know, the first thing I do when somebody criticizes me, is I examine myself to see, you know, is there some truth in that? Is there something I need to change a little bit? That's what I don't just say, oh man, another hateful, you know, the first thing I do is I examine myself. Usually it doesn't take long to see that it's garbage, that it's coming from people who don't love soul living, that don't love the Bible, that don't love standards of clean living and holiness and separation, it's coming from some liberal. But even when it's coming from a liberal, I still look at it and say, is this true or false is what they're saying, and I weigh it with the Bible. I don't just say, well I don't listen to any criticism. Well you know, some criticism may help me, some criticism may help me see a weakness in myself, and maybe it's just a small weakness, or maybe it's something that's not that big, but I want to know about it, I want to correct it, I want to change it, I want to be growing. I hope that I'm not just maintaining the same level of Christianity from here on out, the same soul weight, the same Bible reading, the same, I want to grow. I hope that I haven't peaked out in my Christianity at 26 years of age, wouldn't that be pretty sad? I've reached the pinnacle, I know all, see all, have done it all, preached it all, I'm done. That'd be pretty sad, I want to grow to new heights, and the only way that you're going to grow is through humility. Humility is an attitude that says, I'm not that important, you're more important. The least person in this room is more important than I am. And I'm not saying they're better than I am, or that I'm better than them, that's not the way, it's the way I think about who's better. We're talking about who is more important, who is of more value. To me, I should value other people more than I value myself. Their success is more important than my success. They know more than I do, if they want to correct me, I'm going to try and learn from them. I'm going to be admonished, I'm going to be corrected, I'm going to walk humbly before God, and I'm not going to have a pompous, arrogant attitude that says, I know it all. Well, that's just the way I am. Change, if that's just the way you are, and it's wrong, then change. Are you just going to be that way the rest of your life? Well, that's just how I am. I just thought it was a funny story, but I guess now I have to tell it. You know how it is when you say something, I thought it was a funny story, but I guess I'll tell it. My pastor back home, again, he told the story. He grew up on a ranch in Montana, and where he lived, it was just totally normal to say, when you're referring to dung, like the Bible calls it, to refer to it using the word that starts with an S as a four-letter word. And that's just the way he just grew up. I mean, his dad was a pastor. But in Montana, that's just what word they used. And you know what I'm talking about. Who knows what I'm talking about for now. S, star, star, T. So anyway, he just used that word. And it's not a Bible word. I mean, the Bible used the word dung and some other words, but that word is not acceptable in our society. You say, well, what's wrong with that word? Well, I mean, it's offensive to people. Right? Does the Bible say it's a sin to use that word? Well, the Bible doesn't say it's a sin to use that word, but it is a very offensive word, and so you ought not offend people. But, you know, he had met a girl, and I think he was about 18, and this was the woman that would become his wife, and he's walking along with her, and she's from a totally different part of the country, he's in Bible cause, and he says, oh, watch out, don't step in the blank. And she said, she couldn't believe it that he said that. I mean, she was shocked, cause this was a really, you know, he's a Christian, really decent guy, and he said that, and she's like, what did you just say? He said, I said, what? You know? She's like, you can't say it, that's a really bad word. And so, guess what? He stopped using that word. He didn't say, well, that's just how I am. I mean, I just used that word. I mean, that's just what I call it. You're just going to have to live with it. Look, if it offended somebody, makes somebody mad, if it's looked upon by the world as being, you know, offensive and crude and vulgar, then he said, I'm not going to use that word. That's the way we are, you know, that's humility to say. Now, I can say what I want to say. I can use what I want to use. Look, you ought to be willing to change. If what you're doing isn't right, then change it. If you see something in the Bible, you say, well, I've just always been this kind of person, and then you read the Bible, it tells you to be something different. Change. None of us is above changing and becoming more like what God wants us to be and being humble enough to let somebody correct us, whoever it is. I mean, if a little child walked up to me, I mean, if my six-year-old son walks up to me and tells me, Dad, you're wrong, you know, this is what it says in the Bible, you know, I'd be willing to accept that from him. You say, oh, who are you? You're only six years old. What do you know? It doesn't matter. The truth is the truth, right? It's right. It doesn't matter whether it comes out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, as Jesus said. You ought to be humble enough to let anybody correct you if they're right. And you ought to learn what the Bible teaches about humility, meekness, putting others above yourself. It's important. But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please help us to learn.