LUKE 14:7-14 CHOOSE HUMILITY2013 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 14:7-14 Choose Humility

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2013. I would like to start this morning just making sure that you know how wonderful I am. I want to make sure that you know how awesome it is to have a pastor like me. I want to make sure that you understand how great it is that you get to be part of my life.

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I want to make sure that you recognize the privilege that you have to be around me. And I know maybe some of you might not know me that well. So you might be thinking I'm a little bit nuts saying those kinds of things. But you know I have people all the time. One person in particular who tells me you are the best pastor. My favorite pastor in the whole wide world. And there's many testimonies like that. I could name one after another after another.

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And it's dangerous because I know, you know, I'm so awesome, it's hard to be humble. And so I pray, Lord, you know how hard it is for me to be humble when I'm this good looking. God, you know how hard it is to be humble when I understand your words so well. God, you know how, please help me to be humble, God, because I'm so awesome. Is that a little bit offensive to you? Any feathers kind of ruffled a little bit? I mean...

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I heard a pastor recently say, we have to stop looking in the mirror and singing, how great thou art. You ever do that? You're looking in the mirror, how great thou art, you know. I don't know how the song goes. Ronnie could tell you afterwards. But there's an issue. And it's an issue that Jesus is addressing today. And so the title of the message is, choose humility. Choose humility.

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This morning, we need to choose humility. And my favorite way to understand, I think what best captures the idea of humility is the definition that humility is an accurate view of yourself. Humility is an accurate view of yourself. Humility is not pretending like you don't think that you are great. Right?

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You see, there's an issue. I mean, I'm saying these things and you're kind of like, whoa, by the way, the person who says I'm the favorite pastor in the whole wide world, that's my dad. He might be a little bit biased, right? And I don't usually say things like I'm awesome and great, but I say them a lot less than I actually think them, just so you know, okay? I may not say it, but there's a lot of times where I think, you know, I am pretty amazing, right?

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Now, humility is not then pretending like I don't think that I'm amazing. That's not humility. Like, I think I'm awesome, but I'll pretend like I'm not awesome just because I know I'm not supposed to think that I'm awesome. That's not real humility. Also, sometimes we get mixed up. Humility is not saying bad things about myself. Well, I'm a dummy and I'm worthless, so now I'm humble. No, no, that's not humility either.

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No, humility is an accurate view of yourself. You see, we can have an over-inflated sense of who we are and view of ourselves where we think, man, I'm awesome. I'm God's gift to mankind. But then we can also have the under-inflated view of ourselves where we say, I'm nothing. I'm worthless. Not even God wants me. And we need to come back to the middle, to the balance which

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Is in line with God's word and what he says. Because God looks at you. And he has a specific perspective. And a specific understanding of who you are. And you are special to God. And so thinking that you are worthless is not accurate. That's not humility. But then also thinking that you're the greatest.

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That's not accurate either. You need to come back to the balance of the word of God and have an accurate view of yourself. And that's what humility is really all about.

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And that's the issue that Jesus is addressing here in this passage. We're talking about humility and specifically choosing humility. Well, there's three points I'd like to highlight for you from the text as we look at what Jesus says. The first point is found in verses 7 through 9. And that is that exalting myself brings shame. Here's what we need to know about choosing humility. When I exalt myself,

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I bring shame to myself. We begin now in verse 7 and Jesus, well remember he's at a dinner party. We started that last week. He's at a dinner party. Everybody's gathered together. Now they're getting seated for the meal. And verse 7 says, so he told the parable to those who were invited when he noted how they chose the best places saying to them, and we'll go on to look at what he says in just a moment.

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But what prompts all of this is Jesus is watching the people as they're taking their seats. And it says that he noted, he paid attention, he saw that people were choosing the best seats for themselves. And so this parable he's about to share, this lesson he's about to give, is prompted by him watching the people.

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I wonder what parables Jesus would tell if he was watching your life or watching my life. Do you ever wonder what parables he would tell by watching us? Well, here's my suggestion to you this morning. He is watching us. And that's why he has us here in this passage. And so that's why he's telling us this morning this parable. Because he's been watching us.

