The Last Shall Be First And The First Shall Be Last

If you're a student, you're dismissed to follow Miss Hannah or Miss Morgan or Mr.

Weldon, and they'll lead you back to your classes.

Greetings.

There's lots of good seats up here in the front if anybody wants one.

Welcome to Christ Community Church.

I'm very happy that you're here, and I'm even more happy that I'm here.

And actually, I'm the happiest that you're here.

I'm happy to be here.

All right.

And I did not realize that Glenn Campbell was such a theologian.

I love his song.

No, that song is good theology.

Nothing wrong with that.

That's great.

Thank you for being here.

Those of you that came early to help us set up, thank you, bless you for doing that.

The worship team, wherever y'all are, thank y'all for getting everything that's electric ready.

Bless you for that.

And I'm just happy to be here with you.

I have read the story of Jacob and Esau, you know, hundreds of times.

And there's a zillion thoughts and ideas and lessons and principles and challenges that I think God would love to reveal to us through the study of those, the journey of those two boys.

But I was just reading through Genesis this year, anew, afresh, and I came to that passage, the birth of Jacob and Esau.

Or actually it's Esau and Jacob.

And man, the Lord spoke to me, not audibly.

If you're a MacArthur fan, don't get nervous.

But he did speak to me and gave me just a fresh understanding of a principle that really runs through the scripture.

And let me read you this little passage here out of, what is it, 25, Genesis 25, 21.

Let's see here.

Yeah, says that Isaac, well, I'll go a couple of verses earlier.

Says, this is the account of Abraham's son Isaac.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethel, the Aramean from Padan Aram, and the sister of Laban, the Aramean.

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his and his wife because she was barren.

And the Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

And the babies jostled each other within her, within her womb, and she said, Why is this happening to me?

So she went to inquire of the Lord.

And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, or we would say people groups, are from within you will be separated.

One people, here's the point, one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.

It just really struck me in a very significant way this year as I read that story.

That idea that the younger will serve the older.

The stronger will serve the weaker.

Now, in the New Testament, they same idea, but it's the first will serve the last.

Same idea.

And if you know the story of Jacob or of Esau and Jacob, uh Esau was born first, Jacob came second, and that prophecy or declaration that God gave to Rebekah was fulfilled.

We see it first in when Esau gave the uh the blessing to his brother Jacob, uh the the younger the older served the younger.

We see it later on with the sad story of mom and Jacob deceiving blind old dad.

It's a terrible story, but nonetheless, again with the with the birthright, you see the fulfillment of this.

The older serving the younger.

The stronger serving the weaker.

The first serving the last.

And that that doesn't mean a lot to us in this country.

In Fatty's country, this probably is very meaningful to you, this whole idea of the birthright, uh, that the first child born has a very special privilege, a very special responsibility.

Um that child, once it becomes an adult, is given a double portion of authority, of power, of wealth.

Now, it originally was a lovely idea in a world where there's no life insurance, there's no Social Security, there's no retirement, there's no, there's, there's are there were no systems in place where the very young and the very old were taken care of.

Save one person in the family, the firstborn person, owned that responsibility.

And as I said, they were given a double portion of authority to lead, to guide, to instruct, to protect, provide.

Um, that was his role, like I said, specifically or mostly for the very young and for the very those that could not take care of themselves.

It was that person, that firstborn person's responsibility.

It's a lovely idea.

Problem is that throughout history, what we see is that the firstborn rarely owned that responsibility.

At least not owned it in a selfless, sacrificial, put others first kind of ownership.

And it was very often, if not almost always, abused.

At least without kindness.

Exactly.

At the very least.

It was, and you understand, where there is power, there is very, very often much.

And the roles are so clearly delineated.

Yes, yes.

What struck me, folks, uh, for the very first time, I started thinking about the Bible as a whole.

Not one person, one character, not one story, not one time frame or season, not even one book of the Bible.

But I started thinking about the entire Old Testament.

And what jumped out at me is how God.

Now, some of you that read your Bible, you're gonna go, I'm not sure about this.

Good.

Go home and do some study and see what you find out, okay?

But what jumped out at me, and Shirley and I have been talking about it all week, is how God almost, always, I gotta throw in the almost.

All right, I yield there.

But almost, he almost always found delight in undermining and thwarting that system of the firstborn.

In fact, I couldn't find an exception, but one of you will, and you'll text me and say, you, so I just, I'm gonna say all most, all right?

But I couldn't find an exception of anybody in the Old Testament that God chose, raised up, commissioned, and used mightily, that was a firstborn.

