“Who Will Be the
Greatest?” By Pastor
Parrish Lee June 3rd,
2018
You may be seated. Giving honor to God who is the Head of our lives. Giving
honor to our Maker,
our Creator, our Master, our Savior, our Lover, our Way-maker. Giving
honor to Him
who came such a long, long, way for every one of us, and has never,
never,
never lost a battle, nor lost us. Giving honor to that one, true, wise,
and self-God.
Giving honor to all of those who have come and gone before us: our
founding
Pastor, he and his family, one of the elders, Pastor Paine, when he was
Pastor,
him and his family, and now to the elders, to them and their families.
Giving
honor to all of those who have come to stand in the gap and to make up
the
hedge. And, giving honor, this day, to all of y'all, who say, “Lord,
Your will
is better than any of my will. And, I come to present myself to You,
that You
might feed me, to go out and be closer with You in my life.” Giving
honor to
all of y'all. Have, have a real interesting week this week. We have a
Scripture theme,
but we also have a separate theme. our Scripture theme, I'm going to
ask
brother Jesse, if he would come, it's going to be from The Book of
Mark, and
chapter nine, and it's going to be verses thirty-three through
thirty-five. I
do believe, I do believe that all the messages this month are going to
be very
interesting. In fact, the last message this month is actually going to
be in
the next month. It is so interesting; we have to have it. We have to
have it.
But, Jesse, just use that mike right there. Right, and it's going to be
from
The Book of Mark, chapter nine, verses thirty-three through thirty-five. Mark 9:33-35 And he came to Capernaum: and
being in the house he asked them, What was
it that ye
disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their
peace: for by
the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.
And he
sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If
any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant
of all. That's good. Thank you, bro. I'm probably going to ask you
to do some
more reading, throughout the message. If we could just bow our heads. Almighty God, who is like
unto You? Every
time we come before You, we are steadily amazed. Your presence is
amazing to
us. We count it our highest honor to worship You, to praise You, and
lift You
up. And, Almighty God, we present ourselves to You, that You might have
Your way
with us. We ask that You bless the sermon part of Your message, today.
And, God,
that You might give to us that which You would desire for us to have.
And, that
we would not leave here void of what You came to give us. And, that we
would
truly have a closer relationship with You, thereby. So, this we pray
and we
claim in Jesus name, and everyone said amen. So, brother Jesse just read our Scripture theme for the
month. But, the
actual theme for this month is, “Questions of the Disciples.”
“Questions of the
Disciples.” Sounds real interesting, doesn't it? And, it starts right
off, he
just read this, I'd like to—well, actually, we're going to be coming
back to
that. So, why don't we read these in order? And, there were many
questions by
the disciples. But, this particular one is the question for today, “Who
will be
the greatest of all?” Now, now this isn’t the only time that the
disciples—this
is the apostles, but, the disciples, that is the many ones that
followed the
Lord Jesus—this isn't the only time that question came up. From The
Book of
Matthew, chapter eighteen, and verses number one through five. I'm
going to
read that one, but Jesse, have Matthew chapter twenty-three ready. But
in
Matthew, chapter eighteen, verses one through five: Matthew 18:1 At the same time came the
disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven? A little bit different question, here, then there was that
comes a few
chapters later, but he goes on to say: Matthew 18:2 And Jesus called a little child
unto him, and set him in the midst of them, Who is going to be greatest in Heaven? And, the Lord Jesus
calls a
little child, and puts him in the midst of them. And, it says in verse
three: Matthew 18:3-5
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and
become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is
greatest in
the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in
my name
receiveth me. “…receiveth me.” But, that was the Kingdom of Heaven. They
asked a
different question in chapter twenty-three. If you would come, Jesse.
