The most prideful people I have met were the people that were the most unsuccessful: Nehemiah Part 49
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them. Nehemiah 9:1
Fasting is sacrifice. Fasting is OK. It is not much fun, but you learn about yourself. You learn about how fleshly you actually are, just to miss one meal. What do I always say when it comes 12:30? I don’t want anyone missing lunch! I have never one time seen someone miss lunch. They forget Sunday They forget to listen. They forget to obey. they forget to pick up the parking lot. They forget their tithes, but they never forget lunch.
They assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, with dirt on them. They humbled themselves. We need that. That’s why we need the Academy. Actually we need the Academy in it’s pure form, which was basically the first year. That’s where we teach humility, about back talking. We have a society of big mouths, a society of little kids and teenagers and half adults, half grown, who know everything. They read it in some book. They think they think. These people were humble. They humbled themselves.
Do you know what I have found in thirty years of ministry? The most prideful people I have met were the people that were the most unsuccessful. It’s amazing. I have known people to be very successful. Whether it be my father-in-law, whether it be the people in the hotel business I knew, that owned the whole company, the many, many successful people. They were actually humble. And I have seen so many ‘loosers’ and they were most prideful. They were unsuccessful and unteachable. You cannot teach them anything, you cannot correct them, they know everything. They know everything but have done nothing.
It says here to humble ourselves. How do we humble ourselves? There are actually two ways you can measure how humble you are. Not necessarily by fasting, sackcloth, ashes, dirt. Lots of people are dirty but they are not humble. Dirty is easy. Just go and take a bath.
How can we tell if we are humble? You are humble? How much do you obey and how much do you ask? I have found those two things are the hardest things for people to do. I think to obey is easier than asking. Boy, oh boy, is asking difficult. In our modern technology society, when everyone has a cell phone, when it takes all of ten seconds to call someone, we do not ask. We do not check, we do not take that, probably because we don’t have time? It only takes 10 seconds. We don’t have a phone? Everyone’s got a phone. Pride. We don’t obey because we know better. We don’t ask because we know better. Because we don’t want to. Because asking is a form of humility. It is humbling yourself under someone, to ask can we do that, should we do that, should we do this. Obedience and asking. You can ask yourself by that.