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And he knows what's going on in our hearts. He knows the issues of humility and pride that are there. And so, well, he's telling us this parable because he's been watching us and he needs us to understand the truth about humility to encourage us to choose it. Jesus noted how they chose the best places for themselves. Now, in their culture, they would understand that

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Well, whenever there was a feast, whenever there was a big gathering, there would be certain seats that were...

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Well, they were the seats that were for the most honored or the honorable people amongst the guests. And it wouldn't just be there was one seat for the honorable person, but they understood there was a sequence. All right, this seat is for the most honorable. That seat is for the next most honorable. Then this seat over here is for the next, next most honorable. And there would be kind of this order that went on so that there would be all of these

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positions of honor, positions of high esteem where you could sit there and people would know, oh, that's a really important person. The seating was not assigned at this dinner feast. And so they had the option to choose where they were going to sit. And so they walked in to the dinner room and there's all these seats available. They said, all right, I can pick that seat. I can pick that seat. I can pick that seat. I'm

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The best seat, the seat that signifies great importance. They're choosing the best for themselves, exalting themselves or promoting themselves. The fact that they chose their seat is very important because the word to choose it means, well, that there's preference, that there's many options, but they're selecting one.

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It's not that they, you know, just sat down at the last seat that was available. It's not that they were asked to sit in those particular seats. There was not assigned seating. All of those would be different scenarios altogether. No, this is a situation where there's good seats available, there's bad seats available in their perspective. And so they're choosing the best seats where they would be...

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Well, considered honorable or esteemed highly by the rest of the guests. And so among the options that they had, they chose the best places.

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It used to be, I don't know that it exists really for us anyways in Southern California culture. It used to be though that the head of the table for us was something that was highly esteemed. You know, kind of thinking back more to my childhood, you know, a lot of times today tables are round and there's not the head of that table. Or even if there is, you know, the family's on the couch, so the head of the table doesn't matter. But remember the

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old days right there would be the long longer table and the head of the table that was for dad

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Well, that was for grandpa or mom or grandma. And those would be special places. And that was dad's chair. And nobody else would be sitting in that chair because that was the head of the table. And it's that kind of idea. Or maybe you could liken it to seating at a wedding. If you walk into a wedding ceremony, you know that there's, well, there's certain seats that are

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generally accepted to be the seats of honor and reserved for specific people. And so you know the bride's family is going to be in a particular place. The mom of the bride is going to be in a particular place. The groom of the bride is going to be in a particular place. Now if you walk in as a guest at the wedding and you sit down and

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in the place of the bride's mother or the groom's mother, there's going to be some issues. Because you recognize and everybody knows that's where they are supposed to sit. It's a seat of honor for the family of the wedding party. Or maybe after the ceremony, you know, you go to the reception and there's the table that's set apart for the wedding party.

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And you as a guest don't just walk in and sit down at the table for the wedding party because, well, that's reserved for them, for that special place of honor. And so those are kind of some ideas of, you know, customs in our day that would maybe relate a little bit to what they were understanding at this feast as there were these chairs, these seats that were, well, they were understood to be the places of honor. And that's the places that the people were picking.

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Now those are some kind of once in a while examples, but Jesus really is dealing with the heart of an issue. It's really about the heart. It's not about, you know, once in a while when you go to a special occasion that you need to think about this. But I think this is something that we're going to be wrestling with every day. And maybe you could relate it to, you know, your conversations, right?

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You can start to recognize that I'm exalting myself when I'm not listening to what you're saying because I'm really eager to tell you what I want to say. You ever do that? Of course not. No, it's only me, right?

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We start exalting ourselves because we think what I have to say is more important. And so I'm thinking about what I'm going to say and not listen to what you're going to say. Or I'm going to interrupt you because what you're saying is not that important and you're not that important. So I'm going to tell you what I have to say because I'm more important and what I have to say is more important. And we start to have this inflated view of ourselves so that we have to interrupt, we have to speak over, or we have to speak instead of somebody else. Okay?

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That's one example. Maybe you could also consider your parking spot. Did you consider about your parking spot as you pulled into church this morning? Is that spot the best spot or is it a little bit of a lower spot? What kind of parking spot did you get today? Or when you hit the parking lots at Christmas, you know, it can be kind of crazy.

