“Heads or Tails?”

Scripture: “If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.” –Matthew 23:12, The Message

If you ever took time to watch football, whether it’s college, the CFL, the Arena League, or the NFL, each game starts the same. How do they start the same you ask? They start with a coin toss of the two teams. The coin toss determines who gets the ball first and the placement of which way the teams go within the first half. There are two names that can be called during a coin toss, heads or tails. After the preliminaries of the coin toss, we enjoy three to three and a half hours of great action! Within this spiritual game of life, we also have a coin toss of heads or tails in many different arenas. You can call heads and get the best of life from the Head or you can call tails and get the worst of life if you follow the tail that’s the enemy. Today, within Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus allows us to deal with this thought when it comes to being humble. Let’s examine this thing.

As Jesus delivered today’s main scripture, He also dealt with the seven woes in Matthew 23. In the beginning of this text, Jesus says this for the “tails” side of humility according to the Message Bible: “If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you”. If we honestly think about this portion of the text, this applies to us all, everywhere. I think about the movie, “Any Given Sunday” where Jamie Foxx played the backup QB Willie Beamon. Beamon came off the bench for the franchise QB of the Miami Sharks and led them to a victory. After leading the team to the victory, people started swelling Beamon’s head up and in turn, he became full of himself. Through Beamon doing this, he began to alienate his teammates and the next game they played, he was getting drilled every five seconds by the opposing defense. Truly, Beamon got the wind knocked out of him! Brothers and sisters, God loves you so much that He wants you to be great in the things He has for you. On the flip side of that, He does not want you to get the big head, thinking it was you all by yourself. Yes, He has blessed you with a beautiful home, but don’t get the big head! Yes, He has blessed you with a phenomenal spouse, but do not get the big head! Yes, He has blessed you with a nice paying job, but do not get the big head! Yes, He has blessed you to become somebody in the church, but do not get the big head! If you want to have the big head, have one praising God for the things He has done for you and do like 2 Corinthians 4:17 where it says, “if you are going to boast about something, boast about it in the Lord!”

Here’s the heads end of humility from Jesus’ standpoint: “But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty”. Ladies and gentlemen, the New International Version says, “If you will humble yourself, then you will be exalted”. I know this to be true! One of the great lessons I have learned whether I have taught God’s Word, preached God’s Word, did a speech somewhere, gave some remarks, did a good job at the workplace, that Haile Lindsay CANNOT take any glory for it! I have to give that glory and honor to God, the one who gave me the opportunity to do what I do! If you possess that mentality, God will blow your mind and use you in ways like you have never been used! If you humble yourself in God, the house you desire will be yours in due time! If you humble yourself in God, the car you desire will be yours in due time! If you humble yourself in God, the healing you desire for you or a friend will be yours in due time! If you humble yourself in God, then God will give you the desires of your heart! These things ONLY come through maintaining humility!

In closing, when it comes to humility, it’s a coin flip. The truth is you control the coin and how it falls. Do you want tails and get the bad end of life because you are so up in the sky or do you want heads and get the best out of life by staying humble? The choice is yours!