Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - You're Not the Main Character - Luke 14:1-14

Do you want to say welcome to all the kids

in here. Are so excited to learn to worship together

and learn from God's Word together as families. Amen, It's

great to sit under God's Word together as families. I

want you to grab your bibles. We are back in

Luke this week. We're back in Luke. We're going to

be in Luke chapter fourteen. And if you need a Bible,

we have tons of them out at the resource desk

and the lobby, so please grab one. We'd love for

you to keep that if you don't have one, because

we want everyone to have a Bible. But last week

we finished up our short, our very short series going

through the different types of psalms, and I loved it.

I don't know if you guys did, but it was

I thought it was really cool to see these different

genres or different types of psalms than different life circumstances

that all came to the same conclusion, which as we

turn to the Lord. Loved it. But this week we're

going to be returning to our series called Luke the

Orderly Account of Truth. Luke the Orderly Account of Truth.

We're going verse by verse through the whole Book of Luke,

and it's awesome. We're losing kids one by one. I'm sorry,

I'm trying to be like happier or something. I don't know, no,

but yeah. So we've been going verse by verse through

the Book of Luke, which has been so beneficial for

us as we're learning about the life and ministry of

Jesus and we're learning about it from a guy who

investigated it all, right, from Luke. He's telling Theophulos, I

want you to know with certainty, he says, the truth

about Jesus. So Luke went investigated everything so that the

awfulis would know actually what was true, what was true,

and what was false, and then he would have certainty

about this. And that's kind of actually what we're supposed

to do, if you think about it, right, we believe

the gospel message to be true. Right, we believe this

is truth. And so how can we help bring certainty

to those that we tell about Jesus. How can we

help bring certainty? How can we help them know what

is actually true? Well, I think we can do our

own investigation. We can investigate, we can grow in our

knowledge of who Jesus is, and we can grow in

our relationship with him. We can read and we can

study the accounts of those who did walk with him,

right because we have those, we can read the accounts

of those who investigated us. What we're doing going through Luke.

We read and study our Bible, and we spend time

with the Lord, so we can be certain of the

truth ourselves, so we can help others feel certain about

it when they come across who Jesus is. I just say,

everybody needs a Luke in their life, right, some going

to help bring some certainty. So let's go be Luke

to somebody else. Amen. Okay, that has nothing to do

with the text today. Well, we're going to be in

Luke chapter fourteen, so I want to read our text

and then we will pray. So let's start in Luke

chapter fourteen, verses one through fourteen. One sabbath, when he

went to dine at the house of a ruler of

the Pharisees. They were watching him carefully, and behold there

was a man before him who had dropsy. Jesus responded

to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, is it lawful to

heal on the sabbath or not? But they remained silent.

Then he took him, and healed him, and sent him away.

And he said to them, which of you, having a

son or an ox that has fallen into a well

on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?

And they could not reply to these things. Now he

told a parable to those who were invited, when he

noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them,

when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast,

do not sit down in a place of honor. Less

someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and

he who invited you both will come and say to you,

give your place to this person, and then you will

begin with shame to take the lower, the lowest place.

But when you were invited, go and sit in the

lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may

say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you will

be honored in the presence of all who sit at

table with you, For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,

and he who humbles himself will be exalted. He said

also to the man who had invited him. When you

give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your

friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors,

lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled,

the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because

they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at

the resurrection of the just. Let's pray, God, we thank

you for your word. We thank you that today it

pierces our hearts and we learn and know what you

would have us learn and know God that as we

read it, we are doing a self reflection of how

we need to adjust our own lives to be in

submission to You and your word. But God, give us

ears to hear you today in a heart to receive

from you. Today. I thank you that you guide every

aspect of this service, and every word that comes out

of my mouth. We thank you for this in Jesus name.

Everybody said, Amen. You guys know what main character energy is.

You know what I mean, a main character energy. You

know you're reading, maybe you're watching a movie or you're

reading a book, and there's a main character in the story. Right,

everything's about this main character. Everything, every detail, every historical

record or events all about this main person. Everything's about them.

There may be other characters in this story, and they

have a whole backstory themselves, but it doesn't matter. You

don't need to know it because they're not the main character. Right,

they're not the main character. You only know the details

about this one particular person. Well. Main character energy, for

those who don't know, is when a real person not

from a story, goes through life thinking that the story

is all about them. They think that everything revolves around them.

They're acting like they are walking through a story and

that that story is all about them, that their center

of importance, to the center of the universe. Everything is

about their journey or their experience, or what they've learned

and how they've grown as a person. Right, everyone else

in their life is a supporting cast member to them.

