Luke 22:24-39

We're in Luke 22.

Luke 22.

Starting in verse 24.

Starting in verse 24.

Well, I'd first like to be very thankful for being able to read the word of God.

Amen.

A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest.

Jesus said to them, The King of the Gentiles, Lord, it over them.

And those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors.

But you are not to be like that.

Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest.

And the one who rules, like the one who serves.

For who is greater?

The one who is at the table or the one who serves?

Is there not the one who is at the table?

But I am among you as one who serves.

You are those who have stood by me in my trials, and I confer on you a kingdom.

Just as my father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones.

Judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.

But I prayed for you, Simon, that you, that your faith may not fail, but when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

But he replied, Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.

Jesus answered, I tell you, Peter, before the roaster, the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.

Then Jesus asked them, When I sent you without a purse, a bag or sandals, did you lack anything?

Nothing, they answered.

He said to them, But now, if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag.

And if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.

It is written.

And he was numbered with the transgressors.

And I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me, yes, what is written.

About me is reaching its fulfillment.

The disciple said, See, Lord, here are two swords.

That's enough, he replied.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you for your word.

We ask that you would bless us as we study it, that you would speak to us in a powerful way.

God, would you just work in our lives?

You know our story.

You know what we came in the door with.

We would just ask for your touch, your miraculous touch upon our lives.

Bless us.

Bless us now as we study it.

And we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so we are finishing up the book of Luke.

We've been in it.

Yes, you may be seated.

We have been in Luke for over a year.

Over a year, and we're getting close to the cross.

Remember that.

This text is in the shadow of the cross.

Jesus has instituted the Last Supper.

He celebrated Passover with his disciples.

And the things that Albert just read, these things take place after the dinner.

And it's incredible that here, right in this context, we have this dispute over the greatness, who's going to be great in the kingdom.

Amazing that the disciples take this moment and almost defile it, really do defile it with just their humanness.

And then we see Jesus talking about and warning Peter that, look, there's going to be this betrayal that's going to take place.

Satan's going to sift you, wants to sift you like wheat.

And then we see in verse 35 through 38 the preparation for Jesus' arrest.

So there's really three parts to this text that we're looking at this morning.

If you want to look at kind of the parallel passage, you'd look at Matthew 20 and 26 and then Mark 10 and 14.

This whole discussion about greatness is found in Matthew and Mark in an earlier part.

The writers place it earlier.

It seems like, and we've talked about this before, that this there are many things that Jesus said repetitiously.

In fact, this has been a recurring theme, this conflict, which I'll talk about in just a second, over greatness.

But the writers of Matthew and Mark place it earlier in the gospel.

Luke places it in this particular position.

So what I want to do first is I want to talk about this idea of greatness.

Then we're going to spend a little bit of time on a heavenly perspective of trials, which is what Jesus is telling the disciples about, and specifically Peter.

And then we will go on into this whole idea of prep, bring your purse, bring your bag, prepare for the next like couple of hours, which is interesting.

And Jesus draws out the contrast.

He's like, hey, remember I told you don't bring this stuff before.

Now I'm telling you to bring it.

So we're gonna, that's actually significant in our interpretation of scripture as a whole.

So we will we will spend most of our time, though, on this whole idea of greatness.

So the disciples are bickering over who would be recognized as the most prestigious.

They're caring about uh personal fame, glory.

It is a raw, we would say it's a raw, unchecked ambition in their life.

Now, if you go back in Luke to Luke chapter 9, we saw the same question, this this debate over who's gonna be greatest in the kingdom.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

In another place, um James and John's mother, um it would seem, are asking for their sons to be able to sit at the right and the left hand of Jesus in the kingdom.

So let's just kind of try to put ourselves into their into their kind of mental state for just a second.

So they've been following Jesus for three years.

The crowd has been swelling.

Jesus has had, he's gone from town to town and healed um groups of people, one after another.