You're
going to read verses two, and then five, and then seven. Matthew 23:2 Saying The scribes
and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: Matthew 23:5 But all
their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their
phylacteries,
and enlarge the borders of their garments, Matthew 23:7 And
greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. And read verse eleven and twelve also. Matthew 23:11-12
But he that
is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt
himself
shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Amen, thank you brother. Don't go too far, the next was
going to be in
Luke, chapter twenty-two. So, here, here they're not asking about who's going to be
greatest in
the Kingdom of Heaven. Here they're saying, “Who of us is going to be
greater
than the other one? Who of us is going to be greater among us? Who of
us is
going to be the greatest?” And, it went on in verse number two, He
talked about
the scribes and the Pharisees, “They sit in Moses seat,” and then he
went on,
and he says, “But all their works they do to be seen of men.” And, He
goes on, “They
broaden their phylacteries, they enlarge the borders of their garments,
and
they love the greetings in the marketplace, ‘Call me a name, call me
teacher;
call me Rabbi.’” They love to be seen, and they wear the prettiest
clothes, and
to have some sort of title that would put them, separate them above
other
people around them. And, the Lord goes on to say, “He that is greatest
among
you. We're not talking about the Pharisees; we're talking about us.
And, if you
want to know who's going to be greatest here, he will be your servant.”
That's a
complete departure from what they were looking at, from what they were
used to.
The book of Luke, chapter twenty-two, verses twenty-four
through twenty-seven.
I'm going to ask you to read again, if you would, bro. Luke 22:24-27 And there was also a strife
among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said
unto
them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise
lordship over
them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called
benefactors. But ye
shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the
younger;
and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he
that
sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat?
but I am
among you as he that serveth. Thank you, bro, and, then have John, thirteen, ready. So, in
Luke, when
He talks about who will be the greatest, if we notice, in verse
twenty-four, “There
was also a strife, a strife among them…” about this. Now, strife is a
contention.
Strife is a dispute. Strife is a work of the flesh. There's a strife
among
them, the Scripture says. And, the Lord explains—we're going to address
this in
a little bit—but, the Lord explains, the kings of the gentiles, they
exercise
lordship, those who they call greater, they exercise lordship, they
lord over
people. And, then, He says “You disciples won't be like them.” He goes
on to
say the true, greater disciples will be like the younger ones. They'll
be like
the ones that listen, they will be the ones that don't look for
everything. They
will be like the ones who don't call and make themselves more special
than
anybody else. The true, great disciples. And, He said, “They will be as
those
that serve,” and, He says, more importantly, the Lord says, “I am with
you like
one who serves. I do that. And, there's no question, there's no
question who's
the greatest here, right now. And, I am here as one that serves.” From The Book of John, chapter thirteen, verses twelve and
thirteen.
Each one, each one of the Gospels gives an account—If you would,
please, Jesse—each
one of the Gospels gives some account of this. John, thirteen, twelve
through fifteen
if you would, please. John 13:12-15 So after he had washed their
feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto
them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye
call me Master and Lord:
and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have
washed your
feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an
example,
that ye should do as I have done to you. Amen. Thank you, Bro. We did talk about this, earlier this
year. But,
this is after the Last Supper, and He tells them, He tells them after
He'd washed
their feet, He tells them, “Don't you know what I have done to you? You
call me
Master and Lord and that is the truth, I am your master, and I am your
Lord and
if I am your Lord and Master, and I wash your feet, that is the example
that
you must do. That you have to do. That is the example, that you serve
one
another.” And, this is the example of being great. This is the example
of being
great. And, now the account in The Book of Mark, which is our mainstay
for
today. From The Book of Mark, one last Time, brother Jesse, from The
Book of
Mark, chapter nine, verses thirty-three through thirty-five: Mark 9:33-35 And he came to Capernaum: and
being in the house he asked them, What was
it that ye
disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their
peace: for by
the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.
And he
sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If
any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant
of all. Thank you so much, brother. In verse thirty-three, “And he
came to
Capernaum: and being in the house, he asked them What was it that you
disputed
among yourselves by the way?” So, our Lord knew that the disciples had
questions, because we do have questions. And, the Lord knows we have
questions.
And, when they didn't want to bring up—I don't know if you've been in
this case—but,
when they didn't want to bring up the question to the Lord, He in turn,
brought
it up. And, I don't know if you've ever had some things going on in
your mind,
or in your heart, and, you know, you’re kind of pondering it, but you
didn't
really want to ask the Lord, you know? Maybe you were afraid of the
answer,
maybe you were afraid that He might address the attitude, rather than
the question.