That's what this main character energy is. But do you

know who walks through life with main character energy just

turned up to the max, turned to eleven? Toddlers? Right,

you can't deny it. Toddler's They got their main character

energy vibe turned all the way up. Toddlers. When it

comes to thinking about this, does a whole world revolve

around me? Toddlers just take the cake. They got it.

Everything's about them. They're the worst. They're not the worst people,

they're the worst at it. Yeah, when he's like, it's

the best. Everything revolves around a toddler. They got the

main character energy. I want this, I want that, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine,

give me that right, that's a toddler. Don't tell me.

Kids are born good. They've been sentence since day one.

Come on. The toddler's life has a very clear supreme concern.

What is that concern me? That's the biggest, clearest, primary,

ultimate supreme concern in the toddler's life is me. Now.

I do want to say. We may be older now,

but our flesh screams the exact same thing. Still, our

own flesh screams the exact same thing. James asks what

causes fights and quarrels among you? He says, it's from

the sinful desires within you. You want something and you

don't have it. So what do you do? You covet

you steal, you murder. We're just as selfish as toddlers.

We still throw fits. They just look a little different.

They're a little more grown up. We're not rolling around screaming,

kicking and screaming on the floor. We're not doing that.

What do we do? Here's what we pull it ourselves

on a start drafting up a Facebook post, right, or

you freeze somebody out right and just decide to stop

talking to him. I just guess I just can't talk

to this person anymore. Maybe older. But the problem with

our flesh didn't go anywhere. It's the same problem, just

looks a little different. Our fits have grown up. And

this is actually what the Fair's problem was too. Pharisees

are exuding this exact same problem. They thought that life

was all about them, and Jesus puts him on blast.

And he does it at their own party, which is brave.

Think about you got invited to someone's house and then

you're like, okay, now I'm gonna start calling out all

of your sin right in front of everybody. But he

puts them on blast the thrown party. It's pretty brave,

I think. But he told them, you make everything about you,

but this life is not about you. This life is

not about you. And guess what, it's not about you

or me either. I called today's message You're not the

main character. You're not the main character because we're not

we are not the main character. It's all about who

it's beginning of our mission. It's all about Jesus. He's

the main character. He is the main character of this

whole story. And he has a way that he wants

his supporting cast members to be. He has a way

that he would call us, the supporting cast members, to

be and to act and behave and to think or

to be motivated. And it's just like that saying it's

your world and I'm just living in it, because it

is his world and we are just living in it.

So let's find out how we as supporting cast members

should be. And what Jesus does is he teaches three

quick lessons in the text we just read, he teaches

three quick lessons all during this meal at this chief

Pharisees house. So let's look at the first lessons, say,

don't withhold good from others. Nailed it. We'll try that

again later. Don't worry, I'll call on you again. Because

the Pharisees just had this habit of withholding good from others, right,

they didn't want to do the good things, or they

would set up things in such a way and set

rules so that they didn't have to lift a finger

to help anybody else unless it benefited them. They would

set these rules up to where I'm only going to

have to do something for you if I get something

out of it. They thought that they were the main characters.

They wanted to look good before everybody else, to appear

as though they were the holy ones. They want to

be viewed as higher than others, as better than them,

are more important. So let's look at this first section

of our text today. We're going to be looking through

verses one through six. It'll be on the screen if

you don't have your Bible in front of you, but

I'd love if you just grab your Bible and turn

there and we'll just go through it together. Okay, let's

start in verse one one Sabbath, and remember the Sabbath

is a holy day of rest in worship to the Lord,

so you're not supposed to do any work on that

day one Sabbath when he went to dine at the

house of a ruler of the Pharisees. Okay, this isn't

just one of the Pharisees in charge. This is the ruler,

one of the rulers of the Pharisees. Because there was

a hierarchy. So it's one of the chief Pharisees, the

top dog. And who were the Pharisees. They were the

religious leaders of the day, the ones that everyone actually

wanted to be like. They're the ones who everyone said

these if you want to be holy and follow the

Lord God, that's who you should strive to be like.

This is these people were. So he's at the ruler

of one of the pharisees houses, dining, and what were

they doing. They were watching him carefully, watching him carefully.

Were they setting a trap? As they often were. That's

what the Pharisees liked to do to Jesus. They would

set up situations and scenarios, and they try to catch

him in something to discredit him. And verse two and behold,

there was a man before him who had dropsy drops.

