My father-n-law is one of those colorful characters who has made numerous appearances in my sermons. On several occasions I have been able to illustrate a point of doctrine by pointing to something he has said or done. Today is another one of those occasions.
In my father-n-law’s house there is a tweed recliner. This recliner has a plushily padded seat, sturdy armrests, and retractable footrest (though I have seldom seen the recliner used without the footrest fully extended). The recliner is ideally located to optimize the viewing of television. Adjacent to the recliner is a window that provides a line of sight into the back yard. This window opens so as to allow the recliner’s occupant the option to yell at any neighborhood children that happen to pass by. Within reach of this recliner is an outlet from which the occupant can keep a laptop perpetually charged. This allows the occupant to keep a vigilant eye on Facebook without sacrificing any television screen time. Finally, opposite the yelling window on the other side of the recliner a table has been placed. This table has been selected for its ability to hold everything the occupant of the recliner might need. There is space for one lamp, three remote controls, a root-beer float, and a bowl of check-mix.
The tweed recliner in my father-n-law’s house is an inviting place to sit. Indeed, it has been the desire of many a guest to my father-n-law’s house to sit in the tweed recliner. The opportunities to do so are rare; the tweed recliner is seldom vacated. On the extraordinary occasion when the tweed recliner is without its occupant, an ignorant guest or daring grandchild might have the audacity to seat themselves there, but inevitably before the squatter is settled in the seat, they find themselves unceremoniously evicted. The ignorant guest is informed, and the daring grandchild rebuked; the tweed recliner is my father-n-law’s seat.
Did anyone else grow up in a house where the seat of honor was permanently reserved for the father? It creates an interesting dynamic in the home. I have learned, when visiting my father-n-law’s house, to choose my seat wisely. When the family gathers in his living room and seats are selected, I have learned to take the third-best seat. I avoid my father-n-law’s seat for obvious reasons, but I also avoid sitting in the second-best seat. You see, only a fool sits in the second-best seat. The reason being, the second-best seat is the wildcard seat. My father-n-law is an inexplicably popular man and one never knows when a guest might happen to stop by. In such a case, the occupant of the second-best seat is promptly evicted in preference to the guest. With all the other seats having been selected, the newly evicted occupant usually finds themselves seated on the floor. When visiting my father-n-law’s house, if you want to avoid sitting on the floor, you need to be careful where you sit.
King Solomon must have known a man like my father-n-law. In Proverbs 25:6-7 king Solomon writes, “6 Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men; 7 it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.” In these verses King Solomon imagines a house where the seat of honor has been permanently reserved for the Father. In this house guests have gathered, and Solomon advises those guests to choose their seats wisely. Now, those of you who are familiar with the Proverbs of Solomon know that while there is a great deal of personal and professional advice given for worldly living, the purpose of Proverbs is to guide the believer in godly living. As such, Solomon uses this illustration of guests choosing a seat to teach the believer a lesson on humility. Today, Solomon advises the believer, know your place; know your place before God and know your place among men.
First, we are advised to know our place before God. In first half of verse 6 Solomon writes, “6 Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence.” In Psalm 145, Solomon’s father, King David, wrote, “I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever.” In Isaiah 6 the prophet writes, “1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.” In Revelation 19 the apostle tells us Jesus wears a robe embroidered with these words, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” The king, in Solomon’s illustration, is God. Solomon advises the believer not to exalt themselves before God.
When I first read Solomon’s warning, I tried to think of ways that we might be tempted to exalt ourselves before God. I couldn’t imagine anyone, besides the damned devil himself, would blatantly try to sit in God’s seat. But it occurred to me that there are subtle ways in which we are tempted to exalt ourselves before God. One subtle way we attempt to exalt ourselves before God is to pretend that our sins are not as bad or as numerous as they really are. Have you ever noticed yourself doing that? Have you ever thought about a sin that you are guilty of and thought to yourself, “well at least I didn’t…” It doesn’t matter what we are guilty of doing it seems we are always able to think of something worse we could have done. Even on the rare occasion when we admit to the seriousness of our sin, we attempt to minimize its impact by telling ourselves it was a one-time mistake that we are sure will never happen again. Until it does happen again and, as we have told ourselves countless times before we tell ourselves once more, it was a one-time mistake that we are sure will never happen again. One way we attempt to exalt ourselves before God is by minimizing our sin.
