Humility or Humiliation Luke 14:1-14

Humility or Humiliation Luke 14.1-14

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

humility, Pharisees, Sabbath healing, wedding banquet, place of honor, exalted, humbled, legalism, prosperity gospel, self-centeredness, divine passes, practical humility, invitation, servant's heart, God's grace

Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Thank you for the life that you gave so that we could have life in his name. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen, go ahead and have a seat. And I was thinking over the last several weeks we've been going through Luke. Luke chapter 14 is where we're going to pick up today. So if you have your Bibles, go to Luke chapter 14. And one of the things that is a recurring theme throughout Luke's gospel, and has really hit hard today, is this idea of humility. And humility is something that we all need, right? Every single one of us can be more humble. In fact, thinking about humility, I came across, or I was thinking about this meme that has been floating around the internet for several years now, and I'm going to read to you what it is, and it's from the theologian, Snoop Dogg, I'm just kidding. He's not a theologian, okay? But this is he's given a speech, okay? And he's and this is what he says. I want to thank me for believing in me. I want to thank me for doing all of this hard work. I want to thank me for having no days off. I want to thank me for never quitting. I want to thank me for always being a giver and trying to give more than I receive. I want to thank me for trying to do more right than wrong. I want to thank me for being me at all times. Snoop Dogg. And then he uses some expletive anyway. And then it says, After that, he shortly after that, he thanks God. So it starts with, I want to thank me. I want to thank me. I want to thank me. And then he says, I want to thank God. And I think that's part of the problem in our culture today, is that we have a lack of humility when it comes to who we are in the face of who God is. And that's why some of those songs were were chosen this morning to sing the the first song all creatures of our God and King, every thing in creation sings praises to the Lord. God is indescribable. His love for us and His grace towards us is indescribable. And then we get to praise Him, because He saved us even when we were sinners in rebellion against Him. And so as we read through Luke chapter 14, verses one through 14, I want us to really think about this aspect of humility. What does it mean for us to come before the face of God? So I'm going to begin, and I'm going to read that real quick, and it says this in verse one. It says one Sabbath, when he went in to eat at the house of one of the leading Pharisees, they were watching him closely. There in front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid. In response, Jesus asked the law experts and the Pharisees, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day or not? But they kept silent. He took the man, healed him and sent him away, and to them, he said, Which of you whose son or ox falls into a well will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day, they could find no answer to these things. He told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they would choose the best places for themselves. When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don't sit in the place of honor, because a more distinguished person than you may be invited. Have been invited by your host. Those who invited both of you may come and say to you, give your place to this man. And then, in humiliation, you will proceed to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, He will say to you, friend, move up higher, you will then be honored in the presence of the other guest. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted also. He also said to the one who had invited him, when you give a lunch or dinner, don't invite your friends, your brothers or your sisters, your relatives or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid on the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame and blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. We read that, and we listen to the words of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus, and we go, man, Jesus really harps on this idea of humility. Why do we need to be humble? What is so important to Jesus that humility is one of these things that he continues to put forward. We have to remember who he's talking to. He's talking to the Pharisees, and these Pharisees were ones who were puffing themselves up because they were good. We'll talk about them a little bit more because they thought they were good. We'll talk about them a little bit more in a minute, but that they were the religious elite at the time. But it's not just Jesus who talks about humility, okay, the reason why the scriptures continue to. Point out humility is because it is so easy for us, as creatures created in the image of God, as human beings, to puff ourselves up and to make ourselves seem more important than than we are. We see this time and time again, humble yourselves before the Lord, fear the LORD, pursue the Lord, all these things. And Paul in Galatians chapter one, six through 10, admonishes the Galatians church, and he admonishes them for abandoning the gospel that he heard. I just want us to and I'll make a connection just a second, but I want you to listen to what he said. I think I have slides for this. Galatians one, six through 10, it says this, I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ, and you are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another gospel, but there are some who troubling you and who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him, as we have said before, I now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse beyond him. For Am I trying to persuade people or