He's just a deema or a fluid build up or

swelling in the body. And Jesus responded to the lawyers

and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the

Sabbath or not? And I love this. Pharisees are asking

Jesus questions all the time. Now's Jesus turn to ask

a question, right, So Jesus is saying, I got a

question for you, And maybe he didn't do with an

attitude that's just how I probably wanted to have done it,

because I'm got some flesh I'm still trying to get

rid of. But Jesus asked, is it lawful to heal

on the sabbath or not? But they remained silent. They

couldn't respond to him. They knew he was right, They

knew the answer to the question, so they kept quiet.

But also, someone who is consistently trying to trap someone

might have a way they approached life, which is, I'm

always looking out for a trap. Does that make sense

being afraid to say something because they think like, oh,

maybe he's setting a trap on us, because they're just

they're deceivers, they're trying to trap Jesus. They remained verse four,

but they remained silent. Then he took him and healed

him and sent him away. And he said to them,

which of you having a son or an ox that

has fallen into well on a Sabbath day, will not

immediately pull him out? And they could not reply to

these things. They continued to remain silent. They wouldn't open

their mouths and answer Jesus. Because Jesus was right, there

was nothing they could say back to him. But it's

clear and obvious what the answer to jesus question was.

Of course, they would save their son or their ox

if it fell into a well or a pit on

the sabbath, he would just leave it there and let

it die. Plus, there actually was an exception written into

the Law of Moses that allowed to do good or

to help or work on a sabbath for humans or

even animals who were in severe distress. That actually was

an exception in the Law of Moses. So the answer

to jesus questions, yes, it is lawful. They know that

that is the answer. But if you put all that aside,

the greater point that I think Jesus was making here

is that the Pharisees were willing to do only the

things that benefited them. They would only do what benefited them,

but they weren't willing to lift a finger or do

anything that benefited somebody else. And they would go as

far as to bring a man with dropsy before Jesus,

someone who clearly needed help, someone who they normally wouldn't

associate with because he is unclean and he's got a condition,

he's got a problem. They don't want to This is

not a person they're inviting to their dinner, banquets, or

their feet, their feasts. This is not someone that normally

would be with them. They don't associate with him. And

they dangled him in front of Jesus, this sick man,

this man who had a condition of abnormal swelling. They

dangled him in front of Jesus. He didn't care if

he got healed. That was not why they brought him

before Jesus. Do you guys remember when the friends brought

the paralyzed man on the mat, dug through the roof

and lowered him down, lowered him down to Jesus to

get healed. They wanted their friend to get healed. His

Pharisees did not bring this man with dropsy before Jesus

to get healed. They're trying to trap Jesus. They wanted

to catch him working on the Sabbath so they could

discredit him, to say he wasn't from God, that he

certainly wasn't God in the flesh or God's Messiah. They're

consistently trying to get rid of Jesus. I don't know

if you remember a month ago now when we were

in just the last chapter of Luke when they warn

him and said, hey, Jesus, you better get out of

here because Rod wants to kill you. Sounds nice, but no,

they just want to get rid of Jesus. They're like,

just get him out of here. He's messing up the

way we've set things up. He's messing up how we

like the world to work. They want to get rid

of Jesus. They didn't actually care about doing something good

for this man with dropsy. They're only willing to do

what benefits them. And Jesus points that out very publicly.

You would pull your own ox or son out of

a well on a sabbath, he says, Yet you won't

lift a finger for somebody else. And that's what Jesus

was saying in Matthew twenty three. I'm just going to

reference it, so don't turn there. But in Matthew twenty

three it says they tie heavy burdens to others, but

they don't practice what they preach. They don't, Jesus said,

do what they say, but don't do what they do.

They tie heavy burdens around people. They do everything to

be seen by others. It's what he says in Matthew

twenty three. So my question is where do we do

that same thing in our own lives? Where do we

put ourselves first or do what only benefits us and

withhold doing good that would benefit somebody else? When was

the last time someone asked you to help him move?

Moving is just an inconvenient part of life in general.

It's never fun, it's never easy, it's never simple. There's

always something that goes wrong. It's just not an easy process. Right.

But when you are asked if you can if someone,

or that you can help someone, what's your first thought?

Is your first thought? Am I willing to lift a finger?

Or do I start racing through the roll AdEx of

excuses of why I can't? Oh, man, I wish I

could but fill in the blank. Right, Well, two of

my siblings recently just moved, and I wasn't able to

help either of them. So there's a little bit of

a confession up here. Two of them moved, I couldn't

help them. I wasn't able to. But when I was

studying this past week, I felt a little bit of conviction.

