Jesus said, but when you are invited take the lowest place so that when your host comes he will say to your friend move up to a better place. That you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

He who humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 20 reading from verse 25 Jesus called them to him and said You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and those that are great exercise authority over them. But it will not be so among you.

Whoever wants to be great among you let him be your attendant and whoever will be chief among you let him be your servant. What does it take to become famous in this world? There's a couple of key things that you need to apply and it seems to work every time. Just go and have a look at the people that are the big names out there and you'll see some of these characteristics seem to follow all the time.

But what does it take to become famous in the kingdom of God? Mmm something slightly different. And if we want to see exactly the best model of this we need to go to our ultimate model which is the Lord Jesus. Jesus gave us a model.

Now I don't think there's anybody more famous in the world today than the Lord Jesus. The church that he built so long ago is still going and growing though Satan's trying to wipe it out. So let's see what the world considers necessary and what people do to rise up and become known and famous in this world.

And let's see what Jesus gave us as his model and perhaps you may be a bit challenged. Perhaps you may find that you gravitated, you got into the habit of following some of the ways of the world. Perhaps you may be challenged to realize that God's way of doing it is not so easy when everybody around you is doing it differently.

But let's look at what Jesus said concerning the key to being lifted up and exalted in this world. What is the way of the world? The way of the world is the way of self. Self.

Now I've taken a couple of self terms here to try and describe what the world do in order to be lifted up, to become known, to become famous, to become exalted. And the first thing that you'll see in the world is self-orientation. Self-orientation.

People talk about themselves all the time, all the time. As a person rises up you find them talking about themselves. When people are in the public eye, when they're given an opportunity to draw others to them, they tend to talk about themselves.

To try and impress everybody. They always try and paint a good picture of themselves. Always try to make themselves look really good.

You never hear about their bad side. You never hear about their failures. You know the scriptures are so faithful when it tells us the stories of all the heroes of old and the famous people.

It doesn't hide all of their failures. It tells us the truth. But you see when people rise up in this world you don't know about their failures.

In fact the tendency of the world is if you want to rise up above somebody else you go and dig and find the failures of the other person and you pull them down below you. You'll see it in the politicians. Even as they're vying now for their opportunity to rise up and become the president.

Each one is looking for dirty washing in the others to try and tear them down and bring them down. Each one is exalting themselves saying how wonderful they are, what they're going to do for the country. See that's the way of the world.

Talking about yourself. Putting other people down. You know the strange thing is human nature always sees the good in itself.

It's a known fact that some of the most hardened criminals actually think they're pretty good guys. I remember reading once of a guy who was like an axe murderer or something really vicious. And they found a note that he left behind saying that in this chest beats a good heart.

He actually thought he was a pretty good guy at heart. You know they was killing people, you know. It's amazing how quick people are to defend themselves and say how wonderful they are when you can see how ugly they are.

But that's the way of the world. I've always got to paint a good picture about myself. You talk about myself and impress everybody about myself.

There's always a total self orientation in the world. And going with that is self-exaltation. I need to have people see me as bigger than what I am.

And so one of the big things in this world is the need to earn and to use titles. If somebody's managed to go to university and get some degrees and some doctorates you'll see they've got to have their name with the AC, BC, DC, FGH behind their name. All the titles to impress.

They want to use titles like doctor and professor just to impress everybody. Self-exaltation. Oh, this guy must really be clever.

He's a doctor. He studies our heart. What a clever man.

What an intelligent woman must be. This must be that she can have all of these titles. Wow, I'm in awe.

And so I feel below that person because how can I cope? How can I compete with somebody who's got so much? They need to be in control at all times. They need to show that they are the boss. That they are in charge of others.

And so these people will always speak about those that are under them and those that they are controlled. You'll hear them speak about how they have trained up their team and they have done this and they have accomplished that. And oh, what a wonderful leader I am, don't you think? Self-exaltation.

Always the tendency to dominate others and push them down. Jesus said that's what the princes and the Gentiles are like. They exercise domination.

I am the boss here and you are below me and don't you forget it. Makes me look big. Makes me lift it up.

