All right, I dropped my glasses on the way to the pulpit. Thank you, Dr. Beal, for that. I appreciate that beautiful song. John chapter three, if everybody could take your Bibles and turn over there. John chapter three, I feel like I might ought to go ahead and give an invitation before the sermon, because some of you looked very convicted when the announcement was made about not going the wrong way in front of this building. In fact, from where I sat, I saw one young lady wearing a peach sweater. that looked very convicted, like, oh boy, I'm not going to even look at her right now, amen? So, but you looked really guilty when he said that. Have you done that? Yeah, okay. Anyway, I thought, I've never been here before. I got here last night. And I hadn't been on campus 30 seconds and I already figured out that you're not supposed to go the wrong way. So anyway, I'm just saying folks, I'm just saying you're college educated people here. Amen. All right. Oh, goodness gracious. I am so excited about being here. And like I said, this is my first time to to be on campus here at Ambassador Baptist College. I've heard of this ministry for years and years and years and have had great respect for this ministry. Dr. Beal and I have crossed paths a couple of times and I've always had incredible respect for him. But you know sometimes you're just not in a circle just because you're just not in a circle. But man, I'm happy to be in the circle. Amen, I really am. This is wonderful. I have to ask, if you Have been an MBT evangelist or if you're going to be one this summer Would you stand please if you have been or if you're going to be I'm just curious how many we got here 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 all right awesome fantastic. Thanks guys. You can have a seat and If you're gonna be this summer raise your hand if you're gonna be this summer Okay 1 2 3 three, four. Okay, good. Well, I'll see you guys this summer and it's going to be a great time. It's going to be a great time. We are looking forward to it greatly. It is a blessing to our church to have 43, 45, 46 guys from all over the country and fundamental Baptist colleges come and and prepare themselves. My son Joseph is, he traveled last year, he's gonna travel again this year. I know you know my son Joseph, does anybody else know my son Joseph? You know Joseph, anybody else? All right, over here, you know Joseph, okay. And you know Joseph, okay. So I'm thrilled that my son's reputation did not hinder me from being invited to speak at Ambassador Baptist College, all right. Joseph's a good kid, he loves the Lord, he's on fire for God, but he's a nut. just saying I'm just saying I mean he is he's one of those guys that he smiles from the moment he wakes up in the morning until when he goes to bed at night he's always singing he's always whistling he's always found something funny always and I remember one time he texted me and and I said I can't talk now buddy going into a funeral and then he texted me back lol That's my boy. That's my boy. All right. I can't say he takes after his mother because I get in all kinds of trouble if I said that. But I don't I don't know where he gets it. But he loves Jesus and I'm proud of him. All right. Okay. John chapter 3. Has everybody got that? John chapter 3. I want to read a verse to you this morning that means a lot to me. The sermon today is going to cover verses 25 down to verse 31. Just trying to help you out here. By the way, how many of you are note takers? How many of you are note takers? All right, is everybody? Does that mean you're required to do it? Okay, all right. You want me to help you out with the outline today? Have you ever been taking notes in a preacher's sermon and he says, now my third thing I want to tell you is this, and then a few minutes later he says, now number two, And then he says, All right, now under number four, we're gonna talk about letter A is this and then a few minutes later, he says D. So what happened to B and C? All right. All right. Can I help you? This is gonna be easy. 123. ABCD. 123. ABCD. I'm gonna give you three points. My third points got an ABC and a D to it. So if that doesn't help you, I've got no more help for you. So three points. And then my final point has four sub points. So you just fill in the blanks. Here we go. John chapter three in verse 30. Very short, very simple verse. The Bible says he must increase, but I must decrease. He must increase, but I must decrease. This is John speaking, and you probably are familiar with the context of John chapter 3. Might be the most famous passage of the New Testament, probably rivals the 23rd Psalm. I think we probably agree with that as the most famous passages in the Bible, but here John is saying he, speaking of Jesus, must increase, I must decrease. This morning, I want to pray right now, but I want to preach to you on the danger of self-promotion. the danger of self-promotion. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I do pray that you would help me this morning. God, there is a danger in us as people who really do want to serve you, getting ourselves in the way. And we like to get credit for the good things we do, and we like to get the pats on the back, and we like to see our name in the church bulletin, and we like all those things. and that can be dangerous. And so, dear Lord, I pray today you would help me to say this in a way where everybody can feel what John was saying all those years ago. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. If you're taking notes, you ought to write down Proverbs 20, verse six. The Bible says, most men will proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. Most men will proclaim his own goodness. That's a biblical way of saying that people like to toot their own horn. Let me just chat with you for a minute here before I actually get into the sermon. I told some of the guys in the class a few minutes ago that I went to Tennessee Temple University and I loved my experience there. I really, really did. Just so many tremendous influences in my life. And I'm thankful my junior year, I got to be an RA. And I don't know what you call them here. Same thing, call them resident assistants. OK, all right. I got to do that. Our dorms were four stories high. And I was in the men's dorm. We had two men's dorms. I was in one of the men's dorms on floor number three. And, and so it was my job to make sure everybody was in for curfew three days a week, I had to check to make sure the rooms are clean. And if a guy's hair got too long, I had to give him a warning. And he got so many days to get it cut. And you know, you know how all that stuff goes. And And so, so I was an RA and I was excited about being an RA and I knew it was going to have some of those other moments that wouldn't be quite as exciting, but I was excited about doing it and I knew most of the guys on my floor already and they were good guys. I didn't think I was going to be trouble at any of them and and so The dorm supervisor, the married student that lived on the first floor in a little apartment, he told me one day, he said, hey, just want you to know that Dr. Blank, I'm just not gonna give his name, but Dr. So-and-so, a very famous preacher, and even to this day, he's a famous preacher. If I called his name, I guarantee everybody in this room would know who Dr. So-and-so is. The Dr. So-and-so's son is on your floor. I'm like, whoa, cool, all right, well I can't wait to meet this guy, all right? And you know, listen, can we just be honest here? It's just us kids. Right, okay. How many of you have ever been a little starstruck by a well-known preacher? My hand's up. Okay. Is your hand up? Okay. All right. Been a little starstruck. You're not bad. Okay. I'm not saying you're bad. And if you didn't raise your hand, well, you're bad because you lied in chapel. Okay. And you can't do things like that. All right. This is a Christian college. Amen. But I was a little starstruck by Dr. So-and-so. And I was. I mean, he came to preach in chapel. He was one of these larger-than-life figures. Everybody knew him. He had a big, big, big old church. And, oh man, all those preacher boys. Oh, I was so excited to get him to sign my Bible. You know, we were starstruck with this famous preacher. And his son is going to be on my floor in the dorm. I was so excited. Well, all right, the dorms, the hallways, they were L-shaped. Okay, there was a long hall and a short hall. And the RA's room was right there on the corner where you could walk out of your room and see down both of them. And the way it worked out is this young man, the son of the famous preacher, was down the short hall at the end. So when I would check curfew at night, I would go down the long hall, I would come back down the long hall, I would go down the short hall, and then I would come back down the short hall, and his room was at the very end of the short hall. So I checked in almost every guy there and made sure everybody was in their room. And when I got back down to his room, I knocked on the door and I said room check and they opened the door and and his roommate was there and his other roommate was there and his other roommate was there and he was there with his back turned to me. And I was hoping to get a chance to meet him but his back was turned to me and he didn't say hello, he didn't say hi my name is, he didn't say, he didn't even look at me, did not even look at me, all I saw was the back of his head. I go in the next night, knock on the door, room check, same thing, he's just sitting there not looking at me and after a week or so eventually I got a chance to say hi to him, he really didn't want to talk, this cold standoffish, no interest in getting to know the RA. And I came to find out he's kind of that way with