And again, the this the the his fame has spread abroad, to the point that we'll see when Jesus comes up for trial that the most important leadership in Israel at the day, at this time, both is the Jewish leadership and the Roman government leadership have heard about Jesus and were hoping to meet him.

And so here's this select group that's been following Jesus for 12 years and not only following him, but they've been engaged in the work.

Remember when they're sent out two by two?

They're sent out with the 72 to actually go and do the miracles.

They came back rejoicing.

So at this point in Jesus' ministry, these disciples have already really gotten a sense of um just a taste of being on Jesus' team and the success that came from that.

You know, Jesus was sought after, and these were the twelve that were closest to him.

You can imagine how that would puff their pride.

Puff their pride, right?

It's amazing.

We are a just know this, right?

You and I are wired, we are wired to have our pride stroked.

We are like a deflated balloon that's almost like a vacuum ready to suck in anything that will inflate our pride.

It is incredible what people can be arrogant about and be prideful about.

Right?

I've met guys in the compassion center that are homeless and yet are incredibly arrogant, right?

They have pride in their life.

And here's these disciples kind of just caught up, caught up with their position, really wanting to bicker amongst themselves who is going to be greatest in the kingdom.

This is a perfect picture of the environment that God has called you and me into.

I don't care what field you work in, you have and will continue to interact with individuals who are driven by an ambition for personal glory.

Think back to those of you that are serving in professional or um, yeah, professional fields that are where there's a ladder, right?

Where you're climbing the professional ladder.

And maybe you've gotten to some place that's prestigious or you aspire to that position.

If you have gone through that process, you know what it's like in your career for people to kind of jostle for position.

How does that play out?

Well, sometimes people want to take credit for other people's work, right?

Have you ever been in that scenario where you've done, you've put in the nine, the the nine yards, right?

You've put in all the hard work, and then somebody else wants to put their name, attached to their name, to your hard work.

Other times it's just, hey, I'm not going to CC this person on the email because I don't want them to get wind of the victory that we're about to have.

It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter like how it manifests, it's a it's a it's a starv, it's this craving, a starvation for for recognition, for glory, for for being elevated into a position.

The drive for first place often takes on what we would call Machiavellian undertones.

Can I take a minute and just take it set aside, because many of you are familiar with with this whole idea of like it's a Machiavellian theme.

But do you know who um the where that word comes from?

It just let me give you some history.

There's a man named Niccolò Machiavelli.

Those of you that speak uh Italian would be able to pronounce that a lot better than me.

He was born May 3, 1469, and he was a diplomat for 14 years in uh the Florentine Republic during the Medici family's exile.

When the Medici family returned to power in 1512, Machiavelli was dismissed and briefly jailed.

He then wrote a handbook called The Prince for Politicians on the use of ruthless, self-serving, cunning, inspired.

I guess that's the end of the sentence, cunning.

It inspired the term Mechiavelian and establishing Mechiaveli as the father of modern political theory.

So sometimes you'll see these plot lines in movies.

Um let's start with kind of something that probably we're all exposed to.

Everybody's old enough in this room.

Um you have the Lion King, and you have a Mechiavelian character in that named Scar.

And you remember that Scar kind of has this uh mentality about him where the ends justify the means.

Right?

He's the villain in the story.

He's striving for power, and he's willing to go about and do all of these cunning, terrible things.

Uh a more modern-day example is the character Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, and he kind of takes on this idea by maintaining power at all costs.

Maintaining power at all costs.

Or if you've watched House of Cards, which hopefully you haven't, Frank Underwood, Frank Underwood takes on the character where people are expendable, right?

People are expendable.

I'll use people at their own expense.

All of those are Machiavellian themes that we see in modern day stories.

You've interacted with it in society, we've been entertained by it.

Here's the thing that grieves me is that, you know, like like House of Cards, that the character is less and less a villain and is almost held up as a champion.

Now, Scar in in um The Lion King is clearly the bad guy that you're rooting against.

