The Wedding Feast

little district and for the rest of us if you have your Bibles why don't you go ahead and grab those um and turn to Luke 14 Luke 14 uh we're going to be in verses 1 through 11 and we're going to read it together first before I dive into it and and give you some explanation and application for it and so let's see where Jesus is this week Luke 14 starting in verse one says crazy kid verse one 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 and 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 lest 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 lowest place but when you are 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 all right so

we are going to be spending in a couple of weeks here at this ruler of the Pharisees home which appears to be sort of a big shind dig it's it's a big party where the ruler of the Pharisees has invited all of his friends all of his guests but he's also invited Jesus and and some of Jesus's disciples as well and so um one of the questions might be why would they invite Jesus um Jesus tends to be someone that they don't like someone who's kind of on the opposite sides of of their way of life and what they're wanting to ultimately accomplish and do

and what's that old adage where it's like keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer um that's what's kind of going on here I mean you can even see it in verse one one of the the reasons for why they have Jesus there is because they're watching him closely all right so they're kind of trying to catch him in something they're trying to catch him in saying something that he shouldn't say according to their Customs their law um they're trying to watch his actions maybe his words his deeds uh just to see if there's something that they can catch him in in order to

bring a charge against him in order to bring an accusation against him now we covered the first six verses you might have as I was reading it you might have been like well I thought we I thought we that that looks very familiar and I did cover it a couple of weeks ago when Jesus also healed on the Sabbath and and started kind of figuring out whether or not that's something he can do and the Pharisees obviously did not like it because they considered it work um but but Jesus did it and he did it because there's nothing in the law that actually prohibits him

from healing on the Sabbath and so I'm not going to repr preach that part of it but it does have to do with our passage that we're going to be looking at today where Jesus is introducing a counter way of doing things he's introducing a counter way of their mentality of their cultural customs and and that's what we're going to see here and so where they're watching Jesus carefully one of the things that Jesus is also doing is he's doing the same thing he's watching them he's observing them where they're looking at all of his actions words and deeds he's also looking at their actions

their words he's reading their thoughts he's interpreting their motives and ultimately he's searching their souls and so even as they've invited him into this party he's using it as an opportunity to be able to kind of poke the bear of their man- centered manc created religion he's looking at their cultural Customs he's looking at their sort of self-exaltation so that he can use it as an opportunity to teach them a counter way of doing things that God ordains that is better than what man has created or man has ordained and so that's what we're going to be thinking and that's what we're going to be

looking at is is these two kind of um combating ideas one being pride and one being humility and what we really see here is that that Jesus is going to show them a God created act of worship a kingdom custom a holy spirit granted righteousness that they are not walking in that they are not practicing themselves but this way that Jesus is ultimately going to introduce this idea of humility it is not to be mistaken as weak or self-humiliation it it's not to be um but rather it should be summed up as the practice of self-denying or put it simply humility the practice of being

humble as Jen woken once said it's not thinking less of yourself it's thinking of yourself less God does not want us to to think of the IMO day which is his image that he's put put in us and on us when he created us which is a a beautiful and a wonderful thing it has not Tak taking the image of God the amod day and just dragging it through the through the mud as if we were to say look at look at how awful we are look at how wo we are and that's what produces humility that's not what he's actually saying there's a difference

to humility that is actually not you looking at yourself but it is looking outward looking other instead of towards yourself God does not want us to think less of the imod day the image of God the way he designed us but it is honoring the IMO day that we see in others first where Pride essentially says my IMO day my existence comes first humility says your IMO day Your Existence comes first and so Luke 14 1-11 Jesus is exposing here in this passage he's exposing the pride of the Pharisees and the cultural customs and then he's teaching them to repent of it he's teaching them

to follow the humility of Christ and then implement it practice it in their culture now you might be thinking well that's pretty straightforward like that that seems easy enough but this is I believe one of the hardest transformations to undergo because of the very nature of sin is pride I think it's one of the hardest things for us to actually bring to the table to Jesus and say I Repent of Pride like I repent of that I I don't want to follow this anymore I'd rather humble myself and Trust and Believe the order that you have created and designed it's hard for us to do