I, personally, believe we need to bring everything to the feet of the
Lord. I
personally believe that we need to leave lay everything at his feet.
Personally, I believe that. Maybe not everybody has that conviction,
but I,
personally, believe that. I went out, I wanted to buy a certain car,
about ten years
ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to say this. I wanted to buy
this
certain car, about ten years ago, but, but I wanted to make sure I was
right. I
wanted to make sure I was right, so, so what I did was, I said, “I'll
bring it
to the Lord.” and that way I'll know.” So, I had gone, and I did some
shopping,
and I settled on what I wanted to, what I wanted to get. Then I came to
church
here, I brought my little Bible, I brought my wallet, I brought my
rental keys—oh,
yes, my rental car keys, because I needed a vehicle, and I brought them
to the
altar, and I had a prayer. I didn't make a big deal about it. I
expected the
Lord to answer me. And, as I prayed, I expected the Lord to answer me,
and I
said, “Lord, if You don't want me to have this, because it's all worked
out,
then just let it fall. Let it be like they can't even find what we were
talking
about, because I know how salesmen are when they got you on you the
hook for a
sale, they do not want to let it go.” Am I right? If they know they're
going to
make some money, they're going to follow up with it. So, I went walked
back in,
the day that we had appointed, I walked over, the salesman actually
greeted me
at the door. We walked over to the computer; he said, “I've got it all
ready
for you, Mister Lee. I can't wait to go.” The computer flared up, their
fingers
did the dancing, and then I heard, “Wait a minute.” And then I heard,
“I don't
understand.” And then I heard, “I don't know what happened,” and my
heart sunk.
And, I had to get my little self together, but I knew exactly what had
happened. Exactly. I don't know why. But, I knew what had happened.
Because,
what I prayed for was, “God if this not Your will, let it go away,” and
it went
away. And, they went, and they asked everybody, “We had this all worked
out,
where is this car? And, it was gone. And, as I got up, I said, “Thank
you so
much for your time.” “But we can make a deal on another one,” and I
said, “No,
we can't,” because, I'm not going to stand, after God has answered me,
and go
against what His answer was. And, so, sometimes we, as disciples of the
Lord,
we might not want to bring it to the Lord, because we don't want to
hear the
answer, sometimes. Sometimes we just don't want to hear that which
You're going
to— “God, if You're going to tell me no, then I've got to obey it, but,
God, if
I don't ask You, You can't tell me.” And, the disciples never asked
Him. But,
the Lord is mighty magnificent. The Lord don't always just wait for you
to ask Him.
Sometimes, He says, “You have already made up your mind, you aren't
going to
ask Me, so I, I'm going to ask you, what is it that you disputed among
yourselves along the way? What is the question? What is it that you
keep to
yourself, and you don't tell Me? What is it that you have in your heart
that
you're not giving Me? What is it? What is it?” And, the disciples, they
never
did answer, so, He had to answer them. And,
their answer would have been, if they
said, they would say something along the lines of, “Lord, I just want
to be
great. I see all these great people. Lord I want to be—You've given us
power,
but, You know, I'm right up here next to James the lesser, I want to be
James
the greater. And, You know that John, and that other James, the Sons of
Thunder,
oh, man, that's a pretty lofty title. What about me? Give me a big
title, too,
God. How about the Son of All? How about one of them titles, Lord? How
do I get
to be that upper-tier? How do I get to be greater than my co-workers
and my brothers?
How do I get to that special place, God? Is it by knowing more verses
than
everybody? Is that it, God? Because if that's it, then I want You to
give me
that. It's about being more popular? Is it about preaching the best
messages?