When I thought about it, I was like, should I

tried a little bit harder to move my schedule around

to make it so that I was able to help.

Why was my schedule even that full to begin with? That?

It doesn't allot me to have any wiggle room to

be able to help somebody. So I feel a little

bit of conviction. So I have to douce what I

call sobering self reflection, to stop and think and really

examine my own heart in this, was any part of

my inability to help due to the fact that I

started thinking I was the main character, that it was

all about me, that's what I wanted over what others wanted,

Like I was more important, Like my schedule was more

important than theirs? Did I slip into thinking I was

the main character? Because that Toddler main character energy is sneaky.

It's sneaky sometimes. And here's a tricky thing. You're the

only one who's going to know the truth and God,

of course, but no one around you's going to know

the truth you are, so you have to be real

with yourself. Am I starting to think that I'm the

main character, that this life is all about me? Am

I starting to feel think or make decisions based off

of that. Am I doing what the Pharisees are doing.

Does Jesus need to put me on blast at my party?

That's the first lesson Jesus taught at this party. Don't

withhold good from others, don't only do what benefits you.

Don't look out for yourself only. The next Jesus turns

to address all the people who are invited there. When

he's watching how they pick their seats at the table,

he sees his competition. This like the striving to reach

the top. So let's look at the next section, which

will start in verse seven. This next lesson that Jesus

taught at this meal, now be total parable to those

who are invited. And a parable is just a story

or an illustration to make a greater point. Jesus uses

it all throughout the gospel, told a parable to those

who were invited when he noticed how they chose the

places of honor. Okay, so what are these places of honor? Well,

you got to think about how the tables were set up.

Back then, tables were generally set up in a U shape,

and they were low to the floor because a lot

of people when they say recline at table, you kind

of land on the floor leaning on the table because

they're lower to the floor, but they're in this U shape.

The highest plate, excuse me, the highest place of honor

is at the top of the you in the middle seat.

Usually the host would be sitting there because he's the

most important person at this party, and then next to

them would be next places of honor. And then on

the sides, whoever sitting in the middle gets the the

next highest place of honor, and so on and so forth,

and you'd have several of these like U shaped table

situations kind of set up. So he Jesus sees all

the people striving for, or moving towards, or competing for,

these places of honor. So he said to them verse eight,

when you were invited by some someone to a wedding feast,

do not sit down in a place of honor. Less

someone more distinguished than you be invited by them. Speaking

wedding feast, Clarence and Chris have just got married recently. Congratulations,

it's awesome. I got the honor of officiating the wedding,

which I'm still super humbled. Thank you for letting me

do that. But it makes me think like our marriages

are awesome, and we should always be praying for each

other in our marriages in the church. Let's just do that.

That should be just a normal thing we do. Okay,

back on topic, Okay, wedding feast. Do not sit in

the place of honor less someone more distinguished than you

be invited by them Verse nine, And he who invited

you both will come and say to you, give your

place to this person, and then you will begin the

walk of shame. You will begin with shame to take

the lowest place. Everyone's gonna look at you and watch

you walk down to the lowest place of honor. In

verse ten. But when you were invited, go, Jesus says,

do this instead, when you were invited, go and sit

in the lowest place of honor. Go find that lowest place,

so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend,

like why are you sitting here? Move up higher. Then

you will be honored in the presence of all who

sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself

will be humbled, or everyone who raises to honor himself

will be assigned a lower rank. That's what those words mean.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever assigns a

lower rank to himself will be raised to honor. And

this same practical wisdom is given in the Book of Proverbs,

because in chapter twenty five it says, do not put

yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the

place of the great, for it is better to be

told come up here than to be put lower in

the presence of a noble. This is not a crazy thought, right,

It's a very common practical wisdom tip here that Jesus

is saying. And I actually have a real life example

of this happening. Well, I don't have a real life

example of this happening. Pastor Duncan does, so I'm gonna

have him come up here and tell you about it.

This is fun, right, This is new years ago.

I was a new believer and when we were assigning

the texts, I was a little salty about this text

because I was like, I have the perfect analogy for

this because it happened in my life. But I just

started reading my Bible and my friend his brother was

getting married, and he knew that I like kind of

did some music stuff, so he was like, Hey, will

you be the DJ for my brother's wedding? I was like, yeah, totally,

I would love to be the DJ. So what that

entailed is my super crazy get up of an iPod

and hitting play and pause.

That was the work. So it was a good time.

But we were at the rehearsal dinner and we get

all of our food as before we do the actual

rehearsal of the wedding, and I get my food and

I look around and I'm like, I know nobody.