pretty much everybody. And I thought, well, this is just weird. Okay, this is really weird. Okay, I'm just trying to be friendly. You know, I don't get it. This went on for two or three weeks. Finally, I went in one night, and I had seen his roommates down the hallway in the hallway. So I'd already checked them in. He was in the room all by himself out the door room check. heard nothing. I opened the door and there he sat. So I walked around and I pulled a chair and I set it down right in front of him eyeball to eyeball. And I said, What's going on, man? I said, I'm not saying you and I've got to be best friends. I'm not saying you and I've got to, you know, watch a ballgame together. I'm not saying we got to eat a bowl of popcorn together. I'm not saying that we got we're gonna go to the mall together. But I'd at least like to be able to say hi. What's wrong? And he leaned over and he said, Listen, I'm just gonna be straight with I don't want to be here. Because I just don't want to be here. Why are you here? And by the way, if you're that guy that I don't want to be here. Well, hello. Why are you here? Where do you want to be? Mars? Where do you where do you want to be? Why do you go places you don't want to go? I don't get that. I mean, is this not on you? Okay. But so he said, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. I said, Well, why don't you want to be here? And he said, I just don't want to be here. And I and I called his name. I said, Listen, I'm not really sure what's what's eating at you. I said, But there's obviously something deeper. That is wrong. here. And he cracked wide open. And he said, I'll just tell you. He said, My dad's a famous preacher. Well, hello, everybody knows that. He said, Every Baptist in America knows my dad. Okay, my dad preaches all over the place. And he said, My dad is a good man. He said, my dad is an honorable man. My dad is an honest man. My dad is a hardworking man. My dad loves me. My dad treats me well. And he said, I have the utmost respect for my dad. I really do. He said, but because my dad's a preacher and because my dad's a well known preacher, he said, I see a lot of preachers. And he said, and I'm just gonna be straight with you. I'm fed up with all of them. I'm done with them. He said, the respect that I have for my dad goes through the roof. The respect that I have for all the rest is zilch. I'm thinking, what am I supposed to say to this? I called his name again. I said, why? I said, don't you think that's kind of painting with a broad brush? I said, what's the problem? He said, I'll tell you what the problem is. He said, what I see in preachers is a look at me, look at me, look at me attitude. He said, I see preachers that I see them with my dad and oh, they're happy, friendly, joy. But then when I see him sometimes away from my dad, and they're not the same person, they're just trying to butter up to the big shot. And he said, I'm sick of it. And then he told me this and I'm telling you if I if I live to be 200 years old and have Alzheimer's my last hundred years I will not forget this. He told me he said I know a preacher. Not too many towns over from our town where I live. The preacher got an honorary doctorate. And by the way, I'm all for honorary doctorates, I'm not against that. He said, but the preacher got an honorary doctorate. He said he got home from getting his honorary doctorate and the day he got home, he threw away literally thousands of dollars worth of tracts and stationery. Threw them in the dumpster. got rid of all of them, and reprinted all the church stationery, all the church tracts, with Dr. so and so on it. And he said, he said, Kurt, he said, I've had enough to hear with that. I've had enough to hear with it. He said, I don't see very many people in the ministry who are really in it to serve God, who are really in it to help people, who are really in it to minister, who are really in it to care, who are really in it to be a blessing. I see a whole lot of people who are in it because they want a platform and they want a name. And that is why I've got such a bad attitude. How many of you would have been as stumped as I was as to what to say next? All I knew to say was, buddy, I'm sorry. Sorry. Gotta understand, I'm studying to be a preacher and I think I'm like that. I don't think. I think I know some preachers who aren't like that. I think. I tell you, I walked out of there questioning. It rattled me. It rattled me hard. I don't think he was totally accurate in what he was saying. I've been a preacher for 30 years now, and I've seen a lot of people who are sacrificial. I've seen a lot of people who are as sincere as anybody in this room. I've seen a lot of people who care. I've seen a lot of people give you the shirt off their back. I've seen a lot of people give you the last dollar in their wallet. I've seen a lot of people who would crawl on broken glass to