Is that it, God? Because, if it is that, then God, You can give me
that. What
is the criteria, Lord, for being great? What is it?” And the Lord tells
them,
simply, “If you want to be great, be servant of all.” If you want to be
great,
if you want to be the great one—and I know, we're not talking about the
greatest in Heaven, now, we're talking about just the greatest amongst
you—be the
one who doesn't expect accolades, and a pat on the back. Be the one who
serves,
and has a heart of serving. You see, in serving everyone else, our
brothers and
sisters, we actually serve Him. I got a call recently from somebody and they asked me, and
they asked
me, said, “Oh, oh, Brother Parrish, hey, so, I hear you're going to be
a pastor
now. So, I guess you finally will have arrived. You're finally going to
be
somebody special, huh?” Yeah, that's what I heard. They might not have
said it
like that, but that's what I heard. The answer that we had to give,
that I had to
give, was not the answer they were expecting. Because, the truth is,
and I had
to tell them, person, I'm not going to say brother or sister, “Person,
the
truth is, if I'm not doing what God called me to do in the first place,
no
badge, no title, no nothing that I wear on my chest is going to matter,
because, if anything, I will be held more accountable, more accountable
because
you're called, and you're not listening. Because, you're called to do
whatever
it is that God has put in your path. Called you by name, created you
special to
do, whatever that is, and you, somewhere along the line, have said with
your
life—I have said, somewhere, along with my life, no, Lord, no.” So, the
conversation changed, and they really began to understand a little bit
more
where my personal conviction is. Because, we don't know what tomorrow
holds. We
only know Who holds tomorrow. That is who we have to answer to. That is
who we
want to hear, as the prayer said today, “Well done, My good and
faithful
servant.” I mean, it's going to—the Bible said did the Heavens will
roll away
like a scroll, and it said that all will gather there, even the Kings
of the
earth, they will look upon him, and they will say, when they see Him
that sits
on the throne, rocks cover us, mountains fall on us, and hide us from
His face
(Revelation 6:15-16), but us, who are arrayed in white raiment and,
what have
washed their robes and made them white (Revelation 7:14), us, we say,
“Hallelujah,
Lord, God. Oh, I've been waiting to see You again. Thank You, thank
You, thank You.”
“Well done My good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the
Lord.” And,
as the prayer said, all our tears shall be wiped away, neither to cry
anymore
(Revelation 21:4). Part
2 Be
Careful for Strife As great as the apostles were, they did have some
disagreements among
themselves. As great as the apostles were, they did have some
disagreements
among themselves. One was when John, John and James, when they had
approached
the Lord Jesus, and they said, grant us, Lord, grant us that one may
sit on Your
right and one on Your left.” Yeah, they had some disagreements,
because, after
the Lord Jesus gave them their answer, the other disciples, apostles,
they were
they were filled, the Bible says, with indignation. “How dare they come
up and
take the—I wish I would have thought of it.” Yeah, so they did have
some sort
of disagreements with themselves from time to time. This one was
another. But,
we read again in Luke 22:24 and there was also a strife among them. A
strife
among them. And, the strife was which of them should be accounted the
greatest.
And, I'm sure they compared what they've done in the Lord. I'm sure
they said, “Well,
I'm more special, because—” and, “I am this, because—” and I'm sure
they had
their reasoning, but they were just trying to find out who was going to
have
the preeminence. The Bible goes on to say, goes on to say, in the book
of
Proverbs, chapter seventeen, and verse number fourteen. Now strife,
strife is
contention. It's contention. It is potentially, extremely, very
dangerous. Once
you have strife in the church, once you have strife in your fellowship,
once you
have strife in the home, in your family, whenever you have strife,
contention
is there, and contention will bring division. From The Book of
Proverbs,
chapter seventeen, and verse fourteen: Proverbs 17:14
The beginning
of strife is as
when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it
be
meddled with. Therefore, leave it off! The beginning of it is like water,
being let out.
Now, once you let water out of whatever vessel you have it in, try and
get it
back in. Let the cat get out of the bag, and then try to get the cat
back in.
Once contention gets out, try and just say, “Oh, I'm so sorry,” it's
already
out! Now, we've got a problem. Now we need the repair. But, before it
ever gets
out, we have the opportunity not to even let it be meddled with.
Contention. And,
this contention, this contention is so strong, in the book of Acts,
chapter fifteen,
and verse thirty-nine, the contention is so strong it's so divisive,
it's such
a weapon, strife is such a work of the flesh that in the book of Acts,
chapter fifteen,
and verse thirty-nine, talking about Paul and Barnabas. Paul and
Barnabas. The
Bible says, here: Acts 15:39
And the
contention was so
sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and
so
Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; And if we were to read on, we see that Paul took Silas. They
split up
over contention. Apostles of God. Holy man, filled with the Holy Ghost
allowing
contention to come in, not being able to have a true godly answer, and
now
we've got division. And, yeah, we don't even know—yeah, history bears
it out,
but not so much the Scriptures, about what happened to Barnabas.