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When you get that coveted, you know, close to the store spot. There's not many fights over, you know, the end of the parking lot spots. There's lots of fights though and yelling and sometimes a little scraping of metal, you know, over the spots that are close to the front. Now why do we pick those spots that are close to the front?

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Well, there's lots of reasons, but I would ask you to examine. What is your motivation? Is it because you think, well, hey, I'm important. I'm busy. I deserve this spot. So I'm going to take it. Or is it another reason? What's going on in your heart? Why are you picking that parking spot and making somebody else park at the back of the lot? Why don't you park at the back of the lot? Now, I'm not saying it's sinful to park in front of the store.

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But I am saying we need to check our hearts. Because this issue of humility and self-exaltation that Jesus is addressing plays out in a lot of ways in our lives. When I was young, I think most people could relate to this. You know, when you're young and you're going to be going somewhere, you know, the kids all work hard to be the first to say, shotgun, because you want that place of honor, right? Right, shotgun. Right.

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We have that idea that I need to have the place of honor. Maybe at work, you know, you get your choice of which cubicle or which desk to use or whatever it might be. And what's your process? What are you thinking about as you select that? Jesus here is watching people select amongst many options and he's saying there's an issue here. And maybe he's watching your life and he's saying there's an issue here. The process that you're going through here, what you're thinking about, well, it indicates something.

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There's an issue of exaltation of your own self. And so Jesus is noting the seats that they're picking. And now he says the parable in verse 8. He says, So Jesus now says,

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addresses the people. I love the boldness of Jesus here. Can you imagine? He's at a dinner party. It's the ruler of the Pharisees is putting this on. There's a lot of important people there. They're all scrambling to grab the best seats and Jesus says, you know, ding, ding, ding, ding. Can I have everybody's attention please? I have something to share. When you go to a wedding feast and now he begins to just directly address all the guests there at the feast. Great boldness with this correction he's about to bring.

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He says, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him. Here these guys are scrambling to find the best spot, and Jesus says, don't pick the best spot, because, well, perhaps there's someone who is more important than you are. I know that's hard for us to comprehend, right? We're like, I don't think there is anybody more important than I am. I'm pretty confident the universe revolves around me, doesn't it? I think so, and you probably do too. I mean, we get...

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Well, pretty full of ourselves many times. And Jesus reminds these guys, he says, look, maybe someone that is more honorable than you that has been invited. And when you sit in the best spot, you're declaring, I'm the most honorable. I deserve this spot. This belongs to me because I'm the most important person. I am an honorable person. I deserve honor. And so this spot is, well, it belongs to me. It's mine.

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And there's this exaltation of self that is going on. That is an issue. It's the issue that Jesus is addressing. So when you sit in that best spot, you declare, I'm the most important person. But then Jesus says, but what if the host invited someone else who's more honorable? And then in verse 9, and he who invited you and him, the other honorable person,

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And he comes to you and says to you, give place to this man. And then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. So here's the problem. If you're scrambling to take the best spot because you think you deserve it, because you want that honor, you think you have that honor, but then there's someone more honorable than you. The host says, dude, you stole his chair. I need you to get up and surrender your chair to this man. This is his rightful place.

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And Jesus says in the end, you begin with shame to take the lowest place. Why do you have to take the lowest place at that point? Well, because the rest of the seats are already filled. At first, he had their selection. You get to choose which chair do you want to sit in. All right, I choose the best. But then as people are filling in, all the seats are taken except for the lowest one.

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And the guest that's more honorable than you doesn't have a spot. And the host says, I'm sorry, you got to take that one because this belongs to him. This is their spot. And so you begin with shame, Jesus says, to take the lowest place. Because now everybody's seated. And they see the host come to you with this other guy and say, excuse me, sir, you're in the wrong chair. You ever have that happen like at a theater, right? You're like looking at your tickets like, am I in the right chair? I'm in the right chair.

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You're in the wrong chair. The only ones available is back there. And you, with shame, everybody's... You ever do that at dinner? You see the shame, like everybody's watching. With shame, walking to that lowest place. The point Jesus is making here is when you exalt yourself, when I exalt myself, and bring shame, the result will be shame. Now, exaltation is not necessarily wrong.