this one of the ironies is that the dictionary defines pride in this way it says it's a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements and other words it's a worship of self now the irony is that nowhere in any of the definitions does it define pride in a negative light or in a negative quality in other words in its own Pride it must define pride as a good thing and therefore cannot shed any negative light on the quality reason for it is again the the the dictionary is not strictly Christian okay so they're they're defining our world from a language perspective

through a secular lens because if a society is not submitting to an um if a society is not submitting to an all Sovereign God and Creator then essentially they are in their eyes they are their own Sovereign they are their own God they are their own Creator when it comes to life and when it comes to success and when it comes to whatever it is that they achieve in life and so the insanity of it and I think this is why our world is so um um depressed and anxious is that if they don't know who the Creator is if they don't have a relationship

with God then ultimately everything is left up to themselves and that's why they have to have this mentality of well I have to I am my own God I make my own way and this is why according to market research the self-help industry is worth 13.4 billion dollar as of 2022 the most depressing place to be is believing your success is Reliant upon your abilities but having no Pride or confidence in yourself to be able to get the job done I mean think about that from a worldly perspective if you don't know God then you believe that the success of your life is dependent upon

you and you alone yet we know that as a fallen creature there's something inside of you that is aware that you cannot actually attain success that you cannot actually achieve Perfection that you cannot actually work everything out according to your good and the good of those around you like there's something in you again sin that shows that you are less than but if you don't have a relationship with God it's the most depressing place to be because it actually is a place of hopelessness and helplessness which again is why the self-help industry is worth what it is because if you don't know God you don't

know where to turn to you don't know where to actually go for help and for hope to be a able to actually provide for you what you need and so we're anxious but what we do the insanity of it all is that we as humans we bear down we grit our teeth we dig our Hills in and we continue to trust that we got this it's a dog fight we're bruised we're beaten up but we've got this we don't need God we're going to figure it out we're going to just recreate and redefine and continue to do that in our pride we will make our

world better we will Define the boundaries or redefine the boundaries of sexuality we will Define and redefine the boundaries of success we will Define redefine the boundaries of right and wrong we will continue to do this and redefine everything until we figure out right and wrong and then something that is actually alleviating our anxiety and I'm not going to shy away from this statement which is going to be controversial but the State of the Union address this past week provided a great example of what I just said in reality it's just true we are continuing to just redefine and just make things up in order

to seek The Pursuit of Happiness without actually trusting God's design for us and the root of all of that is pride it's Pride we know better than the one who created everything I'll give you two examples one that's not so controversial and the second that is very controversial number one God tells us we need to Sabbath we need to rest we need to sleep so he designed us to sleep and you're aware of that because you lost an hour of it last night but Pride says I'm going to work and I'm never going to rest I'll sleep when I die how many people have heard

that saying before but if you continue with that mindset and you just overwork and overwork and and overwork and never rest in a proper way it actually begins breaking down your body it begins breaking down your mind it actually is a method of just slow suicide slow death because we were designed by God to rest but in our pride we say we don't need it and we go outside of the boundaries and limits that he's given to us again that one's not very controversial you're like amen give me more rest I would love that number two God tells us the design for marriage between a

man and a woman according to the order of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2 he also uses this relationship to be complimentary and mutually beneficial for one another he also uses this relationship to be fruitful and make more image bearers but Pride says I can love whoever I want and we forsake the design of God and the boundaries and the limits that he's put in place for our good and we redefine marriage this is one of the few doctrines where Christianity and evolution actually agree that if we were to go down this route and if everyone abandoned what is natural in God's creation and order

to what is unnatural As Romans 1 says we would actually cease to exist as a population this is actually a concern many have right now even like secular people Elon Musk is a like drastic like he's he's he's so in um um agreement with this idea that we do not have an overpopulation issue and he says like some of the sex sexual Revolution was birthed out of this idea that it's overpopulation issue like just I mean I don't know how he actually ultimately got there but he uses that as a phrase and he says people are now just choosing to either again go into homosexual

types of relationships or even just the sexual revolution of redefining what male and female is or also at the same time just um not having children and waiting as long as possible and he's saying the issue is that we're actually killing ourselves in that same vein because not only are we afraid of overpopulation but now the replacement rate is actually dwindling we're slowly killing ourselves as a society as a people by what we're doing and you're starting to see the fruits of that just in the sexual Revolution that if we were to continue on with this vein we would not replace ourselves down the road