Because of
contention. Because of contention. So, when we see the strife that the
disciples had about who's going to be great, it was strong, you've got
to see
trouble coming. And, we Christians, we have the power to arrest
contention. We
have the power not to be yielding unto the flesh. Who will be greatest
in my
house? Who will be greatest on the track? Who will be greatest in
school? Who
will be greatest on my job? Who will be greatest, who will be greatest?
That
only has an avenue for pride. Part
3 Where Does This Thought Come from? Where does this question, the very question, who will be the
greatest,
where does that even come from? You know, America is a real unique country. America is a
place filled
with immigrants. Except for the aborigine people. Some people call them
Indians. But they are not Indians; they are the Aborigines of the land.
And,
America, the United States of America, anyway, is filled with
immigrants, has a
lot of immigrants that have come to this land. And, well, since we've
had a
place of immigrants, I learned something, I learned something in a
college
class. They say when the people are a community, and they're real
familiar with
everything, like whatever the countries may be, or whether it was Italy
or
France or Germany or Ghana or Ivory coast, or whatever the country’s
may be.
They have an already community worked out, but when you're an immigrant
you
have to develop, you have to describe, you have to conceive some sort
of worth
and value system, a worth and value system. So, as the immigrants would
come
here, what was important in the land that they came from, they come
here and
they see everything has changed in this society. So, in America, you
look at—in
this college class that I was in, they said this is why you can tell
that
America is so different: look at even their sports. Their sports, in
the United
States, one of the biggest, most money making sports we've got is
football.
Football. Why football over soccer? Soccer is what’s famous for the
world. They
have the World Cup, everybody else is on board. Every other country,
it's a big
deal. So much, here, it might be on one of the Spanish channels, maybe.
It
might be on one of the deep dark—unless America, unless the USA is in
it, then
they'll put it on, I don't know, channel nine, or something, not one of
the big
channels. And, so, why is that? Because Americans like two things: they
like
getting something and keeping it. They like having something
themselves. That's
what Americans like. And, Americans like something else. They like
being
defined that they are better. They don't like being low. Americans like
being
high. And, in football, there's two things that stand out. One thing
that they
love is when they get land, or yards, we call it, they like keeping it.
In
soccer, it goes back and forth, real fast, you don't keep it. Americans
don't
like that concept. Why go down there if you're just going to have to
come back?
And, the other thing they like is that one man can be important, more
important
than everybody else. They like that. Americans love that. The
quarterback. Oh,
yeah, pay him the money, because he's all right. The running back. Oh,
man, you
see him? He's a bad boy. The wide receiver. Give him the money! This is
what
the American value system is. And, we even have names that we give
them, we
call them MVP's. MVP's. But, this all came from somewhere else. It's
even
deeper rooted in our psyche. Before there was the United States, before
there
were the disciples, before they were even people on Earth, there was
another
one who had this thought. From the book of Isaiah, chapter fourteen,
and verses
twelve through fourteen. Jesse, you get ready with Ezekiel, chapter
twenty-eight,
if you would, please. But, Isaiah, fourteen, verses twelve through
fourteen: Isaiah 14:12-14
How art thou
fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the
ground, which
didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will
ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also
upon the
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend
above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. This thought, yeah, it came before we were even here on
Earth, on the
planet Earth. This thought from a long time ago. From The book of
Ezekiel,
chapter twenty-eight, verses fourteen through seventeen—I'm sorry, it's
thirteen,
thirteen through seventeen: Ezekiel 28:13-17
Thou hast been
in Eden the
garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius,
topaz, and
the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald,
and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy
pipes
was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the
anointed
cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy
mountain
of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of
fire. Thou wast
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity
was
found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the
midst
of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee
as
profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering
cherub,
from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because
of thy
beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I
will cast
thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold
thee. Thank you, Brother Jesse. “Every precious stone was thy
covering.” Thou
wast the anointed cherub that covereth. Verse number seventeen: “Thine
heart
was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by
reason
of the brightness:” And, the Lord says, “I will cast you to the
ground.”