minister to somebody. I've seen a lot of people in the ministry who would do that. But I have also seen what that young man saw. I have. And that's what I want to preach to you about today. John said he must increase. I must decrease. There's going to be more about Jesus. There's going to be less about Curtis King. Let me give you one quick little story before I get into the outline. F.B. Meyer pastored in London. And I think we all are probably familiar with the ministry of F.B. Meyer. You've probably read some of his devotionals. Brilliant man. Had a big church in London. And after he had a big church and large congregation and lots of people came, there was this new guy that moved into town named Charles. I don't know if you remember that new guy in town, Charles, last name was Spurgeon. And everybody in London was talking about Spurgeon this and Spurgeon that, Metropolitan Tabernacle this and Metropolitan Tabernacle that. And F.B. Myers saw his large congregation gently shrinking. And he kept hearing about Spurgeon's congregation growing and growing and growing. And he thought, this is awful! This guy coming to town, taking my people, what in the world? Now, typically in most cases, that would start a war. That would start an absolute war. In our culture today, F.B. Meyer would have super analyzed, micro analyzed everything about Spurgeon and would have found one difference and would have just made a huge deal out of one slight little thing they did differently. But F.B. Meyer, he said this. I'm going to read this to you because I want to make sure I get it right. He said, I took it to the Lord. Can I get an amen? He said, I took it to the Lord, got down on my knees and on my face before the Lord, and I said to the Lord, it is not right, this feeling of envy that I have in my heart. So Meyer started praying for Spurgeon, and then this. He said, I began to look at every triumph of the young Spurgeon as though it were my own. I got to the point where every new family that he added, I felt a partial victory in that because I lifted him up in prayer. All the growth he saw, I felt part of the victory of that because I prayed for him. And I wanted to see the kingdom of God move forward whether it was inside his building or inside this building. And I want to say that it's really less about Meyer, it's less about Spurgeon, it's less about me, it's less about you, it's less about this church or that church. It's all about Jesus Christ. And we must decrease. We must decrease. Now let me give you three real quick thoughts here. Number one, the first thing I want you to say, I'm just going to hit this quickly, is I want to give you an explanation of John's work. The explanation of John's work. Let me read verses 25 down to 28 for you. I want you to see this. Verse 25, it says, Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying, washing your hands and all that kind of stuff. Verse 26, And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and if you're following me here, you might ought to underline that last line in verse 26, and all men come to him. Let me back up and read that again. Pick this up, please. They came unto John and sent him a rabbi. That was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness. Behold, the same baptizer, all men come to him. You know what, can I paraphrase that? Are you jealous? John, your crowds are getting smaller. His crowds are getting bigger. This is a problem. And when you baptized that man, you made a big deal out of him. You're the one that put him on the platform. You're the man that put him on the stage. You're the man that gave him his name. You're the one that gave him the voice that he has. Are you jealous? Are you jealous that your crowds are getting smaller and his crowds are getting bigger? Verse 27, John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. What great advice that is. And then verse 28, Ye yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him. So what he's saying is, I am not a big deal. I am not a big deal. Now, can we just take a quick time out in the sermon here? Was John a big deal? It's okay to say, yes, John was a big deal. And I know some of you say, no, only Jesus is a big deal. No, John's a big deal, okay? Listen, I gotta tell you right now, when I get to heaven and I meet him, I'm gonna have chill bumps. And that's okay. That is okay. Is anybody with me on that? Okay, am I okay? Because I'm going to be like really fired up to meet him. I'm going to be super fired up to meet him. In fact, he was such a big deal that he was prophesied about in Isaiah 40 in verse number 3. Listen, anybody in the New Testament that was prophesied about in the Old Testament is a big deal. Okay? You weren't talked about in either of them. Okay. All right. He was a big deal. He baptized Jesus. He listen, I baptized a short while ago, a 90 some year old man, oldest man I've ever baptized