Another subtle way we try to exalt ourselves before God is to overexaggerate our service. One of the lessons a pastor learns when he transfers from one church to another is what a small impact he actually has on the work of the church. With or without him the work of the church gets done. Turns out, none of us is so essential to the work of the Church that without our service the gates of hell would overcome it. Sometimes I think we forget that. I once had a man with an overexaggerated sense of service threaten to stop giving an offering to the church if I did not do what he wanted me to do. I told him he was confusing his offering with a vote and until he learned what an offering really is maybe he better stop putting money in the plate. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous what impact this would have on the very small budget of our mission church. But do you know what happened when the man stopped giving his offering? Nothing. Nothing happened. The work of the church continued, in fact it prospered. Sadly, the man with an overexaggerated sense of service forgot that our works of service are opportunities to express our gratitude and glorify our God and the man with the overexaggerated sense of service sat on the sidelines as God continued to bless His church. Another way we try to exalt ourselves before God is to overexaggerating our service.
When we attempt to exalt ourselves in God’s presence, we set ourselves up for humiliation. When we stand in God’s presence, we are forced to admit how unexalted we really are. We are forced to see how serious and numerous our sins are, and we are forced to see how much our works of service resemble filthy rags. Indeed, we are forced to confess that we do not deserve to be in the presence of God at all. Rather, we deserve to be cast away from His presence thrown into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Only when we know our place before God, are we exalted. In verse 7 King Solomon writes, “7 it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.” Though king Solomon does not mention it specifically in these two verses, the rest of scripture make it abundantly clear that the only way we can be exalted in the presence of God is through Jesus. Because Jesus has paid for our sins and sanctified our works of service, we have received the King’s invitation. Because of Jesus, our God of grace says to those who humbly know their place, “Come up here”. “Come, take a seat at my table. Come, feast on my forgiveness and savor my salvation. Come, and I will treat you as my own sons and daughters.” Because of Jesus, our seat in the heavenly home has been secured.
After advising us to know our place before God, king Solomon advises us to know our place among men. In the second half of verse 6 king Solomon writes, “do not claim a place among great men”. Our society has forgotten what it means to be great. Many believe in order to be great you have to be loud in speech, obnoxious in your beliefs, and boastful of your abilities. More often than not, our society considers a person to be great because that person told us all how great they were.
Whenever I hear a person talking about how great they are I cannot help but think about the people who serve in our military’s special forces. I have been fortunate to have come into contact with a few of these men and women who have done extraordinary things in the line of duty. And I find it striking that none of them told me how great they were. None of them bragged about their abilities or accomplishments. They didn’t have to; their abilities and accomplishments spoke for themselves, albeit they did not speak loudly, obnoxiously, or boastfully. My general rule of thumb is this, if someone has to tell you how great they are, then they probably aren’t as great as they think they are.
My friends, our society does not need more people claiming to be great. What we need is more people who are willing to sit in the third-best seat. We need people who are willing to place the needs and wants of others ahead of their own needs and wants. We need people who are willing to take a back seat to the employees they oversee, the students they teach, and the children that they raise. We need people who are willing to find ways in which to serve and make sacrifices for others. We need people who have no interest in claiming a place among great men. We need people like you. You who have come to know your place before God, we need you to take your place among men. With your humble service and sacrifice we need you to show others what it really means to be great.
When visiting my father-n-law’s house, if you want to avoid sitting on the floor, you need to be careful where you sit. Or as king Solomon would say, “6 Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men; 7 it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.” Know your place. Know your place before God and know your place among men. Amen.