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In Psalm chapter 75, verse 6 and 7, the psalmist says, Exaltation comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is the judge. He puts down one and exalts another. So the scripture is clear. There is exaltation. It is appropriate. It's okay. It's not necessarily wrong, but how it happens matters greatly. The psalmist says, God is the judge. Now if I exalt myself...

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I'm taking the reins away from God. And I'm saying, God, you don't get to judge. I'm the judge. And I've decided I'm worthy. And so I exalt myself. But the psalmist says, no, God is the judge. He's the one who puts down and exalts another. Think about it in the life of Joseph. Back in the book of Genesis, how did Joseph get his position? He was second in command over the world empire, the nation of Egypt.

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Quite an amazing position. Lots of power. How did he get there? Well, he walked into Pharaoh's office one day and he said, Pharaoh, you got to know how amazing I am. I'm an incredible administrator and I've got the plan that will save Egypt and I can do this. And so Pharaoh said, okay, I'm appointing you second in charge. Is that how it happened? No, that's not how it happened. How did it happen? Well, first of all, Joseph, hated by his brothers, is sold by his brothers into slavery. He serves as a slave for a while.

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Then he's falsely accused and thrown into prison. He's in prison for a while. And then God miraculously sets him before Pharaoh to interpret a dream. Pharaoh recognizes the work of God in Joseph. And he says, you're in charge, Joseph. God put Joseph in that place. Joseph did not put Joseph in that place. Now, we look at the example of Joseph and we think, well, I want the position. I don't want to take that path.

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slavery, false accusation, prison. I don't like that so much. I'll just take the exaltation. Thank you very much. And so we promote ourselves. We exalt ourselves. But it matters how it's done. God is the judge. And so exaltation is fine when it's the Lord who is giving that exaltation, when it's the Lord who is lifting up and not myself. And something I need to check my heart in and something you need to check your heart in.

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And again, it manifests itself in a lot of ways. It's not just how we behave at a wedding, but how do we behave in our conversations? Or maybe you could just ask yourself the question, do I think that I'm more important than other people? It's a good question to ask. It's a question we need to ask. Do I think that I am more important than other people? Because exaltation, when it's my own doing, it will bring shame.

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Now like many things in the kingdom of God, in God's economy, I may not see an immediate result of shame. Like in the example Jesus is saying, you know, there's an immediate result. You sit there, then a few moments later you have to stand up and walk in shame back to the seat. We may not see that all the time immediately in our lives. But we can trust the word of God to know that, well as the word says, what I reap is what I sow.

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And what I sow is what I reap. And so if I'm exalting myself, I'm guaranteed to bring shame to myself. And we'll see that again in verse 11. So the first point this morning is that exalting myself brings shame. But now as we go on, as Jesus continues the instruction here, we see point number two in verses 10 and 11. And that is humbling myself brings glory.

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It's the opposite. If I exalt myself, I bring shame to myself. But if I humble myself, well, the result is glory. Check out verse 10. Jesus goes on to say, but when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, go up higher. Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.

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So Jesus says, instead of scrambling to get the best spot, here's what I say. Go to a low spot. Go to a spot that's not highly coveted. Go to a spot that's not highly sought after. Go down and sit in the lowest place, he says. Don't pick the best spot for yourself. Pick a low spot.

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Now this was a teaching that the people were familiar with. This wasn't the first time they'd ever heard this concept. Because in the book of Proverbs, chapter 25, verse 6 and 7, there we read, Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, for it is better that he say to you, Come up here, than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince whom your eyes have seen. So this is not an original thought. I mean, this was delivered back in Proverbs, verse

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Put yourself not in a higher spot, put yourself in a lower spot because it's better that you be lifted up in front of everybody than put down in front of everybody. And this was a common teaching as well amongst the rabbis in Jesus' day. One rabbi said specifically, go two or three seats lower than the place that you think belongs to you. So here you have your selection of seats. Here's the one that I think I deserve. He says, go a couple seats lower than that.

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And then to go on to explain, if the host then brings you up, then you'll have honor and that way you will not be put to shame in front of everybody. So this was something they were familiar with. But here's the point. Jesus is telling this parable because they were familiar with the teaching, but they weren't practicing it. It's an issue. We face it too. We're familiar with the teaching. We know what the word says. We know what God wants, but we're not practicing it.