Now that's very significant.

Y'all might not see that, but that is huge.

In a world where the firstborn was everything, the first, the strongest world, God they ruled.

In that world, God delighted in turning that upside down.

In a world where being first is most important, most valued, is always better.

And you know it's not just that that value system is not just true in the Middle East, is it?

4,000 years ago.

That's our values too.

Would you like to be first or would you like to be last?

Would you like to be the strongest or would you like to be not the strongest?

Would you like to be the winner or would you not like to be the winner?

In fact, we would associate that with lunacy.

And yet, I want you to send me an exception this coming week of someone that God chose, God called, God raised up and used mightily, that was the firstborn.

Let me give you some examples, just so you know.

Right out of the gate, first chapter of the Bible, seven days of the week.

Of the seven days of the week, what was the most important day?

The first day or the last day?

Right out of the gate, God is communicating to Israel, and I'm different.

And I've called you to be different.

The first isn't the best, the strongest isn't the best, the winner's not the best.

And then let's just run through them.

Abel.

Shem, Noah's second son, uh, Abel, Adam's second son.

Shem, Noah's second son.

Abraham, Tarah's second son, Isaac, Abraham's second son, Jacob, Isaac's second son, Joseph, uh, Jacob's eleventh son, Judah, uh Jacob's fourth or fifth son, Moses' second son, Eliezer to whom the priesthood went, second son, David, what was he like, eighth or ninth?

Um Solomon, fourth or fifth.

I I really do.

If as you are reading through your scriptures, show me the exception.

I know there must be one, but I couldn't find it.

In a world where being firstborn was everything, God says, in my economy, in my value system, among my family, that's not the case.

All you second borns feeling better about yourself?

God continually rejected the first over the last, the latecomer over the first comer.

And there's a principle there.

The principle is that God continually focused, not on the first, the strongest, the best, or the most popular, but on the last, on the ignored, the undervalued, and the over.

Any thoughts, firstborn?

Give me a minute, firstborn.

Okay.

No, no, I'm good.

Um, I happen to know where this sermon is going, so I will tell you that you see this in literature uh, you know, all over the place.

If you read a lot of um, you know, literature, if you read much of anything, you see this principle.

I teach a woman named a writer named Flannery O'Connor.

If you've been around me five minutes, you know, she's one of my favorite writers.

And there's a story that exhibits this, um, where this sermon, I think, is going.

It's called Revelation, and it's about a woman who is a hierarchist.

And what that means is she labels everybody and puts everybody in categories of order, like who's best and who's worst.

You know, so that I won't say the labels, but you can imagine this group is best, and then this this group is second best, and this group is third best, and she does this in her mind.

Do we hit do you is there someone that doesn't do that?

Um it's a it's a sincere question.

Do you think there are people that don't do that?

At one point, she says to she's praying to God and she says, Jesus, Jesus, this is 1940, Georgia.

So you can imagine the hierarchy.

Jesus, thank you that I'm not poor white trash.

That's my married boy.

Uh anyway, so the revelation is she prays for a vision, and God in this work of fiction gives her a vision.

And what the vision is, is that there's this arch, this kind of a rainbow arch going to heaven, and she and her group, everybody's on this road toward heaven, and she and her group are the last.

They're at the end.

Her group is white landowners, and they're at the back.

And at the end of the revelation, it closes and she's presented with the idea.

If everyone is worthy, is it okay?

If everyone's going the same direction, it's okay if you're in the back.

She rejects that idea, she can't stand it.

And at the end, she there's a water hose that symbolizes baptism.

And anyway, she's got this water hose and she sets it down.

And we know the students are, my students are like, I think she may have changed, I think she may have changed, and I'm like, oh, angels.

Angels.

She puts that water down and she says, I will not be last.

I am not last.

Changes the definition, it changes our whole theology about hell, doesn't it?

That hell is a place that God throws people who he's mad at.

Could hell not be a place where people go who don't want to live?

Where lower hierarchy people are honored above them.

I will not live there.

I'll choose anywhere rather than there.

The New Testament continues this very same value system.

Jesus himself in Matthew 20 said, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

And you know what's funny?

We know that.

It's not even a whole verse, it's just a part of a verse.

And we know that.

If I asked anybody in this room, they go, Oh, I know that verse, or that little fragment.

Have you ever read the story that goes along with that?

The parable that that is a part of?

We don't have time today to get into it.

I wish we did, but I'll just say this to you.

