One is your father, he who is in heaven, do not be called leaders. For one is your leader, that is Christ.

But the greatest among you shall be your servant. So surely the spirit here at least is, like in the

Sermon on the Mount, don't do your alms to be seen by men.

Don't fast to be seen by men.

Don't pray to be seen by men.

That doesn't mean don't fast and don't give alms and don't pray.

It means your motive shouldn't be that even when you do those in public, your aim is to get recognized for them.

So this is a warning to the Council of Elders. It's a warning to pastors.

It's a warning of people like me who have a letter after my name, a degree after my name.

And a lot of you do.

To want people to recognize that.

I mean, I'll just show you how far I've taken this.

I have a diploma from Wheaton College, a diploma from Fuller's Seminary,

and a diploma from the University of Munich.

They're all in a drawer.

I've never hung them on any wall in my life. In fact, I have never taken my degree

from Munich out of its tube. It came from Germany in a tube. That's not. I took it out to see that I got it. I put it back in the tube. It's in the bottom file drawer where it's been for the last 25 years.

Now there's nothing to brag about that, and please don't feel guilty if you've got all your diplomas hanging on your wall.

I just, as I read this text, I feel, and of course, you can be a lot humbler than I am.

I mean, there are strategies to get the praise of men, right, besides hanging diplomas on your wall.

So I could be writing books because I love the praise of men, right? So you don't hang your diplomas up,

you just write books and sign them. So don't put me in any kind of saint category here.

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