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This is a check we always have to make. Again, go back to, do I think I am more important than other people? I know what the Bible says about it, but am I practicing it? Humble yourself instead of exalting yourself. And the result will be, Jesus goes on to say, then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.

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So you see the contrast. On the one hand, if you pick the best spot and then there's someone more honorable than you, the host comes and says, I'm sorry, that seat belongs to someone else. And you have to walk in shame in front of everybody. They're watching you, snickering and laughing and pointing while you go down to the lowest seat. But if you pick the lowest seat and then the host comes to you and says, I don't know why you're sitting here.

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there's a much better spot that we've reserved for you come on up and then you get up and everybody's watching you this time going oh that guy's really important to the host i mean there must be something special about him wow that's i didn't know he was so important i was sitting next to someone important you know that they didn't even realize it and you see the difference the contrast between these two spots and picking the best spot or the lowest spot now

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Be careful of your heartedness. Because you might start to think, alright, yeah, this is a pretty sneaky way to get what I want. Yeah, I want the glory, so alright, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pick the lowest spot. You think that's what Richard Guillen was thinking this morning? He came in and sat in the back. I'm going to pick the lowest spot because I know Jerry will honor me. And he'll bring me to the front in front of everybody. No, I don't think that's what he was thinking. But we can start to think that way. We're pretty manipulative. We're pretty deceptive.

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That's not what Jesus is saying. Here's a sneaky way to get what you want. Listen, if you want to get the glory that bad, there's something wrong in your heart. And you've got to deal with that. But Jesus also is not saying that it's wrong to receive glory. So we've got to find that balance in our hearts and check our hearts. I mean, think about that. Is it wrong to receive glory? I think generally as Christians, we'd probably say yes, it's wrong to receive glory. But is it wrong? Is that what the Bible says? Yes.

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The word glory, it means appearance, reputation, honor, or renown. It's the idea of recognition that belongs to a person. And so if I word it slightly differently, we'll probably be a little bit more acceptable of it. Is it wrong to be honored? We usually associate the word glory with God and the worship of God. And so rightly so, it's wrong to receive God's glory or to try to take God's glory.

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But is it wrong to be honored? Is it wrong to be honored in the presence of the guests at a wedding feast? Is it wrong to be honored in front of people or by people? Is it wrong? Now, it is wrong to receive glory that does not belong to you. And that's the issue with trying to steal God's glory because you're taking credit for His work. And we can't do that. Like Paul says, if you've received everything from the Lord, then why do you boast as if you had not received it?

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Look what I've accomplished. I've accomplished this on my own, you know, because I'm so gifted and I'm so amazing. Well, yeah, you have some issues there. You're taking the glory, trying to anyways, from God, trying to take the credit for what God has done. So that's wrong. That's incorrect. But is it wrong to receive honor? Again, the word humility, well, it's an accurate view of yourself. And this is about receiving the recognition or the honor of

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That belongs to a person. There is a rightful place. There's a right way to do this. We can't just write it off completely. We can always go from one extreme to the other extreme. And we often do that. There's a right way to honor people or to receive honor.

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He says, then you will have glory in the presence of those who sat at the table with you. It's not wrong to be honored or to be given a place of honor, but we have to be careful that place of honor doesn't become our God and we have to be careful that we don't put ourselves there. That exaltation of ourselves. So it's not necessarily wrong, but how we obtain it is very important. And the way that we obtain honor is

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is backwards in God's economy. The way that God works is not like, you won't find this example really in the world or in the workplace. It's pretty rare unless it's someone who knows the word of God. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus is addressing his disciples because you know they had this issue. They kept coming back to, who's the greatest of us? Which one of us is the best? Which one of us is the greatest? Which one of us is the most honorable or the most amazing?

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Jesus, which one of us is going to sit on your right hand, on your left hand when you come into your kingdom? Which one of us is it? Which one of us is most honorable? And Jesus in addressing this issue in Mark chapter 10 says, look, the lords of the Gentiles lord over people and they exalt themselves and they promote themselves and they announce themselves and they make a big deal about all the authority that they have. He says, but that's not for you to do.