but it's all based on the foundation of pride we don't like status quo which is ultimately sin is what we really don't like but instead of going to God in our pride we redefine and recreate and do whatever it is that we want to do this is why in judges when there was no King It ultimately says they just did what whatever was right in their own eyes whatever was right in their own eyes and as we know it did not go well it only created famine it only created death it only created destruction and fortunately for us the Bible provides for us examples of

what happens when we go down this route it's also unfortunate Proverbs 16 ver 18 says Pride goes before destruction and a hotty Spirit not like hot as in attractive but like Hotty as in prideful Spirit goes before a fall Proverbs 11:2 says when pride comes then comes disgrace Proverbs 29:23 says one's Pride will bring him low and we see this throughout the Old Testament through prophets like Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and even Zephaniah God over and over and over again pronounces judgment against the proud and the Arrogant not just individuals but literally peoples he would pronounce judgment against them one that comes to mind is Moab

and his Descendants the people known as the moabites Moab was the son of lot and lot's daughter so yes you heard that correctly um so you have a nation of people literally born out of sexual perversion immorality promiscuity and what was their character like well the Bible tells us that the moabites were an arrogant people they were a prideful people they were idolatrous and what was God's judgment on them Jeremiah 4842 Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people because he magnified himself against the Lord I mean just think about that like he presented himself greater than the Lord he magnified himself I

mean like when if you're around Christianity long enough you'll hear us say the number one thing we do do is treasure Jesus we magnify Jesus we put Jesus before us so that we fade away in the background and that's actually the most freeing place for you to possibly be it's why John the Baptist who Jesus says in Luke 2 that there's no one greater born of woman than John the Baptist but John the Baptist who had every right to determine himself before people as magnified because he could just say Jesus said this I'm greater than all of you but what John says is he must

increase I must decrease that's the most freeing place for us to be it's a hum it's it's a it's a humble place to be and then Zephaniah 2:9 goes on to say therefore as I live declares the Lord of hosts the god of Israel Moab shall become like Sodom and the ammonites like Gora a land possessed by Nettles and salt pits and a waste forever the remant of my people shall plunder them and the survivors of my nation shall possess them he's ultimately saying there in if they continue on in their arrogance and in their pride and in magnifying themselves ultimately I'm going to take

what's weaker and plunder their Kingdom let me draw a bit of comparison by contrast here the pride and arrogance gave way to their judgment condemnation d ruction which in some ways makes us a little nervous about the state of America right I like if that's God's judgment on those who consider themselves prideful and arrogant and do whatever they want to do in their eyes I mean that's where we're we're not heading there we're there we're there as an American like we are not a Christian Nation we're not even though you can draw conclusions in our Declaration of Independence that it says we are a nation

under God again just like we have said when it comes to mission and vision statements of our church just because you put something on paper does not mean that's what's cultivated culture does not mean that's that's what you're doing what are we doing as a nation well what we're doing as a nation even though we were founded by and and I feel like this is so political but anyways we're just going to go with it even though we were founded by Puritans who came over with Christian principles and worked it into the Declaration of Independence in order that we would be able to live under

not the rights of our government that we created but under the rights of what God has bestowed to us as created human beings who are bearing the image of God that's what he's created that's where our rights come from our rights are not given to us as a pastor joshon down in Dallas Texas um said at this last week like like if the government gives you your rights the government can take away your rights but if your rights are defined by God alone then nobody can take that away from you but what we have done is we have gone away from that that was what

we were founded upon in our pride we've walked away from that and we said no no we can redefine things ourselves we can live our our own way and do our own things and we don't need the rights from God we'll create our own rights and it never goes well for us that's why now I consider ourselves from an East Coast persp perspective postchristian and from a West Coast perspective pre-christian what I'm saying is is when we settled and colonized Christianity spread but it left the east coast and it never got to the West Coast and at the end of the day we're fighting in

the middle and they're saying that you just get the Bible Belt that's left but the reality is is we're apostate at this point as a nation we are not believing in God as a nation we are not looking to him to create or Define what we do as a people doesn't mean that there aren't people within it that are believers and that are Christian and that are trusting and believing in the Lord that's what the churches are doing hopefully and we're hoping that God hasn't gave us over to the Judgment as a people as a nation I mean we're still so young in this only