What the the context that Jesus words, the first shall be last, and the last will be first, the context is that the people that have accumul who work the hardest and accumulate the most are given a lower place.

And the people that worked less and accumulated less were given a higher place of honor.

I can see it in your faces.

Y'all are like, now, whoa, now hold on, Dapper Dan.

What are you insinuating?

What are you suggesting?

I'm suggesting that we should ponder the words and the value of the one that we claim as our Savior.

It's like that parable in Matthew that everybody hates, where everybody people go to work in the morning and they're given a certain wage, and then some others come in the noontime, and some others come later in the evening, and at the end of the day, everybody's paid the same wage.

Matthew 20.

Matthew 20.

Yeah.

That's that's the scholar says that's that's the passage.

Are you coming up with it?

No, I just said it.

Oh, good.

Oh, you just said it.

Yeah.

Um and the first morning people are the first morning people are mad as hornets.

They worked all day in the afternoon.

People just came here a few minutes ago.

They get paid the same amount.

We get that, don't we?

I get that.

I understand that.

It's a very capitalist, a very democ democratic sort of idea.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Except for the guy with the money, the payer, the king, whoever, says, Oh, but see, I get to give as I as I give.

You got paid.

You got the money that you said, that I said you got the good stuff.

And so did they.

We can't stand that.

We don't like that.

No, we don't like that.

Not as Americans, not as middle class Americans.

We just celebrated Christmas.

That honors the most significant moment in human history.

Every well, I'll say everybody, most everybody in here.

Um, you know, we spend a lot of time, money, work, effort celebrating God invading mankind.

Does it strike you as significant?

Who what where is God in this most significant of moments in human history?

Where is he and who is he focused on?

He's focused on two women.

Number one, don't doubt that Luke didn't have a message there.

God is focused on two women.

One too young to have any significance, one too old to have any significance.

And yet, when God invades humanity at the most significant point in history, his focus and his attention is in dealing with these two precious ladies.

He sends his son.

Is it not unusual?

Is it not significant that he doesn't send?

Kings, our armies, our rockets, our tanks, when he invades.

He sends a baby.

He comes as a baby, a defenseless weak life, not through might and power, but through weakness, not through authority, but humility, not as a king, but as a servant.

Jesus did not ultimately accomplish his father's plans and accomplish victory.

His victory did not come through strength.

It came through submission, through sacrifice, through death.

Paul said it this way in Philippians 2.

Christ laid aside his divine glory and took on the role of a servant.

He said it differently, same thing, but differently in 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

He made him, he who was infinitely rich became poor to make other people rich.

Jesus' focus.

Who did Jesus, who was he drawn to?

Who did he enjoy the most?

Who did he focus his ministry on?

The last, the lowly, the needy, the scorned, the shamed, not the powerful, not the rich, not the educated, not the popular.

Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 1.

God chose the weak things to confound the strong and the foolish things to confound the wise.

And I just wanted to challenge us today.

I battled hard on whether to start last Sunday with this, but I was afraid if I did this lesson last Sunday, nobody would come back.

So I said, well, heck, I'll just wait a week.

You know, I didn't want to run everybody off just after the first day.

But that's not just God's value system and God's way of dealing with us.

You understand that, right?

That's also God's calling upon our lives.

God has called us to not be first, but to be last, to be not only to accept being a late comer instead of a first comer, but to see that that is God's calling and plan.

You know, every once in a while, just if I am utterly bored, I will flip through my on my on our TV, there's a little section of about 20 stations that are all these Christian preacher stations.

And I, you know, a couple times a week for 10 minutes, it's about all I can take.

I will flip through there and listen to those dudes.

You know, I've never once in all my 63 years heard any preacher, especially health, wealth, and prosperity people.

I never hear anybody preach on Matthew chapter 10, where Jesus says that I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

You know what happens to sheep who are among wolves, don't you?

They're slaughtered.

But what about the sheep that have extra faith?

Or that give extra money, or have extra Bible knowledge.

They should go get eaten.

Sheep that are sent out among wolves get slaughtered.

That passage that Brenda read at the beginning of the service.

In Matthew 5, Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

You'd have thought he said, Blessed are the rich in spirit.

Isn't that what you and I want?

We want to be rich in spirit.

But Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are those who are powerless.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst.

Blessed are those that are persecuted.

Blessed are those that are insulted.

Blessed are those who others speak falsely about.

Jesus isn't just describing what might happen to his followers.

Jesus is describing the job description of those who will follow him.

He says you are going to be relegated to a lesser place if you seriously follow me.

The cross is not just the means of our salvation.