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That's the way the world works. That's not the way that you are to be. He says in verse 43 of Mark 10, whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. So Jesus says the way to accomplish this is backwards. Not by announcing and promoting and exalting yourself, but by serving, by being the slave of all, by humbling yourself.

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And he goes on to say, even the son of man, that's a reference to himself. He says, I didn't come to be served. He didn't show up and say, all right, everybody do my bidding. No, he says, I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. I'm the example for you. But notice what Jesus says. Whoever desires to become great, he doesn't rebuke them for the desire to become great. He just tells them how to get there.

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I think that's something we get confused about as believers many times. We start thinking like, oh, you're not supposed to be motivated by, you know, rewards in eternity. You know, because that's carnal. That's false motivation. No, Paul says, look, we're striving to have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. It's okay that you desire to be great. If you have that desire, that's not necessarily wrong. It just depends on how you handle that. If you handle your desire to be great by...

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All right, everybody. I want you to know how awesome I am. You can relax now because I'm here. Imagine my garage door going up. That reveal, you know. Here I am. You can rest. Hey, if we're exalting ourselves, that's not the right way to become great. Exalting myself brings shame. But if you desire to be great,

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And that's not necessarily wrong. If you desire to be great, Jesus says, here's how to do it. Be a servant of all. Be a servant of all. And here's what happens. When you choose humility, you place the control back in God's hands. So if you choose that lower seat, but you really desire to be great, well, a couple things might happen here. If you're choosing that place of humility, humility,

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But then the host doesn't come to you and say, hey, we have a better spot for you. You're going to have a miserable dinner, right? Because you're going to be like, they didn't notice how important I am. And they didn't lift me up from this low spot. And man, these guys, and you'll be angry and bitter. Because your heart's in the wrong place. But if you choose that place of humility, saying, God, I have an issue with really understanding how great I am. I think I'm pretty great. So I'm going to choose this place and I'm going to leave it in your hands, right?

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And Lord, if you want to lift me up, then you can lift me up. But, you know, if you're not lifted up, well, then it's been revealed how important you really are. It's correction. I think I'm great, so I'm going to sit here, but I'm angry because they didn't lift me up. Well, because you're not as important as you think you are. But if I take that lower spot, I put it back in God's hands and say, God, you do what you want to do. If you want to give me the promotion, it's in your hands. I'm not going to exalt myself

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I'm going to leave it to you. Verse 11. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. Now here's the principle Jesus is seeking to teach. He's telling this example, this illustration of the wedding feast to teach this principle. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And whoever humbles himself will be exalted. The word humble means to make low. The word exalt means to lift up high. So.

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Whoever lifts himself up high will be brought low. Whoever puts himself low will be lifted up. That's what Jesus is saying. That's the law. That's the spiritual principle. This is the way that God works. He doesn't work another way. If you exalt yourself, he will bring you down. It will bring shame. But if you humble yourself, he will lift you up. Now here's the question we have to ask in this is, well, how then do I humble myself?

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Because sometimes we get mixed up. And so you see believers walk around saying, I'm a nobody. I'm a loser. I'm terrible. I don't have no gifts. But I'm really humble. Now that's not humility. Again, it's that accurate view of yourself. Not thinking less of yourself than what God says, but then not thinking more of yourself than what God says. It's that balance of accurately understanding who you are and who God has created you to be.

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Now we have to recognize, Lord, I kind of think I'm awesome. Humility then is not pretending like I don't think I'm awesome. I think I'm awesome, but oh, I'm terrible, is what we tell everybody else. Oh, I'm such a loser. I don't know if I'm gifted at all. Inwardly we're thinking, man, I could do a way better job teaching this passage than that guy. Pretending is not humility. That's hypocrisy. So it's not humility.

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on ourselves or bagging on ourselves. I don't know what the new hip words are for that, but you know what I mean. You know, it's not dissing yourself, whatever it might be. I better get off that track. So, and it's not pretending like you don't think that you're awesome. How do you humble yourself then? What do you actually do? Here's what I suggest. Humble yourself by putting others first. You see, we're so consumed with ourselves that we think humbling ourselves is all about us.

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But humbling yourself really is not about you. It's about putting others first. Esteeming them. Giving them the honor. Giving them the opportunity. Giving them the spot. Letting them go first. We sang the song just a few moments ago. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord. One of those great classic songs. It takes me back to my childhood.