God, or am I trying to or am I striving to please people? If I were striving to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Now what's happening, just real quick, in the Galatians church and the church in Galatia is that they have been infiltrated by what are called Judaizers. And these Judaizers are coming to these believers and saying, in order to be a full fledged follower of Jesus, you must be circumcised. There is a step that you have to take. It's not just belief in following Jesus, so you have to have a physical sign. Okay, so this circumcision, this legal legalism, has creeped into the church, and for us, some, sometimes it's legalism, but our issue is that there's a gospel that is a different gospel than the gospel that you are a sinner who needs grace that has infiltrated the church on a large scale, and that is the prosperity gospel. Now we don't preach the prosperity gospel here, okay, but it is prevalent. If you turn on the TV and you watch a preacher on the TV, you're going to hear little drippings of the prosperity gospel. If you drive by some of the bigger churches around, you're going to know that they probably preach the prosperity gospel, the the gospel that tells you that following Jesus will make your life happy, that it will make you that you're you will be healthy, that you will be wealthy, that Jesus is a slot machine, that we approach and we can pull a handle, and then he's going to make our lives great. Okay, that's the prosperity gospel. And why is this a trap for us today? In 21st century America, it's a trap today because we love ourselves too much. We think of ourselves too much. Some of us, actually, if you listen to the video of of Snoop Dogg, when he's giving that speech that I want to thank me, people start laughing at first, and then they're applauding next because they're like, oh, you know what that that I should thank me, because I've done all of this I should do. I should lift myself up and elevate myself. But the problem is, is that Jesus and and Paul here is saying, contrary to that, that in order to be a follower of Jesus, in order to live a life that honors him, we cannot puff ourselves up. And in fact, we need to pursue humility. So the prosperity gospel grabs onto our hearts, into our minds, because we want to be the most important thing in the world. We want to be the most important thing in our lives, in the lives of our children, in the lives of our family, in the lives of our work. We want to be the most important and Jesus is saying, if that is you, then you don't know me. That's the That's the hard hitting truth there. In order to follow Christ, we cannot come to him expecting stuff from him as if we deserve it, as if he owes it to us, as if, if I follow you Jesus, then I need these things from you. Jesus has already given the greatest gift, and he gave himself. He died on the cross for our sins so that we could have a relationship with God, and if we come to him begging and asking and demanding more from him, then we don't understand the weightiness of our sins. We don't understand how broken we truly are. We don't understand how much in a rebellion we actually were. And so we have to fight against the temptation to give into that gospel that I'm following you Jesus, and I need something from you, so I'll follow you as long as you do what I ask you to do. Okay, so humility is approaching God knowing that you have nothing to offer him, and going, thank you, Lord for what you've given me. Thank you Lord for the fact that you've called me son and daughter. Now, as I was talking about earlier, these Pharisees is who's Jesus is talking to. Now, I learned something this morning. Uh, more the Yeah, I guess it was this morning I was listening to, I was listening to a video of a guy preaching the sermon talks about Pharisees, and they gave themselves that name, Pharisees. Do you know what Pharisee means? It means the separated ones they have titled themselves, the separated ones that they're different and distinct from everyone. Now the the Pharisees arose in this time period called the inter testamental period. And the inter testamental period is simply the period between when the Old Testament closes out and the New Testament begins. Okay, there's this, what's called the 400 years of silence between Malachi and Matthew and during that time of silence, these Pharisees thought that, you know, what we should do is we should start making laws, and we should start being holy. And if we're holy, and if we're separated, if we are perfect, even just one day, then God would send the Messiah. That's what their thought was, okay, and so they separated themselves out. They made a list of rules that they had to follow. They made a list of of expectations, not just for themselves, but for all of the people who follow Judaism, because they knew what happened when they abandoned the law of God. Right in the Old Testament, we see time and time again, the Israelites abandoned the the law of God, and God judges them, right? There's justice that is done. So they're like, what we need to do is we need to not just listen to the law of God. We need to add to the law of God. And so then we come to this, this Sabbath controversy. Now I know that you guys are tired of listening about Sabbath controversies there. There are three in the book of Luke and this is the final one we talked about one a couple weeks ago, where this woman came in and she was bent over. Remember, she was bent over, and she couldn't even stand up straight, and the Lord heals her. But this is the third Sabbath controversy that happens. I'm going to read just verses one through six, if you want to follow along. It says this one Sabbath he went in to eat at the house of one of the leading Pharisees, they were watching him closely. There in front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid. In response, Jesus asked the law expert experts and the