The cross is the pattern of life for those who claim Jesus as their savior.

Listen to this verse.

Now put on your thinking camps.

This isn't one of these, you don't have this on your refrigerator or on your bumper sticker, okay?

But listen to it.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, the first Adam, that's the dude that was married to Eve.

The first Adam became a living being.

The last Adam, Jesus, became a life-giving spirit.

As was the first Adam, so are his children.

All that means is people that come from Adam act like Adam.

That's all that means.

People that come from Adam act like Adam.

And as is the second Adam, so are his children.

People that are related to Jesus live lives like Jesus.

Now I want you to hear me.

I want five minutes and I want you to listen to me.

We live in a world that delights in being number one.

And we live in a world that delights in being around number ones.

We want to be the strong, the bright, the rich, the popular, and the pretty.

Not a person in this room would say, not me, liar.

And we not only want to be those things, we want to be around people who are strong and bright and rich and popular and pretty.

We want to be the person and around the person who always gets picked first and who always wins.

And I'm not trying to be offensive, but I'm going to tell you what I believe to be true.

That describes our church.

Look around.

We are predominantly a community of first.

People that have worked the hardest, achieved the most, accumulated the most, and are enjoying the laurels of doing so.

And yet the Bible would warn us about that.

James would set it this way.

Now, this is my translation, but I think it's a good one.

James says, this is the half-brother of Jesus, wail and mourn you number ones who think you're great and focus on yourself and look down on non-number ones and neglect their needs.

I cannot change the world that I live in.

I cannot address this passion to be number one.

But as a follower of Jesus, I can decide where my focus is going to be.

I can decide whether or not I'm going to follow the values and the priorities of the one that died on the cross for me or not.

I can either follow Jesus Christ or I can follow Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

I get to decide.

You get to decide.

I just want to leave you with a couple of things that I am really.

I had never seen this before.

I'd never, this was a fresh word from the Lord for me this year.

I'm so thankful.

Y'all aren't, but I truly am thankful.

And I came up with a couple of things that I really am trying to work on this year.

To move from my delight in first people.

And trying to learn to delight more in non-first people.

Not so passionately seeking to be a first person, but seeking to put other people first and to make them first.

And I came up with just a couple of things that I think might help me.

One is I want to spend more time than I ever had before with the real number one, the real first person.

In fact, the Bible calls him the first of all creation.

And I believe by spending more time with him, I can learn, or maybe it'll just rub off on me, that which is true and good and real and at last.

I can learn by spending time with him to see people differently and to see what is best versus what is not.

I can spend more time being more honest and transparent with you, with her, about my failure for me to do that.

My weaknesses, my sins.

Very hard for me to do that.

Because I want to look good.

I'm a first.

I really am a first.

I'm the firstborn of Sally Ray.

And I want that image to be there.

Oh, Larry's spiritual.

Oh, Larry's great.

Oh, everything Larry does is good.

Oh, Larry wins.

I don't like confessing my sins.

I don't like telling people like Tommy and Alan yesterday morning that I'm hurt.

I don't like admitting that.

I should.

You shouldn't be able to hurt me.

I'm invincible.

And it's embarrassing to acknowledge when I am hurt.

Shirley tells me all the time that what's the deal about Instagram and Facebook where they get on there and show you their perfect vacations and perfect Christmases.

Yeah, it's all good.

No one ever shows themselves in a depression or in the corner in a fetal position.

You don't see that.

We're laying in bed, and that's when I get my education and all this.

But every, every, she just goes through this stuff.

Everything she shows me is the message that my life is perfect.

Perfect vacations, perfect holidays, perfect family, perfect marriage, everything's perfect.

The life of a first.

That's why James says, and Peter says, humble yourself.

Don't wait on God to do it.

If you do it, you'll be a lot happier because he's much more thorough.

So humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.

Acknowledge that Jesus came not for the healthy but the sick.

And I'm sick.

I need to spend more time this year, and I'm going to, with God's grace.

Lifting up non-number ones.

Spending more time with non-number ones.

Showing them that song that Christopher sang about if we're the body.

Where are his hands?

Where is his mouth?

Where is his feet?

Where is Jesus' hands and mouth and feet in Memphis?

I would like, I know where he wants his hands and feet and mouth to be.

The question's not where does he want it?

The question is, am I going to participate?

And I'll end with this one because I know we're done.

Cheryl and I went to dinner the other night.

Robin was there.

I'll say it was the other night.

It was what, maybe a month ago or two months ago, I forgot now, but I've not I cannot get it out of my mind.