250 years or so but the reality is is that if we continue continue on and we don't let Jesus come in if we continue on in our pride as a nation it doesn't go well for us according to what we've seen in the nations of scripture it doesn't go well for us it just makes you a little nervous but before I go down too far down the path of Doom and Gloom there is some good news Proverbs 11:2 as I said when pride comes then comes disgrace but with the humble is wisdom wisdom Proverbs 29:23 one's Pride will bring him low but he who is

lowly in spirit will obtain honor what we actually have in today's message is this comparison contrast of two feasts the Feast of the Pharisees and the future Feast of the kingdom of God the Feast of the Pharisees as observed by Jesus is filled with prideful guests arrogant guests who come in and they see the great seats they see the places of honor and they say we're going to go and sit in those because we believe that's where we should be and he's saying in the Kingdom there's a different economy there's a different mentality that we have in the Kingdom versus what they're seeing here look

at it in verse seven 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 let someone more distinguished in 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 lowest place but when you are 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 t with you and this is our memory verse that we're doing for this this month and so if you haven't memorized it yet this is a good opportunity for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but he who humbles himself will be exalted in other words what Jesus is saying here is hey when you're invited to a wedding don't assume you're the best man or the maid of honor like don't assume that don't I mean how awkward would that be if you go to a wedding and you're invited

and I like I show up and I just go and I don't even sit in the best man spot I go and join him up at the altar and just start standing there and all of a sudden the the groom has to be like dude what are you doing like go sit over there don't even sit there like go sit at the like go to the back corner please like this is embarrassing and then in shame you have to walk all the way back over there why because Pride put you in a place that you did not belong that you did not belong one of

the things that I do um because it's just it's cringeworthy when you when you see it happen and for those who are present watching it happen it's it's just so uncomfortable I believe that's why Proverbs 11:2 says that following pride comes that idea of disgrace disgrace one of the things I do almost daily with my sons is is I I put all their kind of actions choices behaviors whatever you want to call it um I always put them in two categories and so if I if I pull them in if I sit down with them and we're talking about something that they've done wrong or

something that they've done right um we just give them two categories foolish and wise foolish and wise and and I've taken that from Solomon's uh practice in Proverbs because that's what he does with his sons who are incredibly foolish Sons like Solomon is like I have amassed this incredible wisdom and wealth and I'm leaving it to imbeciles I mean that's essentially what he says but like Proverbs was his his like uh ditch effort to like try to give some type of wisdom to these sons and hope that they would ultimately follow it but it is a book full of wisdom and it is separating actions

words Deeds thoughts the whole nine yards it's separating it into two categories foolish and wise foolish and wise and Jesus is taking this opportunity to teach the guests at the dinner party that what he is observing in their behavior is foolish is foolish and is then going to teach them hey here would be the wise way to enter into a wedding feast and conduct yourself don't put yourself in a position where you are likely going to be knocked down and then disgraced because you believe greater of yourself than what you actually are rather what you should do even if you do belong in that spot

you place yourself at the very lowest point of the room in order to have those honor or show honor by then exalting and lifting you to a place whether you deserve it or not a place that they deem is appropriate for you is appropriate for you for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled a shameful process I might add but he who humbl himself will be exalted an honoring process and so the question to be asked is like do we want to conduct ourselves in a shameful way or in an honorable way like would we prefer to operate in all of our life in a

prideful way because we're trying to put our best foot forward we're trying to put ourselves in a position where we're better than we are but the the the reality is at some point all it's going to do is create disgrace it's going to knock you off of what you think you are and it just never goes well for you it never goes well for you and and just so that we know like nobody likes that person right like nobody likes that person when you're around them and all they ever talk about are their accolades or their achievements or how much how how smart they are

or whatever it is like it's it's easy when you're from Tennessee because you don't have a lot to pretend on but like it's it it's nobody likes the person that only talks about themsel nobody likes that person and the Bible is trying to help us out the the Bible is literally Jesus is like hey just honor like out and that's why I think he says in Romans 12 like outdo one another in showing honor like he almost makes it like a competitive game like when you when you get around your friends like try to outdo one another in talking about one another in a positive