The only people.

That I know are at the wedding party. Thank god,

I had been reading my Bible right, and I had

just I must have right because it was fresh in

my mind where maybe it was a holy spirit moment.

I'm not exactly sure, but regardless, I was like, we're

not even though they're the only people I know, I'm

not sitting there. So I found one table on the

other side of the building completely empty, and I was like,

you know what this is, this is my lot. This

is totally fine. I don't know anyone here. I don't

deserve anything. I'm gonna own to anything. So I sit

down there and I like just started eating and their

mom comes up and.

So she's like, what are you doing? What are you doing?

She's like come sit with us, and I'm like picking

up my plate.

I'm like, like, look at the Lord, you know, like

it's true. The Bible is true and it says you

know what I mean, So like it wasn't it wasn't

even a walk of shame walking down with his walk.

Of pride, of like I shouldn't even be here, I

shouldn'tven be at.

The sable, and yet here I am. So anyways, don't

take the place of honor, take the lowest seat.

It's better to be exalted, Thank you, Pastor Duggan. So

the Bible's true. We're just saying, and we have proof

right there, as if we needed more proof, right, But no,

this is I just want I'm glad that we have

a real life example to look at. Because Scripture, when

it points out some very practical, plain wisdom things, to

see the fruit of those things play out. All that

does to me, I don't know if it does to

you is build my faith, makes me more able to

trust in what the Lord is calling us to do

and calling us to be so. But Jesus, rather than

saying is saying that instead of looking for the places

of honor, look for the places of lower honor, give

those seats up for somebody else, right to take these

places of lower honor, to humble ourselves. And again, this

is all putting the people on last because of what

he's watching them literally do. It's like someone inviting you

to their dinner party and you see something weird and

you just start calling everybody out. Jesus did that right

in front of everybody, calling them out for their self

serving actions, thinking that they were the main characters, that

everything is about them. If the one follows Jesus, he

tells us, humble yourself and make much of others. That's

what we're supposed to do, to humble ourselves and make

much of others. So at this point, Jesus has made

it very clear number one, we should do good to others,

not just seek what benefits us, right, and number two

that we should humble ourselves again, not seeking what benefits us,

and not to put ourselves first. And so maybe at

this point I think some of the people there might

have thought, like, yeah, I think I could probably do that.

I think what you're saying makes sense. I could probably

do that. I can do good things for other people.

I could let them have the good seats and pick

the second or third honorable seat. But then Jesus turns

to the man who invited him, and he says something more,

and he goes even deeper on this lesson than he's

trying to show. Right, he's teaching three lessons I think

really all come together nicely, but he goes even deeper

in this lesson. He talks about the type of people

that we should be seeking to do good for, the

types of people. And the Pharisees' main character energy was

pretty deep. It was so deep that they were so

focused on what benefits them that it infected who they

would invite to their parties, it invite, or it infected

who they would invite to just be a part of

their lives and do stuff with them, who they would

do good too. They would only invite those who had

the ability to bless them back. So let's look at

what Jesus said about that. In verse twelve, he said

to the man who had invited him, when you have

a dinner or a banquet, when you throw a party,

when you're having a gathering, do not invite your friends,

or your brothers, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors.

So don't invite your friends, the people you already like

to hang out with. You're probably already having dinner with

them anyway. Not your friends or your brothers and relatives.

That's your family, or your loved ones, or your rich neighbors,

the ones who bring awesome housewarming gifts, or when you

invite them they bring a really expensive, nice bottle of wine. Right,

don't invite all those people lest they also invite you

in return, and you be repaid verse thirteen. But when

you give a feast, invite who the poor, the crippled,

the lame, the blind, the one that are the blind,

the ones that no one else is inviting. Invite those people,

and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.

So you will be blessed. Right, that is a will,

that is that's a definitive. Something is gonna happen. And

the reason it's going to happen is because they cannot

repay you. Isn't that weird? You're going to be blessed

because they cannot repay you. What does the next sentence say?

For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the

of the just? When is that has some Jesus comes

back back when he resurrects everyone to life or to death.

When Jesus comes back, he's bringing eternal rewards with him,

eternal life. Does this mean you can't have dinner parties

with your friends? No, still have dinner with your friends.

It's great, but that's not all that we should do. Right.

We should be inviting more than just our friends. We

should be inviting people who can't invite us back, the

ones who can't do anything, back the ones who do

good to the people who have no ability to do good,

back to you who have no ability to repay the favor.