a couple of ladies that old, but I've never baptized a man that old. And he was, he stormed the beaches of Normandy. He was there on D-Day. Okay. And listen, I've gone out to eat with him a few times, and I don't want to say a word. I just want to listen to this man's stories. He is an American hero. This guy's incredible. And that might be the most important person I've ever baptized. And let me tell you, that guy's an important guy. He's a big deal. And so to baptize somebody who's a big deal is a big deal. John baptized Jesus. That's like a crazy big deal. Okay? Can you imagine what a big deal you might feel like you are if you had the following that John the Baptist had? Can you imagine what a big deal you might feel like you are if you baptized Jesus Christ? Can you imagine what a big deal you might feel like you are if all of the local politicians are all talking about you? And they were, and you know the story, he ended up getting his head cut off over it, but you understand how that worked. Listen, John was a big deal, and when they came to him and they said, Jesus is becoming a bigger deal than you, his response was, Great! That's what I was sent to do! That's what I was sent to do. So number one, we see the explanation of John's work. Let me give you number two. Number two, the illustration of jealousy at a wedding. The illustration of jealousy at a wedding. Look at verse number 29. Now, right after this exchange that I just read to you, right before John made that famous statement, he must increase, I must decrease, he gave one verse that has this incredible illustration, and I absolutely love this illustration, but I will say, I probably read this verse a hundred times in my life before I figured out what it was saying. Okay? How many of you have ever read a verse, you had no idea what it was saying, so you just kept on going? Alright, you did that? I did too, okay? Let me read it, and you might say, I don't have any idea what that, I don't get, well let me just read it and we'll talk about it here. Verse 29. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. Everybody understand that so far? Anybody here got your eye on somebody? Like some potential girl that, any girl here got some guy that you just picked out, like that's the one. I don't know his name, but I'm gonna marry that man. Anybody here? That's the joy of Bible college, it really is. Watch you guys fall all over yourselves. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, and look at this, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This, my joy, therefore is fulfilled. Can you understand why I stumbled over that verse for the first hundred times I read that, trying to figure out what on earth is that saying? The key is not bride and bridegroom. The key is the word friend. It's the word friend. What it's saying is this, that the person at the wedding that is the big deal in that culture was the groom. Now, in our culture, it's the bride. We don't say, here comes the groom. That doesn't seem to work. In their culture, it was the groom's big day. He gets his bride. In our culture, it's the bride's big day. It's the bride's big day. Well, whatever culture, whether it's the bride, and you can see where it relates to Jesus more, because he's the groom, we're the bride. And the day that we're united with him, it'll be his big day. But what what john saying is this is not he's not addressing the bride. He's not addressing the groom. He's addressing the friend, the best man, the best man. Now, can you raise your hand again? If you said you know, my son, Joseph, can you raise your hand? All right. How many do we say there are there was 123. There are four of you know, my son, Joseph. Okay. Does anybody here know my oldest son, Kurt? Anybody here know Kurt, pastor's Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia, it's two hours from here. Does anybody here know Kurt? I don't see any hands, okay. My son Kurt, I'm really proud of Kurt. He's just such a good guy. Honestly, he is just like his mother and I praise God for that. On Kurt's wedding day, my oldest son, first time one of my children's getting married. And I got to tell you, I was as nervous as they were. I mean, I was just a bundle of nerves. I'm not a crier. But I was that day. Okay, I'm just bawling my eyes out emotional. And I mean, I mean, I'm crying so much. It's like they're squirting out of my eyeballs. I just well, good night. This is just wild, you know. And so my son, Kurt, my oldest, asked my youngest Joseph to be his best Oh, this is the sweetest thing in the whole... My baby wants my baby to be his best man. And so I'm standing up there, you know, marrying my son to his now bride. And next to my son is my son. Oh, good night. How many of you are criers? Can you raise your hand if you're a crier? Oh, bless you. You would not have survived. You would not have even lasted through the whole