And if anybody dares to challenge or threaten that, there's trouble. You need to get rid of that person. You're making me look bad.

Not under my control. You're not submitting to my authority. The third self is self-promotion.

These people are always bragging about their accomplishments. I want to just tell you of all that I've done and all that I've studied and all the things that I've accomplished. Just look at me.

Ain't I wonderful? Oh, I've been to this place and I've studied that and I've accomplished this and I've earned this much money and I've built this and I've accomplished that. Look at my great accomplishments. Aren't you impressed? Don't you think I'm great? They like to always own the best.

After all, if you see me driving the most expensive fancy car, you're going to be impressed, aren't you? If you see me wearing designer clothes, you're going to be impressed. If I'm wearing the most expensive gold jewelry, you're going to be impressed. See, self-promotion.

They're always looking for the limelight. Always looking for an opportunity to be there. If there's a video camera, they're there.

Always make themselves look good so they can appear good in public. Isn't it amazing? And so, everybody gets this impression. Wow, this person is so awesome.

They have accomplished so many great things. And again, the effect that it has on the average person is, who am I to compete? Who am I to try and be like that? Because I haven't accomplished so many great things. So therefore, immediately, it becomes a sense of inferiority.

As you bow to these great big leaders, get them out of the way. The last self is self-preservation. These people defend their actions, even when they're wrong.

They're continually defending themselves. Continually arguing and justifying themselves. Even when they are accused, and are accused rightfully, they will refuse to acknowledge that condemnation, but they will explain it away and justify the actions.

Because otherwise, they're going to lose this position of exaltation. I'm not going to acknowledge failure. I'm too good for that.

I want you to see how great I am, how perfect I am, what a perfect model I am. So don't you dare come and try and put me down. Don't you dare tell the truth.

Don't let people see me the real way I am. No, I've always got to keep this image, justify myself. Very often, they will avoid confrontation, or fear of being exposed.

When they're challenged to debate, they will avoid the debate. They're always keeping themselves in this place of being untouchable. Where the nearest person below them is so far below them, that they can't possibly challenge their position.

Go and look and you'll see it in this world. These are the big name leaders. These are the people that are revered in the world.

And the way of the world is, these are our leaders, let's follow them. Why is it? Why is it that people always seem to admire somebody who rises up like that? We see some of these movie stars who have become famous through their movies, but their lives are full of sin and failure. But nobody looks at that.

We look at the image on the screen. We look at the great, big, beautiful image and we say, wow, aren't they awesome? The truth of the matter is people want to be where they are. They want to be that.

So they look at these people as an image of what I would like to be. So we admire these people. We look to them as a model and we somehow want to hang around with them to see if we can pick up some of their success.

That's the way of the world. That's the key to self-exaltation. The key to being lifted up and exalted in this world.

The way of the Lord is very different. It's not like that at all. Jesus came and messed it all up for us.

Not fair. It's not fair. Because you see the others being lifted up there and exalting themselves and everybody thinking they're heroes and everybody following them.

And here you are trying to do it God's way and you seem like a failure. What's the first difference? Self-orientation becomes other orientation. You're no longer talking about yourself.

You want to talk about the other person all the time. You're no longer talking about you and your situation and your accomplishments and your needs and your everything. But you stop and let that go and you leave your needs with the Lord.

And you talk about the other person. Actually, it's a key to good relationships. The key to having a good conversation.

Most conversations are like this. This person is going to talk about themselves and this person is going to wait until they finish talking about themselves. As soon as they stop talking about themselves, they'll start talking about themselves.

And this person will wait. And if that person has a chance to talk about themselves, when they finish, they will take over and talk about themselves again. In the end, did anybody even listen? Did you even listen to what the other person said? No, because you were too busy waiting for them to shut up so you could talk about yourself again.

Jesus said no. No. That's not the way.

There must be another orientation. I must care about this person. Instead of just trying to lift myself up all the time and talk about myself all the time.

Instead of trying to paint a good picture of me, why don't I start to look at the other person and see some good in them and try and paint a picture of them? But we don't, do we? We do what the Bible calls strife and vainglory. We want to paint a bad picture of that person to pull them down to make ourselves look good. It's a habit which we've learned from this world.