Wanting to be more beautiful, wanting to be smarter, wanting to be more
vocal,
wanting to be anything, anything just so much better than the next
person, has
an origin. It originated somewhere, and we are reading the originator
of it,
but, the Lord has an answer for that. In Isaiah, forty-two, and verse
number eight.
Isaiah, forty-two, verse number eight. Amazingly wonderful scripture.
They all
are, but I really love this one, too. Isaiah 42:8
I am the LORD:
that is my
name... And, this LORD here, if you notice, is all capital letters,
that is the
Lord God Almighty; that is Elohim. That is Him. Isaiah 42:8
I am the LORD:
that is my
name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to
graven
images. My glory, my glory I will not give to another. Now, He'll
give us
wisdom, He'll give us some of His power, He'll give us discerning,
He'll give
us some of His spirit, God will give us many things, but His glory He
won't
give to anybody. His honor, His respect, what is due God, nobody else
gets,
but, He will give us—oh, yeah, He'll give us wisdom, He'll give us
sight, He'll
give us a victory, God will give us so many things, but when it comes
to His glory,
nobody gets that. “I am the LORD, that is My name: and My glory will I
not give
to another, neither My praise, My praise to any graven images.” Last part: Part
4: Keep Me
Near the Cross So, we want to make sure that we don't fall into the trap—now, we need to esteem to be as great as possible. Not at the cost of somebody else. We need to try to be the best that we can be in everything, everything. We should try it with our best. But, not at somebody else's hurt. Not when it diminishes somebody else. There is an answer. There is an answer for this dilemma. There is an answer. And, this answer is simply, “Lord Jesus, keep me near the Cross. Lord Jesus, keep me near the Cross.” And, there is a reason we need to remember the cross, because when we remember the Cross, we know who actually does everything for us. When we remember the cross—see, people who have been in the faith for a while, we’ve got, we've got a challenge against us. If you've been saved for a while, if you've been a Christian for a while, God has used you, or us. If we've been in the faith for a while, we've been used, we've been touched, we've felt his presence, we've had a chance to glorify, magnify God, we've had opportunities where we've shared, and we anointed, and we were anointed when we shared, and we've had times where we were able to get into the Scriptures and we would learn, and we would learn these things. We've had these opportunities, if we've been in the faith for any length of time at all. And, the problem becomes that, as we see God blessing us more and more and more, and as we learn more and more, and as we grow more and more, it can become a temptation for us to forget who did it. And, who continues to do it. And, to think it is us, ourselves. And, think we have the wisdom, we have the knowledge, we did it on our own. That is the dilemma, the challenge that faces Christians have been in the faith for any length of time. This is why we must stay near The Cross this is why we must stay near the Cross. Greater people than us in this room have fallen due to this. Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar, when God had told him, “I'm the Lord, I did all these things, I made you like this great tree and all, look at everything that comes around to you,” and he went out, and he was contemplating, what God had said to him, and he said, “Have not all these things my hand made?” And, the Bible says while it was in his mouth, God answered him. While it was in his mouth. While it was right there. He didn't even completely finish, and God took everything away from him. And, it said he went like an animal—the description is kind of like a bird—for seven years. And, then, after God restored him, he said, “Great is God! Now I know that God, alone, does all these things!” (Daniel 4:30-37) King Herod, he had the same issue. He gave us great speech, a great speech. And, the Bible says that they said it's like a voice of a god. And, he gave not God the glory, and the very next thing was, he got eaten up with worms, and then he died. Got eaten up with worms, and then he died (Acts 12:21-23). And, even apostle Paul, he reproves a church, he reproves a church, because they were doing something out of the way, and he told the Corinthians, “That you haven't even repented, but you're puffed up.” He told them (1 Corinthians 5:2). And, then he rebuked them. And, it's for our admonition. So, Lord, yes, Jesus, Lord Jesus, please keep us near the Cross. I've heard said that at the cross there's only one great one. And, all the rest of the ground is level. At the cross, no big I’s and no little you’s. At the cross, there's only one great one. And, everything else is level. The truth of this, is everybody can be great, because every single one of us can be more and more like the Lord Jesus. And, that alone is what makes us great. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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