ceremony. You'd be like, oh, this is terrible. I've got to get out of here. Now you four that know Joseph, can you understand, you four, can you understand why I, as a dad and a pastor, felt the need to sit my son Joseph down and have a little talk with him before this wedding? Would you like to stand up and just tell everybody what you think I told you? Because you're probably going to nail it. You know, the best man, doesn't happen in every wedding, but in a lot of ways, the best man at the reception stands up and takes a microphone and gives a speech. I'm thinking, Oh, good. Oh, Joseph. So and my oldest son Kurt wanted the speech. But I sat down with Joseph, just me and him one on one. And I said, buddy, it ain't about you. I know you have the personality of 500 people living inside of you. You're just boom. You're just out. I know you're happy. I know you like to be funny. I know I get it. I get it. I get it. I said, but Joseph, make the speech. Plan it. Don't just be impulsive and impromptu with it. Okay. But when you get up there, just remember that you are there to brag on your brother and brag on his wife. It's not about you. It's not about you. And so when I'm talking about the illustration of jealousy at a wedding, the illustration that John gave of jealousy at a wedding would be the groom, the best man, trying to draw attention to himself. And you just want to say, it's not your day. It is not your day. Listen, guys, if you're studying to be a preacher, can I tell you something? Your home pastor asks you, hey, will you preach on Sunday night when you're home on break? Can I tell you, it's not your day. It is not your day. Oh, they asked me to give a devotion here or there. Okay, great, great. But it's not about you. It's not your day. It's not your moment to rise and shine. It is not. The illustration of jealousy at a wedding. Let me give you number three, last point, but I'll give you an A, B, C, and a D. The application of joyful weakness. The application of joyful weakness. Verses 30 and 31. He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. You catch that? He said you got to understand who is where. I'm of earth. I'm from here. He's from heaven. He is there. And I am joyful in the role that I play as an earthly voice to get to draw attention to our heavenly God. Let me give you, I'm going to close with an illustration in just a few minutes, but let me give you this A, B, and a C, D. Letter A, write down Jesus' command. Jesus' command. Matthew 6.33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. That's his command, seek ye first the kingdom of God. And John the Baptist was fulfilling that command. He was seeking first the kingdom of God. He was not seeking first the kingdom of John. I had a young man not too long ago that, and by the way, isn't confidence, isn't there a thin line between confidence and cockiness? Very thin line. I don't know that anybody performs a perfect balancing act on that. I sat down with a young man who was studying for the ministry not too long ago, and he struggled in this area. And I told him, and he knows I love him, I love this man with all my heart, and he knows that. We sat down at Bob Evans one day, and I said, listen, the one thing you've got to understand if you're gonna be used to the Lord is that, and I said, write this down, you are not a big deal. You are not a big deal. Jesus' command is to seek first his kingdom. The one who calls you is a big deal. The one who you talk about is a big deal. The one who you witness for is a big deal. The one you preach about is a big deal. You are not a big deal. Letter B is Jesus' example. Jesus' example. Philippians chapter two. I think probably we're all familiar with Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter 2 verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Verse number 7, talking about Jesus says, but he made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, and being found and fashioned as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. Talks about vain glory, vain glory. I've got an assistant pastor who is, he's really talented. He's a good speaker. He can sing. He's got a powerful singing voice. But he's really good with maintenance type things. And a few days had gone by and I wasn't really sure exactly what he was doing. I hadn't seen him in the office quite so much. And one time I did see him, he wasn't dressed the way we normally dress for office work. He was kind of dressed down. And I guess a week went by and then I said, hey, what have you been up to? And he's like, I really didn't want to tell you. Back behind our church is the largest septic field in the state of Maryland. We don't have city sewage where we are and so when our church was built, they had to put in this massive septic field. He said, you know, he said, when you and I got here, he said, there was nobody, there wasn't anyone on pastoral