But if you watch the themes and the narrative like of House of Cards, you know that there's this sense of like where you're you're you're pulled into the drama to almost root for, to root for um the Machiavellian character.

And yet Jesus is trying to draw out this contrast.

Here we are in the context of the Passover, the night before his death, when he institutes the Lord's Supper, and the disciples are arguing about who would be the greatest.

Can you imagine?

Like, hello.

Is there no sense of timing?

Right?

Is there no sense of like, can we just save this debate?

It's it's like being a parent.

Are any of my kids in here?

Okay, so one of my kids are here.

So I have, hi son.

Just a quick, quick story about intramural disputes in the family.

I won't, I won't um embarrass you too much.

But there are times and places for arguments, right?

And in the grocery store is not one of them.

In front of your guests that you're trying to impress is not another one where you're just like, come on, like, are we gonna argue now?

This is not the setting, right?

Unfortunately, these disciples did not grasp the moment.

They didn't grasp the moment.

And so there, Jesus, in the in the text that we ended with last week, if you go back to verses 22 and 23, you see Jesus warning that there's going to be this betrayal, talking about Judas, warning that Judas is going to betray them.

And their debate and their questioning over that leads into this discussion about who's the greatest.

It just blows my mind that these guys like can devolve into that place.

They're just distracted by their own pride.

It's just it's kind of kind of hilarious in a sad way.

When Jesus teaches about greatness, he uses a literary tool of contrast.

He is contrasting the natural man's understanding of greatness and a kingdom view of greatness.

Do you see in your text, either in your bulletin or in um in your um Bible in front of you, there is a word there that we call a flag word for contrast.

Do you see what it is?

Do you see the flag word there?

It's this word but.

It's in verse 26.

But tells us, as a structural law, it tells us that there's a contrast.

So Jesus says to them as he's addressing their bickering over greatness, he says to them, the Gentiles handle leadership in this way, but you should not do it that way, right?

And then he uses this example of the table and who's being served at the table, that the people at the table are greater than the person who's serving.

And then he includes himself in it and he says, but that's not how I've done it.

I've been among you as one who serves.

So he's using this idea of contrast, and he's saying, the Gentiles, he uses the word dominion or they lord over.

Do you see that word there in the text?

They lord over.

This is the word dominion.

The word is also used in Romans chapter 7 to talk about how death has dominion over us.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

How much dominion does death have in your life?

Absolute.

You're going to run from death?

I don't know when it's going to happen, but you're not going to flee from death.

You're not going to cheat death, right?

Death has absolute dominion.

It lords over your life, it lords over my life.

And Jesus says that these Gentile authorities, they lord, they take dominion over people.

He also says that they exercise authority.

This word means that they demand obedience of those that follow them.

And then he says that they consider themselves benefactors.

They take on honorary titles.

I mean, this is like the description of, you know, org charts in our day, right?

We have people that sit at the top, right?

They hold a position of authority.

Whether you're a manager or you're the owner of a company or you're the coach of a team or you're somebody important in your own family, you're like the firstborn, or maybe you are the patriarch of your family.

There's all kinds of pecking orders that exist within society.

And Jesus is saying, the natural man handles authority in this way, but this one I'm flipping on its head.

I'm turning the ladder upside down, and I'm saying the way that I want my disciples to be is I want them to be as if they were young and as if they served.

This week on Friday, when we were picking up food from Trader Joe's, there was a guy, clean looking, sharp, sharp-looking guy, but he was whole had on his belt that little leather pouch that carries the um knife and your pens, and it was fresh.

It was like he had just gotten it that week.

He was brand new at his job.

And his boss was there next to him, helping him kind of type in the um barcodes for the food that was being scanned out of the system to be donated.

And the whole process was taking much longer than normal because he was so new at his job, and it was uncomfortable watching him.

That idea of being new is also could the word young in the text here.

It's the idea of be willing to be that clunky, unnatural newbie at work.