It's a habit of the flesh and we get into it without even realizing it. Next time you're in the middle of a conversation, just stop and listen to yourself. Who are you talking about? Perhaps the reason people don't want to spend a lot of time with you is because you always just talk about yourself and you're not interested in them.

There are people in the world who've learned this. How to win friends and influence people. The very famous book by Dale Carnegie taught that simple principle of building relationship.

Well, he was kind of, had some Christian influence, Dale Carnegie. Maybe that's why he taught some of that. But the way of this world is lift yourself up, destroy the competition, tear them down, make yourself look good.

That's not Jesus' way. Jesus' way is lift somebody else up and humble yourself instead. The way of the Lord is self-humiliation, not self-exaltation.

We don't need a title to be recognized. I don't have to tell everybody how wonderful I am in order for me to be lifted up and to take a place of leadership. I don't have to always control people in order to be recognized as a leader.

I don't have to always look down on others and put myself above them in order for them to respect me and to look up to me. No, the way of Jesus is self-humiliation, humbling, putting myself down in the lower place. Jesus said when you're invited to a do, you don't go sit in the top place.

Everybody fights for the good seats. Imagine how humbling it's going to be if the host comes and says, hey, could you just move to the back please and let my friend come forward here. But how wonderful it is if he says, oh, you at the back? No, don't sit at the back there, you're far too important.

Hey, come sit here at the front where everybody can see you. What was Jesus saying? He's saying, it's not for you to lift yourself up. It's for me to lift you up.

And when I lift you up, you will be noticed. But if you've already lifted yourself up, the chances are I'm going to humble you. Oh, that's not so easy, is it, when the Lord humbles us.

But he does when you lift other people up and promote them. We need to boast about the accomplishments of others and not our own accomplishments. You know, if we could just look at what everybody else has accomplished.

If we could continue to lift other people up. You see that woman? You see what a wonderful thing she's done? Wow, she is really awesome. We don't do that because then if I did that, everybody would look to her and not to me.

So I've got to keep lifting myself up. Nobody's going to notice me, are they? I'm going to be the little mouse in the corner that nobody ever notices. You've got to hang around with the right crowd, you know.

You've got to hang around with the right crowd if you want to be known. The scripture says, associate with ordinary people. Now we're too lifted up and exalted to mix with the rebel.

Everybody's going to look down on us. Just look at the crowd he hangs around. Wow, look at that.

You know what, she only mixes with the elite. Just look at her circle of friends. We like to do the name dropping.

You know, I'm a very good friend of Apostle so-and-so. You know that big name out there? He and I go way back. That's the way of the world, folks.

Not the way of the Lord. We don't want to be associated with the little loser out there that nobody knows. You know, I'm really a good friend of so-and-so.

Who are they? Never heard of them. Well, they're a very good friend of mine. And you know what, I'm not ashamed to be with them.

You want to go hang around with the big name, please feel free. I don't need that. Because you know what, I hang around with the biggest name in the universe.

His name is God, Jesus. Jesus gave us the model for this, folks. Don't go looking for the limelight.

If necessary, you avoid it. Don't go looking to be out there on show. Yeah, the Lord will put you on show.

I will come when He will lift you up. And He will exalt you, as we'll see shortly. But it's not for you to do that.

It's for Him to do that. It's not for you to defend yourself. It's for Him to do that.

It's not for you to vindicate yourself. It's for Him to do that. And that's the next point.

Avoiding vindication. You don't have to defend yourself. When you are accused, you don't have to now try and get into some way of proving you were right.

Some way of defending yourself. Scripture says, let him rejoice in favor of my vindication. He is the one who vindicates us and lifts us up.

Be ready to admit your failures. Don't try and pretend like you're this person who never made mistakes. You know, preachers love to do this sometimes.

Stand up there and berate the people for all their sins and failures. And it makes me look like I'm so perfect, I've never done this before. Oh, preachers are always preaching against sin.

You know why they're doing that? Because they themselves are full of sin. But they will never admit it up here. I'm the big perfect preacher.