Pharisees, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they kept silent. He took the man, healed him, and sent him away. And to them, he said, which one of you whose son or ox falls into a well will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? They could find no answer to these things. So Jesus is going to a dinner. We we talked about before that in the Gospel of Luke, like, either Jesus is leaving a dinner, he's going to a dinner, or he's at a dinner. That's kind of the where Jesus is. And so he's at a dinner. And from the best that we can tell, there is an entrapment thing kind of happening here. Like, this is a setup from the get go, this man with with Dropsy or full of fluid, we call it a demon now, right? So he's full of fluid, he's swollen, he his he's showing signs of a terminal illness. He he looks like he's about to die. And he's invited to this party and this dinner party, and he's sitting there, and I want you to listen to what Luke says in verse one. He says they were watching him closely. They were examining Jesus closely. They were trying to assess the ominous tone that they're trying to entrap Jesus into doing something that goes against their roles and goes against their laws. And so it's it's kind of they're watching him closely to to trap him and say, aha. We got you again. We got you again. Jesus, you're not the Messiah. You're not who you claim to be. So they're trying to to do that. And so this man with this horrible affliction is used as a pawn by the religious elite to try to trap Jesus. His body is swollen, his chest is swollen. He's probably going into organ failure. And to them, this man is unclean and immoral, and he's simply a tool being used by them to try to trap Jesus. And Jesus knows what he they're doing. And so as they see Jesus, Jesus sees this man. As they're watching Jesus closely, Jesus sees this man. It's kind of like what happened when he was talking about the woman, or what when Luke was telling us the story about the woman who was bent over, when it says that Jesus saw her, Jesus sees this man who is in pain. Jesus sees this man who has been tormented, and he knows what they're trying to do. And I love what Luke tells us that Jesus says He looks at the Pharisees. What does he say? Is it lawful to heal this man or to heal on the Sabbath or not? It's almost as if Jesus is being a little bit snarky here, he's going, Hey, this guy that you brought here, is it okay for me to heal him on the Sabbath? He's not asking for permission, but he's pointing out their hypocrisy. Is it okay? I know what you've done the two previous times that I've healed somebody on the Sabbath. So is it going to be. Okay if I heal this man. In fact, if we look back at at Luke, chapter six, verse 11, after he healed somebody, it said that they, being the Pharisees, however, were filled with rage and starting, started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus. There's an anger towards Jesus, and so Jesus looks at them and says, Hey, is it okay? And then when he healed the woman who had been bent over in verse chapter 13, verse 17, it says this, When he had said these things, all his adversaries were humiliated, so they went from being angry to being humiliated. And then when he asked them this question, and after he heals this man, they're silenced, because Jesus is not going to be intimidated by these men. Jesus is not going to be intimidated by them. He's going to do what he came to do, which is to restore those who are broken, to free those who have been lost, to to to resurrect those who are dead in their sins and trespasses. So see, Jesus saw this man, and he said, Is it lawful to heal him on the Sabbath? He wanted a response. He was waiting for them to respond, but they knew that they had entered into a trap, that if they responded yes, go ahead and heal him, then they would be verifying that Jesus can heal him, and if they said no, then they're going to be contributing to this man's pain and suffering. So instead of saying anything, they just were silent, because the hang up wasn't on the healing. They they didn't have a problem with the healing. The hang up was on the timing of the healing. Don't heal on the Sabbath. But like we pointed out in chapter 13, and here they would be fine with doing the things that they deem Okay, saving their son from a ditch, or pulling their ox out of their ditch, or or feeding their ox or their donkey. They're okay with those things. They're just not okay with what Jesus is doing. Jesus understood the real purpose of the Sabbath. The real purpose of the Sabbath was healing, was restoration, was worship, was rest. And this man hadn't, with all the fluid on his body, hadn't rested in a long time, the pain was real, and Jesus wanted to provide for this man rest. He wanted to provide for this man restoration. He wanted to provide for this man, healing, and so he doesn't give another trap. Their pride wouldn't let them see the character of God. So so if they truly knew the heart of God, they truly knew who God was, they would know that the restoration of this man was what God wanted. That God wanted healing like it wasn't just about healing on the Sabbath. God the good things that God does. God doesn't do on the timetable of other people, right? God does good things when he sees fit, and Jesus saw fit, that on the Sabbath day, this man's healing was necessary. The problem with the Pharisees is they thought that healing or they they thought that their worship was the only way to worship, was the only right way to worship. And so Jesus heals this man. Now, I would love to be there for just one healing of Jesus, right? That would have been amazing to see this, this man who was swollen, all that liquid, all that water in his body, dissipates. It's gone. Where'd it go? I don't know, but just think about that. They're seeing this man. They the ones who invited this man in, get to see this man deflate for all intents and