That's where Jesus says, that's where I've called you to be.

That's uncomfortable, right?

I felt uncomfortable for the guy on Friday.

In fact, halfway through, he kind of got pushed to the side.

The boss very gently said, Okay, I'm gonna have you stand over here, I'm gonna take what you're doing, I'm gonna have you just pass stuff to me because we've got to go fast.

I was just like, oh man, how humiliating.

You know, and this guy's like not midlife, he's like late 20s, early 30s, you know, he's got this dig, there's a dignity about him, and yet how undignifying it is to go through that process of learning a new role.

And yet Jesus says, I want you to be like the young, to be a servant.

We've gone through, together as a church, we've gone through Jesus' teaching, and you recall that the last year of Jesus' ministry, he really kind of turns his attention from public preaching, which he continues to do, but he really, the material for us in Luke turned its attention to the disciples, and Jesus is really like pouring into the disciples, and he's calling them to 100% commitment.

And one of the recurring lessons was this whole idea of servanthood and stewardship.

They are paired together.

So back in Luke 12, 42 through 46, we we came across this.

He says, The Lord answered, Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom the master puts in charge of his servants?

To give them their food allowance at the proper time.

It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.

Truly I tell you, when he will put him in charge of all his possessions, but suppose the servant says to himself, My master is taking a long time in coming, and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk.

The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour when he is not aware.

He will cut him to pieces and assign him to a place with the unbelievers.

The material is also Luke 17, 7 through 10.

Jesus taught again about being as a servant, being a good steward.

You see, when Jesus called followers to him, I mean, I when the church started, like so Jesus ascends, and you've got all these people that are disciples, the name they took on themselves was the way.

Like these people are the people of the way, these are the followers of Jesus.

Later on, they were called Christians.

Because what Jesus was doing is he's calling people to us, he's calling us to himself to be followers of him.

And he gives these instructions.

And here's what happens is there's a paradigm shift.

As a follower of Jesus, we're serving him, and so within society we can take on a role as a servant.

We don't have to play the pecking order game.

We can still hold a position of authority and yet serve because of this bigger picture, that this bigger worldview, right?

Our lens has changed.

And we know that we live in the context of a grand story of God.

That we can be a servant, and it doesn't detract from our dignity, right?

We carry, in fact, dignity because of the identity we have in Christ.

We know that we're created in the image of God, then we're rescued by Jesus, we serve Him, and there and He, as our leader, served, came and served amongst us, so we can follow Him into this place of service.

It's this beautiful picture.

Our culture struggles with this imbalance because culturally there's this appreciation for humility.

But at the same time, there's this like, well, if I'm humble, then I'm gonna get walked all over.

I'm gonna lose out on opportunities.

It's just like I can't afford in my career, I can't afford culturally to take on that place of lowliness because I will not succeed, right?

That's the messaging that's coming into our culture.

Like you have to just, and that's why Frank Underwood in House of Cards or these other characters are kind of held up as heroes, is because it's like, well, you've got to get success somewhere.

It might as well be at the expense of others.

Here's this amazing thing is that the disciples, these guys, they don't understand, at this moment, as they're as they're debating amongst themselves who's greatest, they don't understand the way of the cross.

Right?

The way of the cross, not just the event, not just the event that's going to take place in another 12 hours from this very discussion.

They don't understand the concept of the cross.

They're arguing over greatness.

They're confident they won't fail Jesus when he is taken, but they will get it, they will get it as they watch the crucifixion and the resurrection take place.

Their eyes are about to be open.

They don't get it yet, but they will.

The way of the cross, it overlays, it overlays itself as an archetypical or archetypal narrative.

It is what we call it's a motif.

Life, this is the motif.

Life, death, new life.

It's seen in nature when we go and we sow a seed, right?

Jesus uses this example in John.

He says, when you take a seed, you sow it into the ground.

That seed has to die, and from it comes new life.

And we find the that motif all the way throughout nature.

Um, you must die.