way in lifting up and exalting each other in talking about how one another is uh what you are experiencing in them that is representative of Christ like how you are seeing that they are growing in their godliness and that that they're growing in their righteousness and honestly like almost to the points where it's probably going to be uncomfortable for them because you feel like like they're feeling like you're looking look at them like they're prideful or something looking at them like they're exalted or something like please stop please stop but this is something that is honoring of one another honoring of the IMO day that

we see in one another versus you trying to like put your aod day up on a pedestal and so the question is then how do we do this how do we do this because if if how many times have you heard what you need to do is humble yourself but then it's like it that becomes a prideful thing does it not like it feels so backwards humble yourself okay well I'm GNA walk in I'm gonna go sit in the lowest spot and then now that I'm sitting in the lowest spot who's going to come and move me up higher like this idea of and and

that's where like it's really hard to tell the difference between worldly humility in Pride because in a in a way they kind of are still the same thing what is a Biblical humility like how at the end of the day how does God actually humble us and to be honest with you like that's the truth it's God who humbles you so even when we say you are to humble yourself he who humbles himself will be exalted even you don't have the ability to humble yourself you don't you don't have the ability to humble yourself and I'm going to show you this in Philippians 2 so

go ahead and turn over there with me Philippians 2 1-18 because again the Bible is so good because God wrote it it's so good that it again always points to Jesus Christ as being the perfect example of not only what he did but also that what he did was earned for you so that when he gives it to you you're then able to walk in it with his power not your own because again if it's if it's your own power then it's just your own Pride you need something outside of you to Humble you because if it's if it's coming from you then even if

it's you trying to humble yourself it's still prideful does that make sense okay Philippians 2 1-18 here we go 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 do nothing that that's just Paul talking to the Philippians talking to the church saying guys if if you've experienced anything of Jesus stay in the same mind that it comes from Jesus and that that it's not coming from you it's not coming from anything else it's

coming ultimately from Christ you receed received this and you've participated in it by way of receiving it you're the benefactor of it not the one who acted is the active agent of it which is why in verse three he begins to say what he says do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves Let each of you look not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus so he's saying the only way that you can have that humility the only way that you can

have that mind the only way that you can have that mentality is if it is ultimately in Christ Jesus and then he gives us the example of what Jesus did to actually provide for us that way of life verse six who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but empty 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 that's a humbling that's a humbling place you don't bow to someone that you believe you're better than every knee will bow in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord which is again that's not just saying all right uh Jesus you can you can help me feed figure out how to Define sexuality or hey Jesus maybe help me out like I'm struggling with finances maybe help me out with finances a little bit like it's not compartmentalizing Jesus as

just a part of your self-help routine it's saying no Jesus you're you're Lord so you're in charge of my life you're in charge of my sexuality you're in charge of my finances you're in charge of my discipleship you're in charge of my family you're in charge of my possessions you're Lord like render to Caesar what is his like you owe it to him he's Lord Jesus is Lord and we render to Jesus our entire existence he's Sovereign over it that's what he's saying here when when you see Jesus and you're humbled because of his greatness it put you in a position where you are declaring

to him bowing to you you I'm humbled because of you I am not better than you I am not greater than you I am not smarter than you but rather I am letting you and when I say letting you you are dictating everything in my life because you are of God you are God you are eternity past present and future you are the I am you deser designed everything that's what Colossians 1 says from him for him through him everything is upheld everything was created through Christ so when we look at this like there's nothing that we can create that's where pride comes from but

when we see Jesus for who he truly is it humbles us we bow down before him and we confess that he is Lord over our life not us not us us and that's a good thing that's why he says to the glory of God the father that's a good thing that that produces Worship in us when we live in that posture of him being Lord and we are not he continues on therefore my beloved that therefore again it's always connecting a chain of thoughts therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure what he's saying there is like that therefore you working out your salvation with fear and trembling is because Jesus Christ in everything that he did in humbling himself taking on the form of a bonder servant serving Us by living out the life that we could not live serving Us by dying the death that we deserve to die because we were prideful and arrogant and because judgment was cast down on us he then took our judgment for us because he

then was then exalted by God for himself going and being put in the place of humility because of all of that we work out our Salvation not in our pride and in our arrogance not because we believe God uh should save us because there's anything in us that is good we don't come to the table of Salvation and say hey God I um man I I've been going to church my whole life or hey I helped an old lady cross the road or hey I've done more good than I've done bad and so therefore you should save me like you should save me you should