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Because we just used to always sing that song in church. And I love it. You know, it kind of reminds me of the old school days. There was these worship leaders with deep voices. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord. You know, I can't do it because I've got a Mickey Mouse voice. But there's this like deep rumble, like humble. And it was like, oh, it's an awesome song. As I was growing up and hearing that song, I would often think,

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What does that really mean? How do I humble myself in the sight of the Lord? Do I beat myself down and, man, God, I'm such a loser. I'm so terrible. How do I humble myself in the sight of the Lord? Well, same way as I just said. It's really not about you. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, I suggest, means that you put him first. You don't have to beat yourself down. You lift him up. Put him first.

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Honor Him more than you honor you. Love His thoughts more than you love your own thoughts. Be more excited about His will than your will. Pay attention to His ideas more than your ideas. Lift Him up. Look to Him. Surrender to Him. And that's how you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. And here's the thing. Humbling myself brings glory. So put Him first. Put others first. The ultimate example of this, of course, is Jesus.

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You can see it in Philippians chapter 2. We covered it yesterday, so I'm not going to cover it again today. Man, awesome passage where it describes to us how Jesus, Paul says, have the same mind that Jesus had. He humbled himself. Being God, became man, humbled himself to become obedient to

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Humbled himself to become obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross. I mean, he humbled himself greatly. And so verse 9 says, of Philippians chapter 2, therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. So Jesus humbled himself, therefore God has exalted him. Jesus being God became man, humbled himself, and so the Father has lifted him up, exalted him, and given him the name above every name. You know why? Why?

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Because Jesus humbled himself more than anybody else ever has or ever will. Because he is God with all glory. And he emptied himself. Became a man. Surrendered completely to the point of death. Even a shameful death on the cross. He humbled himself more than anybody ever will or ever could. And because he humbled himself the most, he's exalted to the highest. He has the name above every name.

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Because he humbled himself more than anybody else ever will, ever could. To the extent that you humble yourself is the extent that you'll be lifted up. And to the extent that you exalt yourself is the extent that you will be brought down. If I exalt myself, I bring shame. But if I humble myself like Jesus, it brings glory. He will lift you up. We may not always see the immediate results.

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But we know God's word is true and we will reap what we sow. Well, the final point now is Jesus continues on discussing these issues at this dinner party. We find in verses 12 through 14, giving to people in need brings blessing. Giving to people in need brings blessing. Look at verse 12. Then he also said to him who invited him, when you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, but ask them,

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Again, look at the boldness of Jesus and how direct he is. First of all, he says, ding, ding, ding, ding. All right, guests, listen. I saw how you picked your chairs. There's some exaltation of yourselves in your own heart that's an issue you need to address. But now he looks at the host, the guy putting on the party who invited Jesus there, and he says, all right, here's what you need to do next time you throw a feast.

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He starts giving him some instruction for next time. Listen, he says, don't invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your rich neighbors. Why not? Well, he says that they also would then invite you back and you would be repaid. Jesus here is not saying that you can't have friends over for dinner, but he is saying you need to think about

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How you handle these kinds of things. Because when you invite over your friends, your family, your peers, your rich neighbors, then they are able to repay you. And so you invite them over, you have a good meal. Then next month they invite you over and you have another good meal. You've exchanged favors. And what Jesus is saying then is that you have your reward then. All you got out of it was a couple good meals.

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But if you really want to be blessed, is what Jesus is talking about. What's your motivation? Why are you having this feast in the first place? If you're having this feast to be blessed, well, let me tell you how to really be blessed. Verse 13. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

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So Jesus says, instead of doing it this way, inviting all these people over who can throw you a feast next month and pay you back, instead invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. Now that's not really the company that these kinds of people would normally keep. But again, Jesus is talking about humility. Humble yourself. Invite the people that you think are beneath you. Invite the people that aren't reached out to, that aren't blessed, that aren't able to pay you back.