staff, there was nobody on the deacon board that knew what the maintenance process was for our septic system. And he said, so our septic tanks have been overflowing. And he said, so I've spent the last week out there in sewage. And it took him about another week to get that problem resolved. And I got to tell you something, They don't teach a class on wading through sewage at Ambassador Baptist College, but you better learn it. You better learn it. Because it's not all bossing people around. And it's not all standing up and everybody looking at you. And it's not all seeing what the coolest tie is you can wear. You need to learn how to wade through sewage. Jesus did that. He waded through this earth. And compared to heaven, that's like wading through sewage. Mark 10, verse 45, for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Letter C, we've seen, talking about this joyful weakness, we've seen Jesus' command, Jesus' example. Letter C, our struggle, our struggle. Proverbs 25, 27, for men to seek their own glory is not glory. I'm convinced, and I know I may sound a little judgmental when I say this, and I apologize if I do, and I really am praying that my heart will be right as I say this, but I do think that there are a lot of people that want to be in the ministry because they want to boss people around, they want attention, they want to be the person up front, they want to yell at people. Talking about the danger of self-promotion this morning. You might be a self-promoter if you're tempted to exaggerate your numbers. Listen, if you had 10 in your Sunday school class, you had 10, you didn't have 12. There's no shame in having 10. If you run a bus route for your home church and you had 35 on your bus route, you had 35, you didn't have 40. Okay? Listen, if you have 35 and you say you had 40, that is lying. It's lying. And it's wrong. And it's sinful. And where do we get the idea that we'll have the blessings of God if we lie? Where do we get that? Do you want to do good or do you want to look good? You might be a self-promoter if you exaggerate your numbers. You might be a self-promoter if every time you lead a person to Christ you have to tweet about it. Now listen, I am all in for soul winning. I am, I'm all in. I believe in it with all of my heart. I mean, listen, that's why we're here. That's why the Bible was given so we would have a message to share. That's why Jesus came down was to win souls. I'm all about soul winning. But can you do it without putting a selfie with them on Facebook? Do you have to make yourself look like super evangelist? Do you have to do that? You might be a self-promoter if you talk too much. If you talk too much. Didn't James tell us to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath? Didn't he tell us that? Being given two ears and one mouth, you know what that means, don't you? If you talk too much, Some people just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk all the time. You know why you talk so much? You talk so much because you just love the sound of your own voice. Stop. You gotta stop that. You're promoting yourself. You might be a self-promoter if you talk about yourself. You talk about yourself. Romans chapter, if I can find it here. Romans chapter 12 and verse number three, powerful verse. For I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. And then letter D is our victory. Our victory. Proverbs 27 to let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. I'll give you one verse way back in Psalm 75. I wish I had this memorized, but I've got to look it up to make sure I say it right. Psalm 75. Verse 5, lift not up your own horn, don't toot your own horn, on high, speak not with a stiff neck, for promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is the judge, he putteth down one and setteth up another. Promotion comes from the Lord. Let me give you a quick illustration, then I'll let you go today. Let's just say today, Get all my stuff together so I can finish my sermon. All right, let's just say that this entire floor down here was covered in cockroaches. How many of you right now are tempted to raise your feet? Raise your hand, anybody do that? Anybody here hate roaches? Anybody here hate roaches? I hate roaches. Okay. When I was when I was a kid, my dad was a singer soul machine repairman. And so we always had 5678 910 soul machines in our kitchen at all times my dad was working on. And one day my dad opened up the wooden cabinet. And man here they came. Oh, I'm telling you. I mean, it looked like... It looked like an avalanche of roaches coming out of that sewing machine cabinet. They were everywhere. My mom saw that and said, Oh, scared her to death. I mean, she was pet. I was petrified. We were all petrified. And we're all jumping up on the couch. Oh, this is gross. And they're all over the kitchen. And they're climbing into cabinets. And oh, it was a nightmare. It