Dying is antithetical to living, serving is antithetical to being great.

You see, there's a backwardness to the kingdom of heaven in this regard.

The first shall be last, right?

Die to live, serve to be great, give up all to be wealthy in heaven.

There's a backwardness in following Jesus.

When you come and you say, Okay, Jesus, I want to surrender my life to you, I want to follow you, you need to know that there is an aspect to following Jesus that is backwards and different from this world.

Okay?

At the same time, there is a patternedness about the world that God has created.

There are systems, right?

There's what we call sowing and reaping, right?

This is what kind of blows my mind.

In fact, if I was gonna write a book, I would, this is kind of the subject I'm really interested in right now, is like this whole idea of cause and effect.

That we live in a world where you you um you reap an action, you sow a result.

I know that's not how the saying goes, but it's something like that, right?

You there's cause and effect, there's these systems.

Why?

Why are there systems?

So you read like a self-help book, like, okay, I want to improve um my or I want to have better kids, right?

Where how am I gonna get have better kids?

Well, you do these types of actions, and the outcomes will be this, right?

I want to be wealthy, I want to be wealthy um when I get to be 65, or something like that.

So then you go read Dave Ramsey and he says, Well, get out of debt, invest your money in this way, always save your money, right?

These are the actions, and this is the effect, right?

So there's cause and effect.

Why?

Why is there cause and effect in our world?

Because God created the world to be like that.

Imagine if there was no cause and effect.

That would mean just total randomness, right?

You would do one thing and you'd have different outcomes.

One day gravity would work, the next day it wouldn't work, right?

It just there's no way the world would work without cause and effect and these systems.

And so, people, God allows common wisdom, he allows people that don't know him yet personally to discover these systems, and that's wisdom.

They put it into books, it's called self-help books, and praise God that those books are there, that they exist.

You know, that's why we go to school, we're we're learning about these systems.

But then sometimes the systems don't work.

Sometimes when we're doing life, we put in what we're told is the right action, and the effect doesn't follow.

Eat healthy and you'll have these kind of results.

But then what do you know?

You end up with cancer, you know.

Um do this here, or you know, behave in this way and you'll get promoted.

But then all of a sudden tragedy happens.

So why do why does the world have systems, but then why do sometimes systems fail?

Well, it fails because we live in a sinful world.

I mean, the underlying failure of systems is because of the private of humanity.

When God said, when you eat the fruit, you will surely die.

When death occurred, when that death occurred, there was the death of functioning systems.

Not all systems died, but there was a brokenness that came into the world.

And so God allows for us to encounter the brokenness of cause and effect sometimes because he wants us to live by faith.

Other times he allows us to operate and just operate according to wisdom, like the book of Proverbs, and the system is working.

God allows both to take place.

Then Jesus comes on the scene and he says, Hey, listen, I need to let you know, there's a backwardness to some parts of my kingdom where if you want to live, you need to die.

If you want to be the greatest, you need to serve.

If you want to be wealthy, you need to give up everything for my sake.

Isn't that fascinating?

I I don't even, I'm not even talking with a conclusion.

I'm like just braining out with you on this.

Because it's just it it blows my mind the fact that both are both are operating, right?

That there's systems that work, sometimes systems don't work, and that doesn't mean God failed.

And then Jesus is like, hey, don't follow the system, do my system over here, which happens to be a bit backwards.

How do we apply all this stuff?

How do we apply all this?

Well, you see in the end of the section there, in the end of this section, Jesus says to them in verse 28.

Verse 28, you are those who have stood by me in my trials, and I confer on you a kingdom, just as my father conferred on me.

Do you see that?

You need to take on the position of the newbie, take on the position of being young, as if you're a child, take on the position of a servant, and I'm going to confer on you a kingdom.

But it's not just a kingdom.

He talks about in verse 29 and 30, he says, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes.

You see, the conversation happened too early.

Jesus isn't opposed to greatness.