That's the point Jesus is making here. Most of us

have gone to the bank to get alone, right, know

how that kind of works. They start asking a ton

of questions about you. Right as soon as you're like,

can I have the money? Money please? Anyone who doesn't

watch parks and res like what is he doing out there?

You go to the bank and you ask for money,

and they start asking you a ton of questions. How

much do you make, how much do you have in

your safe, what other debts do you have? What's your

blood type, your childhood pet's name, The works. She's just kidding.

They don't ask for all that, but they start asking

you a lot of stuff. Why do they want all

this information? Why do they want it? They want to

make sure that you have the ability to pay them back.

That's what they're after, That's why they want all this

information from you. They will only lend to those who

can pay them back. The bank has this mindset of

what's in it for me? What's in it for me?

As if they were the main character of the story. Now,

the difference is they're a bank, not an individual, so

is not the It's not a perfect example here, but

my point is we shouldn't be like that. We shouldn't

be thinking what's in it for me? How can I

make sure that I will only lend to people who

can pay me back. That's not how we should be.

Jesus is telling us, don't be like a bank, right,

don't be don't lend in that kind of way. When

we're convicted to bless someone, or we feel God just

press on us to go bless someone, to do good

to so someone else, who do we run to bless?

Because sometimes we'll feel it in a moment. It's just

like I feel like I'm called to bless this person,

go and do it right. But sometimes in general, I'm like,

you know what, God, I'm feeling convicted that I just

haven't been a very generous person, so I should probably

go be more generous to people. Well, when you feel

that conviction, who do you run to do good to?

Who do you run to bless? It's easy to bless

your friends, that's easy. It's easy to bless your loved ones.

But what about blessings those who can't bless you back,

or someone that you're not close to? When was the

last time you did that? I have someone's like earlier today.

Praise God. That's awesome, keep it up. But I think

we need to ask ourselves that question. When was the

last time I actively tried to bless someone or do

good to someone who couldn't bless me back, or someone

who wasn't close to me? And there's a really great

summary that I want to read, and it's in It's

not on this I don't think it's going to be

on the screen. I don't remember if I sent this

verse or not, but it's in Matthew chapter twenty five.

If you want to turn there, you can. You can

hold your place in your Bible Matthew twenty five, and

it's verses thirty one through forty six. I'll give you

a chance there to turn. We're talking about blessing people

who can't bless you back. It's Matthew twenty five, verses

thirty one through forty six. When the Son of Man

comes into his glory and all the angels with him,

then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him

will be gathered all nations, and he will separate people

one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from

the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right,

but the goats on his left. Then the king will

say to those on his right, come you, who are

blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you

from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry

and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you

gave me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick

and you visited me. I was in prison and you

came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord,

when did we see you hungry and feed you, or

thirsty and give you drink. And when do we see

you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

And when do we see you sicker in prison and

visit you? And the King will answer them, truly, I

say to you, as you did it, as you did

it to one of the least of these my brothers,

you did it to me. Then he will say to

those on his left apart from me, you cursed into

the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food.

I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I

was a stranger, and you did not welcome me naked,

and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison,

and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer, saying, Lord,

when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger,

or naked, or sick or in prison, and did not

minister to you? And then he will answer them, saying, truly,

I say to you, as you did not do to

one of the life least of these, you did not

do it to me. And these will go away into

eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. I think

It's a good summation of kind of this idea here.

Who do we rush to bless when we remember that

we aren't the main character, that life is not about us,

That Jesus has called us to be salt and light

in the world, not just to our friends, but to

a lost and dying world. That's who we're called to be,

the salt and light to. Who do we turn to bless?

Do we turn to the least of these? Do we

look for the people who have no ability to pay

us back, who could not return the favor, who will

not even be able to invite us to their own

party because they can't throw parties. Because this is what

Jesus did for us. This is what Jesus did for

us when we were still God haters, when we hated

the Lord. He did good for us and good to us.

Romans five eight five eight says, But God shows his

love for us in that while we were still sinners.

Christ died for us while we were still sinners. That's

when Jesus died for us. God loved us so much

that he sent his son to die when we were

still shaking our fist angrily at him. That's the ultimate

act of love, and the cherry on top of all

of it is there is nothing we could ever do,

or can ever do to deserve it or pay him

back for it. There's nothing we could ever do to

repay him for that kindness. We are the poor, the crippled,

the lame in the blind. That's who we are. We're

the man with dropsy brought before Jesus. We can't pay

him back. Jesus loves us and loved us, and he

invited us, and he's the example that we're supposed to

imitate as his children and as his followers. Is loving

for us to invite those far off, to bless those

that no one else's blessing, to do good to those

who can never repay us. And even though Jesus actually

is the main character, he chose not to act like

it he actually is, and he still chose to humble himself,

to humble himself to death even death on a cross.