I don't sin. I don't think bad thoughts. You know, I don't even go to the toilet.

Really. People create this impression that they're so super duper. And we say, ooh, great man of God.

Oh, what a woman of God. No, we're ordinary human beings. We have failures and weakness.

And that's why the scripture always allows us to see the failures and the weaknesses of the heroes of the Bible. Don't be afraid to admit your failure. Some of the greatest men and women of God, of the scriptures, were the biggest failures.

David is known as the man after God's own heart. That's a big failure. He committed adultery with Bathsheba.

And it was exposed. He didn't try to defend himself. He cried out to the Lord.

He said, Lord, I alone am responsible for this. Lord, I repent in dust and ashes. I failed.

But it's what made him such a great leader. It's what made him go down in history as the model that the Lord even boasts in. You say, but does that mean then I can let people trample all over me? Does that mean that I've always just got to be a doormat? I've got to be a little nobody? You see, does it mean I have to be an insecure, little, frail, little wimp? No, not at all.

Don't ever confuse insecurity and humility. They're not the same thing. We look at Moses, who was the ultimate model of meekness, according to the scriptures.

When he was confronted, he always fell on his face before the Lord and humbled himself. He didn't stand up and say, hey, who do you think you're talking to? I am Moses, don't you know? And Korah and his crowd stood up against Moses and said, who do you think you are? You know what, we're better educated than you. We're more capable than you.

We could lead the people better than you. Moses didn't have to stand up and say, hey, who do you think you're talking to? I'm Mr. Moses to you. No, he stood humbly, cried out to the Lord.

And the Lord said, Moses, tell the people who want to be with Korah to stand that side, and the people who want to be with you to stand this side, and I'll do the rest. God did his thing. Many times in the life of Moses, God vindicated him.

Even when his own brother and sister turned against him and condemned him for the person he'd married. God called them all to the tent. He said, hey, you, how dare you speak against my servant Moses? How dare you? Miriam was smitten with leprosy.

Well, you know, Moses had the power. He could have said, hey, how dare you talk to me like that? I'm God's leader, I will just punish you and I'll smite you with it. Actually, Moses prayed for her to get healed.

God will vindicate you. You must be confident in who you are in the Lord. That doesn't mean you must be insecure.

You must know who you are. You don't have to be pushed under by the world and grovel to the world. Not by any means.

And when a claim comes, don't be so humble to say, no, I'm not worthy of it. No. If honor comes, God will honor you and he will lift you up.

Take that honor and stand in it and boast in the Lord. Don't be afraid to be lifted up and honored. For he will honor you.

He will vindicate you. He will lift you up. And even when he lifts you up, you don't say, see, I told you.

You still stand in humility and you say, only for the grace of God am I here. God did this, not me. If you have a title and it needs to be used in circumstances, there's nothing wrong with using a title.

There is a time when a title is necessary. In the early days of our ministry, I didn't want to use the title Apostle because everybody else was doing it to exalt themselves. As the Lord said, people out there need to know that you're an apostle because they can't see just by looking at you.

And Paul continually, when he wrote his letters, said, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. But he also announced himself as Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. See, that's the difference.

Paul took the humble servant attitude, but he was still not afraid to say, I'm the servant of Jesus, but I am an apostle. Because he gave me apostleship. And when the limelight comes, when he brings you into the limelight, don't be afraid to step into it.

Don't shrink from it and try and keep hidden away because you're too insecure to stand up there. Because when he puts you in the limelight, he's putting you there that you are noticed, that you can be lifted up so that he can be exalted. Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me.

Well, how is Jesus to be lifted up? He lives now inside of us. And if Jesus is to be lifted up in this world, we must be lifted up in order for Jesus to be lifted up. So he wants you to be lifted up.

He wants you to be in the limelight. He wants you to be in a place of exaltation. So that he can be lifted up.

So that he can be in the limelight. So that he can be exalted. When you come into the limelight, who is being exalted? See, when you step into that place of exaltation and recognition, the first thing you should be saying is, I'm here by his grace.

I can only boast in God for who I am. But I know who I am. I know who I am.