give me salvation you should forgive me of the Lesser things that I've done wrong because there's more better things that I've done in my life like no we we work out our salvation with fear and trembling because we actually come to the Lord in fear and trembling because when we see him we see that every aspect of our life in our sin deserves death it deserves separation from God and so when we're presented to the all perfect almighty God in our sin we're a little nervous that's why we always say the gospel is bittersweet because it at first exposes who you are in your sin

apart from Christ and what you come to conclusion is I deserve hell and then the Bible's clear that there's nothing I can do to fix it there's nothing I can do to help myself I need divine intervention in this moment and then he extends us the grace and it as it says it is God who then Works in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure in Saving and removing your sin and granting you the righteousness of Christ therefore that then moves over into verses 14 where we begin working that out do all things without grumbling or disputing why because we're in

the position of Grace We're in the position of receiving like we're in the position where there should be nothing in us that says well we we we deserve to be in the high place we deserve to be in the best seat we deserve to have something done for us in a nice way we deserve to have you reach out to me constantly like like you owe me something no God has granted to us as a gift by grace everything and therefore we should just be completely 100% in gratitude grateful ful and then do all things without grumbling or disputing why because it's humbled us it's

humbled us that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ I may be I might be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain now that's interesting because the whole thing is about don't be prideful but here's Paul is saying that I'm doing this so that I might be proud that I did R did not run in vain or labor in vain what he actually is prideful about

is the ministry that God has given him to take the gospel to Sinners just like him when he says I am the chief of all Sinners and and that's not like I I was the chief of all Sinners he says I am the chief of Sinners he's like there there's nothing in me that deserves his apostleship that deserves his ministry that deserves any of that he said I'm the chief of Sinners what I am proud of what I am boasting is is that God has included a sinner in the ministry of God creating Saints we're boasting in the work that Jesus is doing in us

not what we attempt to do for ourselves as he goes on to say even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith I am glad and rejoice with y'all what he basically means by that is I'm proud to be a part of this ministry even if it means that this ministry kills me kills me like that that he becomes a martyr that's what he means by being poured out as a drink offering which actually ends up being what happens to him it's what happens to him and it actually goes on like this idea of humbling

yourself and I mean like I'm telling if you just go back and read the early church fathers first century second century third Century this was like normative mentality among them to be so much like Jesus that they were excited to be persecuted to the point of death excited I mean you heard me mention Ignatius of Antioch um probably about a month ago who on his way to Rome as he's writing a letter there and he is assured that when he gets there he's going to be put on trial um because he was continuing to do uh marriages when the Roman Emperor outlawed them but he

was like no I want to do what God's design is I want to bless these young couples and I want to marry them and so he continued to do that but then he gets put on trial for it and they send him to Rome and as he's on his way to Rome knowing that what is going to happen is he's going to be thrown to the Lions he writes a letter to his friends that are in Rome who actually have positions of of of high privilege and high status in the Roman Empire and in the Senate and he tells them do do not use your

status to in any way alter what their um what their judgment on me is ultimately going to be don't even let them give me a lesser sentence he means he's like I'm excited to be able to come and essentially be poured out as a drink offering for the Lord because in his view it is the best place to be when it comes to taking the lowest seat so that God in heaven will highly exalt you like they had this mentality that what is most Christ honoring is to literally be brought down to the lowest place possible on Earth which at that time was being thrown

to the Lions and just being tortured for your belief because you're an idiot is what they were they were believing as a Roman society and that's exactly what happens he gets thrown to the Lions he even goes on to say it's just insane he was like um even if the Lions don't seem excited he was like I'm going to entice them he's like I want to make sure and like if you read it he's like I want to make sure that they rip me limb from limb insane but he's so boasting in what that does for the ministry of the Gospel advancing and for it

showing the weakness of humanity and displaying the strength of God God in the midst of opposition and persecution he's saying there's nothing else to put that on display any more than that alone and he's saying so that in itself is showing us that Jesus Christ uses what would be the most humbling types of experiences suffering death persecution in order to then Elevate and magnify his strength in US magnify his Beauty in the midst of what the world would say is not very beautiful and so this is the mentality that we are to have is to have the same mind of Christ and exactly what he