Chose to act as if he wasn't the main character.

And so we get to follow in his footsteps. And

this should really drive us to be open handed about

who we bless and who we do good to. Should

we should let that conviction drive us to open our

hands to whoever the Lord would bring in front of us,

whoever the Lord would have us cross paths with. And

I love that. I mean, we don't we don't. We

don't bless other people so that we are blessed. But

there's absolutely a promise in that that we do receive

a massive blessing in the end, in the resurrection of

the Just, we receive an eternal reward. So there is

this this amazing blessing on the end. We don't store

up treasures for ourselves on earth, where moths and rust destroy. No,

we lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven, the eternal treasures.

Can I have the team come up, please? So I

want to review. We're kind of like summarize some of

this stuff here together, and I have some slides for it.

Number one, don't only look out for yourself, Okay, don't

only look out for yourself. That's from verses one through six.

So the Pharisees did they told Jesus to not not

to heal someone, or they brought someone in front of

Jesus on the Sabbath not for the intent of him

being healed, but they themselves would do what benefited them

On the Sabbath if they had to, if their son

or ox fell on the well, they would save them.

So number one is don't only look out for yourself.

Number two, humble yourself or you will be humbled. It's

a pretty clear point pulled out of verses seven through eleven.

Humble yourself or you will be humbled. Don't choose the

seat of honor. Don't strive for the position of greatest honor.

Leave that position for somebody else. Humble ourselves. Don't put

yourself above others. And then number three, bless those who

can't bless you back from verses twelve through fourteen, to

bless those who can't bless you back when you seek

to do good to others, which we should be doing.

We should be seeking to do good to others. Don't

only bless those who can bless us back. The eternal

repayment is waiting at the resurrection, waiting for those who

blessed the least of these. Look out for the least

of these. So let's put all this together, and in

my words, it ain't about you. It ain't about me either.

Life isn't about us. We're not the main characters. Life

isn't about us receiving blessings or us end out ending

up on top. Life isn't about us looking good to others.

That's an important one to us. Sometimes life isn't about

us being important. Life isn't about leaving your mark. Life

isn't about that when you pass on, everyone remembers your name.

Life isn't about us. We're not the main characters in

the story. We aren't, but we have a bad habit

of making everything about us. And I have a kind

of a funny story. There is a track gospel singer

pastor who came to a church I went to a

long time ago, and he would sing like sing songs,

and he had the whole congregation's like, hey, we're gonna

do some time of worship. And he starts singing like, hey,

repeat after me. This is not about us, This is

not about us, This is all about him. This is

all about him. Right, So he's had just had to

start singing this and repeating after him, and then he'd

say some inspirational things in between in the different verses,

and he say, this is not about us, this is

not about us, this is not about him, or this

is all about him, This is all about him. And

he kept saying this over and over again, and then

he said some more inspirational stuff and came back and said,

this is all about us. This is all about us.

This is not about him, This is not about him.

And I'm like, what do you just say? And then

he said it again, this is all about us, whole church,

this is all about us. And he says, this is

not about him, this is not about him. And then

he stopped and said, see and worship. Even you still

make it about yourself. The whole church had shut their

brains off and started saying this is all about us

and this is not about him. Had no clue they

were doing it, which is a warning for us to

keep our brains engaged in worship. For one right, but

also it's sneaky, this us making it all about us.

It's really sneaky. It just happens. We have this bad

habit of making things all about us, that we are

most often first concerned with ourselves, like a toddler. We

think of us most. We put ourselves and our own

wants and needs before others. Next time you get mad

about something, I want you to say or ask yourself

why am I mad? And then once you get the

answer to that. Ask a follow up question, say, am

I really just mad because I didn't get what I wanted?

Am I really just mad because I didn't get my

own way? Whose kingdom got messed up? That's causing me

to be angry. Most of the time, I think it

is my kingdom that got messed up, and that's why

I'm mad. Whose kingdom got messed up? I hate being

interrupted when I'm in the middle of doing something. That's

like a big pet peeve of mine. Personally. One of

the fastest ways to make me upset is to just

come up and interrupt me when I'm in the middle

of doing something. When I get mad, Why am I mad?

Why am I mad? In the moment, it's because I'm

acting like a toddler. Me Me, Me, Mine, Mine Mine.

I was doing something and you came up and interrupted it.