And I stand in that authority and in that confidence, who I am in him. And without him, I would be nothing. But because of him, I am something.

And I'm not afraid to say it. And when people come to accuse you, defend yourself with the word. Defend yourself with the word.

Because if you've stood in him and done what he told you, and you can base your actions on the word of God, then you don't have to justify yourself. You will be justified by the word of God. Because you obeyed the Lord.

And the Lord in his word has already given you justification. So if you can justify your actions by the scriptures, don't be afraid to do so. Don't be afraid to do so.

Because you're actually bringing the Lord as your advocate. Because that's his words. And then wait for your time of vindication.

Sometimes it may feel like it's never going to come. Sometimes it may feel like you've been waiting for years. And all everybody else has been lifting themselves, exalting themselves, boasting about themselves, broadcasting their accomplishments.

And everybody says, wow, aren't they awesome. You, who are you? Never heard of you. You're in the background.

You're a little nobody. You won't stay in the background. You're doing it his way.

I guarantee you cannot stay in the background if Jesus is in you. Because Jesus could not stay in the background. He came from obscurity in a little obscure little town.

When they heard he was from Nazareth, the big name said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? That stupid little city. How can any good come out of there? And something good came out of there. And God lifted that good up and painted it in the sky.

Your time will come. Not if you try and exalt yourself. Not if you try and defend yourself.

Not if you try and vindicate yourself. You're going to lose. You're going to try and take the front seat.

You're going to be sent to the back. David said, I've seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil. But he soon passed away and was no more.

Though I look for him, he could not be found. Don't get discouraged when you see selfish, wicked people flourishing like a green tree. Everybody comes to admire the tree and says, wow, aren't they awesome.

You're there in obscurity. The time will come when you go and look for that green tree and it's gone. It's gone.

Because their time will come to an end. Now to accomplish anything in this world you must be visible. And when you're a leader this comes naturally.

But how does it start? It starts with servanthood. It starts with servanthood. When you are ready to accept humiliation, exaltation, it comes automatically.

In 1 Peter 5 verse 5 it says, yes, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you.

You try and lift yourself up you're going to find the hand of God is going to come down on you and He's going to push you down. And the more you try and exalt yourself and lift yourself up you feel this pressure coming down. And you can blame the people, you can blame everybody in this world and sometimes it's actually God that says, get down! Well, it's unfair.

Why does He keep pushing me down? You know why He keeps pushing you down? Because the elevator that takes you to the top of the skyscraper sits in the basement and He keeps saying get down into the basement! But Lord, I'm trying to climb these stairs and you keep pushing me down. He's saying get down in the basement that's where the entrance to the elevator is. If you want to rise to the top get down to the bottom.

But don't fight the Lord He causes things to go wrong. When you feel His pressure coming on you to humble you it's a temporary situation and the only reason He's doing it is because He wants to lift you to the highest pinnacle. He wants to put you on show so that He can be on show so that He can be visible to this world so that He can draw all man unto Him not unto you.

That, folks, is the key to exaltation. If you're going to do it the way of the world you may be very successful for a while and you're going to be like that wicked man who flourishes like the beautiful green tree but your time of destruction is coming. You cannot last.

You're blown away by the wind. When He lifts you up and He puts you up there there's no force in this world that can topple you from that. When you keep Him up there with you when you keep Him exalted He will exalt you.

Apply these keys and exaltation will come naturally automatically and before you know it you rise up to that place you're visible and you're able to accomplish so much more in the Kingdom of God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you for your Word. I just pray that it'll find a resting place in each heart now. Each person listening to this right now I ask you to bring conviction I ask you to challenge I ask you to bring a sword to cut deep into the motives of hearts and to remove the dross and to remove the tendencies of this world that have been programmed into each one of us and to root it out and to cut it out and put in its place your pure gentle tender love.

Your care your other orientation your humility your meekness without you we cannot accomplish this. So we submit ourselves afresh to you now we ask you to take out every motive that's not of you and to put in us the very heart of our Savior that will think like Jesus that will talk like Him that will act like Him that ultimately will be made into that image and people look at us and they will see Jesus. Thank you for it Lord in Jesus name.

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