did where he left his I mean just think about the story he left his privilege and Status at the right hand of God and his entrance into our world I mean he could have just Just Dropped In as the second Eternal infinite person of the Trinity and said hey I'm I just going to go straight to the Cross let's just do this let's knock this out but no he I'm going to go to the low I'm going to start out as an infant as a baby in a trough like not even like the Renaissance like not even the you know a resort like give me

something like no I'm going to start off in a barn and among amidst the mud and the poop and where that's is where we're going to go and then I'm going to live as a carpenter for 30 years a lowly position and then I'm going to minister and I'm not going to go and like man I got to really put together the a team and so let's get some Senators let's get some you know religious Elites let's get some of these Pharisees on our team no he's like Hey where's the where's the dummies at like let's go get them let's go get the uneducated and

so he starts pulling in the fisherman the only one educated of the 12 was literally Judas which says something God took what was considered weak in the world humble and exalted it and showed his strength through it that's what Tim Keller always referred to as Kingdom economics to us it doesn't make sense but to God it's beautiful it's beautiful and so we don't want to pursue Pride because again there's nothing for us to be prideful about there's absolutely nothing and that's I think the insanity of our world is that we're prideful about borrowed design like there's nothing new Under the Sun there's nothing like everything

we have is from God and pride is saying it's not from God we did it and then we don't even do it well but then put our stamp of approval on it and say look how awesome we are as a society I mean Tower of Babel that was dumb it just was let's build a tower to the heavens I mean how dumb do you have to be but they invested everything into it everything into it and then the greatest gift of God is let me let me make them dumber and let me confuse them and let me scatter them so that I don't give them

over to their divine like that's what God does in a beautiful way in a beautiful way he humbles us he humbled them then I mean could you imagine being best friends with someone and all of a sudden you're like I can't understand I can't understand you anymore like what is happening like it humbles you it just shows us how limited we actually are and how infinitely unlimited God is the best posture to do or be and live in is seeing him as Lord and his what he's capable of and realizing what we are incapable of you cannot humble yourself but what you can do is

look to Jesus and when you continue looking at Jesus you'll be humbled you'll be humbled let's pray together father we thank you so much for your word to us we thank you that it is a word that does not return void but it is one that challenges us on a daily basis it exposes our faults our failures our Falls it exposes our limits it exposes our pride it exposes our our idiocy all of those things but it also exposes you it exposes your beauty it exposes your Glory your Perfection your character the word exposes that you sent your son Jesus in a place of humility

even to the point of death on a cross to also humble us and God we we just we would never write the story that way if we were writing the story King Saul would have slayed Goliath if we were writing the story there would have never been a flood because we would have figured something out if we were writing the story Peter does not deny you three times but we didn't write the story the story reveals us it exposes us and we're proud prideful and we're arrogant and God we ask that you humble Us by simply revealing yourself to us it's in your name we

pray amen would you go ahead and stand with me as we enter into our time of communion together Philippians 2 again is just such a beautiful passage that shows us what we are celebrating that he humbled himself to the point of of death on a cross and his death on a cross was not to just prove a point it wasn't that the enemy won but it was his way of showing that he was laying his life down in order to grant us Grace in order to grant us forgiveness in order to provide for us the only way necessary for us to actually be able to

come back in relationship with God for that Amo day that I was talking about in our pride and in our arrogance we are presenting the Amo day fractured Bren and God is coming to restore that amod day with his character with his spirit with his design so that when we do live our lives humbled it actually rightly reflects God and he looks so good in it he looks so good in it this is what humbles us when we see that Jesus broke his body that should have been you should have been me that he shed his blood that should have been yours and it should

have been mine but he did it for us because even our sacrifice even well even our death wouldn't have been enough and we would have lived in it for eternity but his death was enough and that's why we're able to have life for eternity and so if you believe that message that that is what Jesus has done for you he lived the perfect life you could not live he died the death that you deserved and because it satisfied the wrath of God God Rose him three days later from the grave guaranteeing for us new life in him if you believe that message then we invite

you to come grab the elements bring them back to your seat and we will partake together worshiping Jesus bowing down to to him for who he is and what he's done for us so I invite you up to come grab the elements