I've gone back to thinking that I'm the main character.

That's what happened. I think I'm the most important person

in the room, that what I want to happen should

always happen. At all moments. I think I'm the main character.

I think that I'm more important than whoever's trying to

interrupt me. No matter what the situation is, I'm putting

myself above others, and even happens. The most real recent

examples with my youngest He's been drawing me some really

cool pictures and he comes up to talk to me

and he's like, Dad, I want to show you this thing.

And I'm in the middle of something like give me

a minute, kid, like back up, and then you get

stabbed in the heart of conviction and you're like, Okay,

that's not I'm supposed to be. I'm sorry, buddy, what

are you trying to show me? And then he shows

me this beautiful picture he's drawn for me. You kidding me?

That's just like, if that's not a Jesus woman, I

don't know what is the fact that I'm trying to

get to. I'm mad that I was being interrupted, having

no clue what it's even about, thinking that I'm more

important to know that what a massive blessing it was.

That was literally what was interrupting whatever the important thing

I was doing was a huge blessing. Can you believe

that I'm a mess? I'm not the main character. I

need to put to death that Toddler main character energy.

Look at Romans twelve, Chapter twelve, verse three. For by

the grace given to me, I say to everyone among

you not to think of himself more highly than he

ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each

according to the measure of faith that God has assigned,

not to think of himself more highly than he ought

to think. Don't put yourself above others. Don't be too

big for your riches. As I was told growing up,

Jesus has called us to humble ourselves, remember which means

assign a lower rank, to humble myself and to bless others.

And we should especially seek to bless those who can't

repay you. Someone said it earlier wein this was Pastor Jordan.

We've been blessed to be a blessing. We have been

blessed to be a blessing. We should use everything that

the Lord has blessed us with for his purposes and

blessing others. Which is cool the timing of the giving

opportunity for Yurie at the orphanage. We literally have an

opportunity to bless someone who cannot pay us back across

not across the world, but across the equator at least

really far away can't bless us back, We'll have no

idea you are the one that bless them. We have

an opportunity to do it, no compulsion do with the

Lord like wrestle with the Lord over. That doesn't stop

at yeerie, by the way, because we're gonna pass by

people all over the place who can't pay us back,

who can't invite you to their parties that we should

be blessing, doing good to inviting to our parties. And

I think that's what our challenge or my encouragement and

challenge for you this week is I want you to

find somebody outside of your context who can't pay you back,

and I want you to go bless them. I'm lucky

because I'm going to quant them all on Tuesday, so

kind of got it built in where I'm like, all right, God,

I'm gonna do it. I want to bless some people

who can't bless me back. Doesn't stop when I come home.

I gotta keep doing it, you know. But that's my

challenge for this week is what Jesus is saying here,

what is calling out the Pharisees for thinking that they're

the main characters. To put that to death and find

somebody outside your context to bless this week, to do

good too. It doesn't just have to be financial blessings.

It's not just giving them money. It's doing something kind

for someone else, doing good, elevating them, honoring them something.

Find somebody outside your context, find opportunities or create opportunities

for you to do good to others. Got to remember

we're not the main character. It's not about us, and

bless someone this week. But as we end in our

text today, I'm gonna look at Jesus example of humility

one more time, and it's in Philippians chapter two. We're

done in Luke, so you can turn to Philippians chapter

two and we're gonna read verses one through eleven. So

if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love,

any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete

my joy by being of the same mind, having the

same love, being in full accord and of one mind,

be unified. So those two verses kind of really mean

be unified. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but

in humility, count others more significant than yourself. Let each

of you look not only to his own interests, but

also to the interests of others. Have this in mind

among yourselves, which is yours. In Christ Jesus, who though

he was in the form of God, did not count

equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied

himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born

in the likeness of men and being found in human form.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted

him and bestowed on him the name that is above

every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every

knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under

the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ's Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. Everyone say I'm

not the main character, say Jesus is, and he's our

example to follow. What did he do? He literally went

from the highest place. No one's more humble than Jesus,

because no one's gone from a higher place to a

lower place. Self sufficient, needs nothing, all powerful, creator, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent,

all of these down to being born as a baby.

Babies are dependent upon other people for literally everything. Jesus

is the most humble person to ever have walked of

this earth, and he's our example. We should humble ourselves,

follow that example, consider others more significant than ourselves, to

put others first, to bless those who can't bless us back.

And when we start to forget it, when we start

to thinking, we start to get a little bit of

that main character energy. We look to Jesus example to

remind us, Amen, can you guys please stand to your feet?