He's like, you just gotta follow my path.

You just gotta go with me on this one.

You need to embrace the lowly position of a servant so that I can confer on you a kingdom.

That's that's greatness that they're not, that's like crazy, crazy how that works out, right?

So we've got to just, when we look into this text, it should like the Holy Spirit should bear witness in our hearts to embrace servanthood.

This week I had an encounter where um God just kind of like showed me my pride.

He had a I I I was I was in a meeting, and the meeting itself was kind of stroking my pride because it was somebody older than me, more prestigious than me, asking me for advice.

That makes you feel good, right?

You're like, wow, this person wants my advice, right?

And um so so anyway, um, something happened with it with a third party interrupted the meeting, and this person who uh has really no authority in my life kind of rebuked me and um just said basically said some things where it was just kind of like off the wall.

And my pride was stung by it.

I was like, how dare you?

Like, who do you who do you think you are?

Like I'm in this really important meeting right now.

Like, don't you see?

Like, I'm important, I am dignified.

This man is asking my advice, and you dare like challenge me, you know?

I didn't say any of that.

But that's how I felt.

And then I was reading this, and I was realizing, man, man, if I'm a servant, if I'm a servant, then then those kind of words, that challenge, it doesn't hurt.

It doesn't hurt.

It's like, oh yeah, I'm sorry.

Let me let me just let me get lower.

Let me embrace the opportunity to be a servant, right?

God's God's good at like showing us how sinful, at least I am.

I am.

So we want to embrace what Jesus is saying.

We want to say, Lord, take us low, take us low so that um we can so that we can be exalted in due time.

So that we can be exalted in due time.

Last illustration, it reminds me of of rock climbing.

I haven't done a lot of rock climbing, but there's this move that when you want to get up onto an upper ledge, not just you don't just jump up like this to try to get up, but there's actually a pushing backwards to get up higher.

Now, if you're if you're a rock climber, you know this move, you know I'm kind of butchering this, but it's this, it's it's just so contrary to what you would do when you're hanging off a cliff, to push backwards off the cliff to get up.

And yet it's a technique that they teach you to get higher.

And that's what Jesus is saying is look, I need you, if you're a follower of me and you care about greatness, you need to get down low.

You need to get down low and you need to serve.

Okay, so for the sake of time, because um in two weeks we're gonna talk about Peter's denial.

I'm gonna skip verses 31 and 34 because we're out of, we're we're way out of time.

And I just want to talk really quickly about verses 35 through 38.

35 through 38.

So put a pin in 31 through 34.

We'll come back to it when Peter denies Christ in a few, in two weeks from now, I believe, is when we'll cover it.

But do you see in verse 35 through 38, Jesus asks them, Do you remember when I sent you out without purse, bag, sandals, did you lack anything?

And they said, Nothing.

And he said to them, But now if you have a purse, take it, also a bag.

If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.

As it is written, and I was numbered with the transgressors, and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me.

Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.

The disciples said, See, Lord, here are two swords, and he said, This is enough.

Okay.

This is important because Jesus asked them to remember an experience just months before this, where he sent them out on a missions trip for a few days, and he said to them, When you go, don't take the purse, don't take a bag, don't take a walking staff, don't take a cloak, right?

He wanted them dependent upon him in that setting.

And he and he asked them the question, here, do you remember that?

And they're like, Yes, we remember.

We didn't lack anything you provided.

Now he says, I'm changing it up.

I want you to take the purse, I want you to take the bag and go get a couple swords, right?

Here's the thing.

Um it is important to understand that some of Scripture is what we would call descriptive, and some of Scripture is normative.

Okay?

Sometimes God will work in your life in a particular way in one instance, and the danger when God works in your life in that instance is to make a rule out of that, make it normative.

Normative means this is this is the norm across the board, right?

This comes up in a couple of areas.

Communism in the early church.

You remember in the early church, in the book of Acts, the whole church, and I know communism is a really kind of like a word that carries a lot of weight with it, but communism in a sense of like they had everything in common.