was not me. Now you got to know my dad. My dad was one of these guys that was he wouldn't he would pinch a penny so tight Abraham Lincoln screen. I mean, my dad was a penny pincher. And so he tried to fix the problem with little cans of raid. Okay, I want to tell you something, if you got a roach problem in your house, cans of raid is not gonna take care of the problem. Okay. And so it didn't work. And so this went on for probably close to a year. My dad got that little blue powder you put all over the place. He tried everything. So finally he called Exterminator and that fixed the problem. But we got roaches in our house. And I got to tell you, it was just horrible. It was just horrible. I can't stand roaches. Anybody here from Florida? All right, palmetto bugs. Okay, I know they're not the same as roaches. They're not as dirty as roaches, but they look just like roaches times 100. Okay, I lived in Florida for just a short amount of time. And one night I had I was literally laying in bed. I just fall asleep in one boom. I'm serious. I jumped to Georgia. Oh, Oh, that was horrible. I mean, that was like the worst experience of my life. I'm still not over that. Okay, I'm still not over that. But let's just say that this whole floor is covered in roaches, just covered. I mean, from this side to that side to the backside, you don't see one speck of carpet anywhere. It is roaches, they're crawling on top of each other. It might even be a few inches deep, roaches everywhere. They're starting to crawl up the walls. Okay, you're gonna never see this chapel the same way again. And let's just say, that somehow you and I are enabled to understand roach language. So we can hear them talk, okay? And let's just say that we're kind of like, you know, down on one knee and we're listening to what the roaches have to say down there, you know? And I hear this roach over here say, I made straight A's last semester. I think I might be the smartest person in Roach College. Roach Baptist College, RBC. I think, okay, a straight A Roach is a Roach. I don't care who the dumbest Roach on the floor is. I don't care who the smartest Roach on the floor is. A Roach is a Roach, okay? I walk over here, and I'm listening to these roaches talk, and there's a little roach over here, and I can see her. She's got her little mirror out, looking in her little roach mirror, saying, ooh, my hair looks good today. And I'm thinking, you don't even have any hair. You're a roach. You're a roach. The prettiest roach is no better than the ugliest roach. I go back over here, my home church asked me to preach on a Sunday morning. I think Dr. Beal's been telling them how good I am. Heard me in homiletics class, they know I can shuck the corner. They know I got it going on. I'm the next Billy Sunday, D.L. Moody, John the Baptist, all wrapped up in one little roach. I'm thinking, buddy, there ain't one other roach in this room impressed with your preaching ability. I hear this roach back down the aisle way there saying, how great thou art. Oh, I got the pipes. No, I can sing. Oh, any day now they're gonna ask me to sing in chapel. I just know because I'm the best singer at RBC. This is awesome. Oh, I'm good. Oh, I'm so good. You're a roach! You're a roach! Listen. He said, Pastor, are you trying to call us roaches? Yes! That's the point! He said, well, you're not very... No, listen. I may not be very... I'm realistic. Okay? Because it's kind of like this. Here is humanity. Here are roaches. Okay? Here is Jesus. And where Jesus is, to condescend down to us is not that much different than condescending down to roaches. And the distance between me and a roach is much shorter than the distance from me to Jesus. So guys, you're not that handsome. Girls, you're not that gorgeous. Guys. Okay. Maybe you. I told somebody the other day, I said, winning our Cowboys Redskins winning our division is kind of like winning Miss West Virginia. Yeah. Sorry, West Virginia. I'm just picking on you. Half my church lives in West Virginia. It's all good. But okay, say you're the best. Guys. We've got to have a more realistic picture of ourselves. God called you to preach not because you're good, not because you're gifted, not because you're awesome, not because he needed you. God called you to preach just because he just wants your mouth. But you've got to get off your high horse and you've got to quit seeing yourself as God's gift to whoever. He must increase. I can tell you right now, he will never increase through you. until you decrease. And to the degree that you decrease, it is to that degree you can increase it. Amen, let's bow our heads in prayer. Lord, I am thankful for the opportunity to preach. And God, I pray you will help me to live these words. There is not a person in this room, not a person in this room who has mastered this. I certainly know I have not. Please, dear Lord, help us to not be self-promoters.