And then we were having dinner with these folks, these precious, glorious people.

And they predominantly are of um religious faith that's different than mine.

And they were talking about their kids going to the best schools in Memphis.

And how their kids are treated.

And I'm sitting there going, what the Sam Hill?

Who would do that?

Who would make those kind of comments?

Who would treat people like that?

And one of the things that I'm going to do, folks, it's not enough for me not to participate.

Non-participation does not get you an A.

Well, I didn't say anything ugly.

I didn't throw the money that the penny down in front of the A Jewish child went to a football game and people threw money at her.

Pennies down at her, pick that up.

You you I guess they were trying to say she was greedy or something that's we need to stand when we hear people making derogatory, critical, mean, ugly, demeaning, humiliating comments to people or about people, we need to.

God doesn't want us just to not act ugly.

He wants us to be courageous and tell people.

We don't have to get mad, we don't have to cuss, we don't have to act like a jerk, but we can look people in the face and say, that's not funny, and that's not right, and it hurts my feelings that you would say something like that, and you're unworthy to be like that.

You're better than that.

You are better.

That is not consistent with who I see you to be.

And whether that's your dad or that's just my dad, that's just my husband, that's just my boss, that's just my.

That is God does not honor that.

He wants us to have the courage of David.

And there's not a lot of nine-foot giants with telephone pole spears walking around that I need to fight.

That's not the giants of my world, and it's not the giants of your world.

In the workplace, or somebody that is of a different background religiously or ethnically, or a different religion, or whatever it would be.

You know, I don't, I'm not going to get into a deal with the on the, you know, we live in an unusual world, and it's full of all kinds of things going on that I do not understand and that I don't agree with.

But I can disagree with you and not allow anyone to treat you disrespectfully.

You understand that?

Do you hear that?

I can vehemently dis, I can strongly believe that you are choosing a lifestyle, a road, that's not the one that I think's best.

And I don't think that's wrong.

I think everybody, in some ways, does that.

But I do not, because I disagree with you, does not mean that I should allow anyone to treat you mean or ugly.

And we need to ask God for the courage to stand up, not mean, not ugly, but look people in the face, whether it's at the grocery store or the or wherever it be, the bridge club, the golf cart, the duck blind, and say, that's not right.

That's not right.

And it's not funny.

No.

I love to tease more than anything in the world.

It's one of the ways I show love.

If I don't tease you, I probably don't love you.

But that's not, we're not talking about teasing.

We're talking about hurting people and speaking down about people.

And that's that's very different, and that is of the devil.

And we need to learn to do better and be more courageous.

Anything you want to add, friend?

Amen.

Okay.

Now, if you get mad at me, don't come back to church.

I'm gonna look at you funny when we get to heaven.

Okay?

So you just you just know.

Worked out, but we need we're gonna have to um we're gonna get this Lord's Supper thing worked out, but we need we're gonna have to have a little more practice.

Okay, Rodney and Becky, y'all come help me, please.

Come stand right there on either side.

And um we're gonna celebrate the Lord's Supper.

And I want to appeal to you before you walk out of here and go fight your way into the you know, the Piccadilly and try to get a big fat plate full of big fat food.

Um take a moment, take a moment, and um maybe God wants to speak to you.

Maybe God wants to uh just to speak to you and have a do a work in your life related to this.

Uh and when you you're ready, I want you to I invite you, try to use the the the inner aisles to come forward and then the and then that way we're not bumping into each other.

Come this way and then around and if you would keep your uh somebody's gotta pick this up if you put it on the floor.

And that's somebody's probably me.

Okay?

So if you would, there's a garbage can in the back.

Just if you would, throw that in there.

That'd be a blessing, if you if you don't mind.

Um we eat and we drink that which represents the body and the blood of Jesus.

And as you hear me say often, we do it for various reasons.

The list of reasons we do this are endless.

But we we do it to declare that God's light is greater than all darkness, God's truth is greater than all lies, God's love is greater than all hate, and God's life is greater than all death.

We believe that the death of that Jewish carpenter had the power to change everything.

I believe that, I believe it with all of my heart.

And if you believe it, then I invite you to come and uh take and eat and drink and just give thanks for such a glorious gift.

That gift that was free.

He just said, I it's free.

You have to do one thing for it.

But if you accept it, I really would love for it to change every area of your life from the top of your pointed head to the bottom of your feet.

That's the desire of Jesus.

That's what he's trying to do in all of our lives.

So you you, Christopher, you just play and y'all take a moment and you you come when you're ready, okay?