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He says, you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. Now this, it's one of those things that kind of like locks the gears in our brain. Like, wait, what? Wait a minute. If I come up to you and I say, dude, I need a hundred bucks. I can't pay you back, but can you just give it to me? Just give me a hundred dollars. And then you'll be blessed because I can't pay you back. So, you know, you'll be blessed. And I'll be more blessed if you pay me back the hundred dollars that I give you.

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Or you'll be blessed because you get the $100 and I'm out of $100. So it doesn't make sense to us. But Jesus says, when they can't repay you, then you'll be blessed. The word blessed, by the way, we often refer to it as happy or oh how happy. And that's a good understanding, but it kind of has that temporal idea to it. And so the word blessed really means to be fully satisfied. So if you want to be fully satisfied, the key is not to have a bunch of friends over

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And have dinner together. Because then later on they can have another dinner. Invite you over and you can be paid back. But if you really want to be fully blessed. Fully satisfied. Invite those who cannot pay you back. And then you will be blessed. Why? Well he concludes saying. You shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. You will be blessed. Not because they're able to pay you back. Or not because of something that happens right there in that moment. Or the next month.

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You will be blessed because your reward will be in eternity. Not only that, but your reward will last for eternity. And so the question really is, where do you want your reward? Where do you want your reward? In other words, Jesus is saying, look, a dinner party for your friends is not necessarily a wise investment concerning eternity. Now, maybe there's some other reasons, but just looking at what Jesus is saying here,

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Because if you invite all your friends over, then the repayment for that will be in kind and it will be temporary. But if you have a dinner party for those who cannot pay back, then you will have eternal reward. Now Jesus is just looking at this one example, but the principle is giving to people in need brings blessing. We might not see the blessing at the moment. Well, we definitely don't see the blessing at the moment. But you will be blessed. It's God's promise.

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It will be rewarded at the resurrection. You remember the rich young ruler in Luke chapter 18? We haven't got there yet, but you're probably familiar with the story. He comes to Jesus. He wants to get to heaven. Jesus says, all right, you're pretty close. Here's what you got to do. Sell everything you have. Give to the poor. You'll have treasure in heaven. And then come follow me. And he went away sad because he had lots of great stuff. He didn't want to get rid of it. But Jesus said, look, if you give it away to the poor, then you'll have treasure in heaven.

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Later on he says, store up for yourselves treasure in heaven. There's rewards in eternity. And again, sometimes we think, hey, we're not supposed to work towards rewards. You know, that's carnal. No, no, no. That's not the picture that the Bible paints. The Bible says, no, just be wise with your investments. Invest in eternity instead of the temporary. Give to those in need.

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To be blessed. We talked about this in the faithful and wise steward series. There's a reward for faithfulness. There's a reward for being obedient with the resources that God has given to us. And it's a reward that is received when we meet Jesus. When he returns.

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And so giving to people in need brings blessing. Now if you need some help with that, listen, there's organizations like Compassion or World Vision that do a great job of getting food and blessing people around the world who are in great need.

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There's a group from here that goes to a place called Emeritus here in Corona every month where they minister to, it's an old folks home with people with dementia and Alzheimer's. And so there's ministry that's happening there. And in our minds we think, well, what good is it to go minister to them? They won't even remember 30 minutes from now. Well, it's not just about whether or not they remember. It's about ministering to them and loving on them and the reward is

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That is reserved for you in eternity as a result of that. And there's people all around you who are in need. You can look all around. It's not going to be hard to find someone who's in need. So giving to people in need, whether it be financially, of your energy, of your love, compassion, whatever it might be. It brings blessing. It's a blessing that is given at the resurrection of the just. And so this morning, we are to choose humility. If I exalt myself, I bring shame. I will bring shame to myself. That's a guarantee.

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If I humble myself, it brings glory. That's also a guarantee. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. And if I humble myself to minister to others who are not able to pay me back, then there's also a reward in eternity for reaching out and loving on those who are in need. Let's pray.

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Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the challenge this morning to choose humility. I pray, God, that you would help us to have an accurate view of ourselves. Lord, where we're over off to one side or over off to the other side, help us, Lord, to see that, to recognize that, that we might come back to the balance of what you say about us and who we are in your kingdom. And Lord, I pray as we look to you, that you, Lord, that you would help us to choose humility.

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That we would serve others, that we would minister to others, that we would love others, that we would put others first in the same way that you did. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.