They sold their possessions, they had like a group bank account, they shared everything, right?

So the question is, is that how the church should be today?

Should everybody have everything in common and share everything?

Well, we don't see that practiced as the early church unfolds.

But it could be a day, the danger could be that we make that normative instead of being descriptive.

Foot washing, right?

We've got to decide, is foot washing something that we should practice?

Jesus did it in John 13, right?

Does that mean that we should have a footwashing ceremony?

Some churches do.

You've got to describe, is that normative or is it just descriptive?

Is it bound within culture?

Another one is where Paul tells the church, greet each other with a holy kiss.

Is that descriptive, bound by context, or is that normative?

It carries through culture, through time, into today.

Or women must pray with their heads covered, 1 Corinthians 11.

Is that descriptive, bound by culture, or is it normative for today?

All of those are things, all of those are texts that you have to wrestle with.

I just want to point out in that, in this text, that Jesus gave one instruction on one account, one time, he gives a different instruction on another time, and he's allowed to do that.

In the life of David, David fought a lot of battles, but here is the key.

He was not presumptuous.

He didn't win his first battle and then think, oh, I won that one in this particular way, so I'm going to just keep doing that.

Instead, what we see over and over again is that David sought the Lord.

He sought the Lord.

He waited for God to tell him how to fight the battle.

So it is very important in our life as we experience success or victory to understand that that doesn't have to repeat itself in that particular way.

Sometimes we're experiencing the descriptive, other times we're experiencing, other times we need to recognize, hey, this is normative.

So the question is, what's normative for the early church?

Generally, what we what is said, one of the ways that we determine, like, why do we do communion today?

Why is that normative for us?

Why do we do the baptism last week for Don?

Just like we did Jesus did baptism.

Why do we, why do we call that normative, right?

This is our kind of our criteria.

Was it taught by Jesus?

Was it practiced in the early church?

And then was it reaffirmed in the epistles?

Right?

If you if you apply that test to various teachings and activities of the um uh throughout the New Testament, you'll come away with a slim set of activities that we call normative.

Meeting and gathering on Sunday morning.

That's normative, right?

That doesn't change based off context.

But then there's other stuff that goes on that um it was isolated to its time, right?

Maybe there's a principle embedded in what was going on there in that story, but it is not, uh it needs to adapt itself as in principle form to our day.

Okay?

Just want to make sure we point that out.

Let's let's land the plane here on this one.

There's a table set, there is a kingdom, there is a king, and his name is Jesus, and he wins.

Amen.

You are invited into his victory.

This past week and the week to come may not appear to be governed by a king.

And there are certainly people and spirits who reject the authority of God's kingdom.

But God's victory is guaranteed.

The down payment was the cross and resurrection of Christ, and our role is to persevere as faith-filled servants.

Let's pray.

Lord, we um we would ask, we would ask that you would by your Holy Spirit work in our life, work in our life to be following you in the way of the cross, recognizing, Lord, that there sometimes is a backwardness, a different way of doing life as a follower of you.

And so give us wisdom, like change our where where we where we need our minds to be changed, where we need our hearts to be changed.

Lord, please find in us a willing spirit to be changed, to be molded.

Lord, we just um we yield ourselves to you.

Lord, give us that hope of victory.

Lord, we know you're gonna win.

We know you're gonna win.

We want you to win in our life.

But sometimes we get discouraged or we get beat down.

We just ask, Lord, that we would be those that are just you find faithful.

That Lord, we are clinging to you, we're trusting in you by faith, that you find faith in this world.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, God, for just a chance to gather this morning for each each of my brothers and sisters here.

Lord, work in their life.

Lord, work in their life, give them the answers that they are seeking you diligently for.

Let us be a church with many testimonies, Lord, as we lean upon you, lean into you, we pray that you would give us a witness, a testimony of the power of God.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's stand together and we'll sing this last song.