purposes and witness a miracle, and they don't rejoice. They're not excited to see the work of God. Instead, there's they're silent at Jesus because he's doing what they don't want him to do. He's doing what he was sent to do, and yet they don't like it. So let me ask you this, are you sometimes, like the Pharisees, where you think that there's a timetable when you can do good, like I can only do good on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, or I can only do good on Tuesdays, Thursdays, when the reality is it's like for us as believers, we should be seeking and pursuing good all the time, anytime there it's available for us. We can't regulate doing good things to just certain days. We can't be like the Pharisees and say we only do good or we don't ever do good on Sundays. You know why? Because Sundays is my day, my day of rest, my day of restoration, my day of worship. We can walk by the person who's hurting, and we can be like, hey, we'll come back tomorrow. What you're doing, you'll be here tomorrow, right? Because we'll help you tomorrow. This is my day. And how often do we do that? That this is my day. I'm not going to do the things that I wanted or that I should do instead. I'm just going to let you be and then I'll come back when it's convenient for me, when it's the right thing for me. What I want us to think about is our calling as agents of Christ, our calling as ambassadors of the kingdom of God, is to do good when good needs to be done, and when does good need to be done, Anytime somebody's hurting, anytime we see somebody who's hurting, that's what Jesus is doing here. He knew the pushback. He knew the blowback that was going to happen by healing this man on the Sabbath. And guess what? He didn't care. He didn't care what kind of inconvenience is it, it may cause him. He was like, This man is hurting, I need to do good. And so he did good, and he healed this man, and this man walked away, and Jesus rejoiced as this man walked away, and they stood silent and dumbfounded, just completely like they did not know how this meeting was going to go. It did not go the way they wanted it to, and yet we can praise God because Jesus did the right thing, no matter the circumstances, and that's what we need to do. The Pharisees, they suffered from Pride, the pride of doing things only one way. This is the only way they can be done, and they have to be done on our timetable when we want to do them. They wanted to bring Jesus slow. But instead of accomplishing that, they are left silent and dumbfounded, and Jesus uses this opportunity to teach little bit further in verses 17 through 11, he told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they would choose the best places for themselves. When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don't sit in the place of honor, because a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by your host. Then one or the one who invited both of you may come to you and say, give this place to this man or to this man, and then, in humiliation, you will proceed to take the lowest, lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, He will say to you, friend, move up higher. You will be honored in the presence of the other guest. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So Jesus uses this opportunity with the Pharisees to tell a parable about a wedding feast. One of Jesus's favorite parables to talk about is wedding feast. Now, in the ancient world, one of the ways that they had their table set up at wedding feast was they were in a big U, okay, and at the the top or the bottom of the U, depending on how you view it, would be the guest of honor, and then the people sitting closest to him would be those who were the most important to that person. So like the groom, would sit in the middle, and then his, like we would his best men, would sit on either side of him, or that, or whatever. Want to however want to parse that out, but what is presumptuous is to go and be just because you're invited to the party, to walk up and sit at the table of the groom. Just imagine if you were invited to a wedding, and you know, you're just friends with the person, and then you walk up to the groom's groom and bride, and you just sit down next to him, and you're like, hey, here I am. Aren't you glad to see me? That's what Jesus is talking about here. How presumptuous Is it of the person who has been invited to the wedding to just go and sit in the most prominent place at the table? And so Jesus saying, Don't do that. See, he had observed this. He had seen the people at the party want to go sit at the the leader of the Pharisees party's table, and he says, Hey, as I'm watching you guys, I know you were watching me, but as I'm watching you, what are you doing? Why do you think it's so important to sit there? In fact, he says, Hey, if you sit there, and then the host comes to you and says, Hey, why don't you move down? How humiliating would that be? Now you've gotta get up in front of everybody, and you gotta it's now made known that you aren't as important as you think you are. In fact, Jesus has observed this behavior before in Luke chapter 11, verse 43 and he's talking about the synagogues here, but he says, Woe to you Pharisees. You love to sit the front seat in the synagogues and the greetings and the greetings in the marketplace. You love to be seen. You love to be seen as important, or to make yourself be viewed as important. And this is why they the Pharisees, can't ever understand really, what Jesus talking about, because they're always jockeying for position. They're always jockeying for important status and stature. They want to be seen and known as the most important people in the room. They're trying to get ahead rather than sit at the rightful spot. So. These men were looking for the Messiah. They were waiting for the Messiah to come and save them, and he's standing right in front of them. But because of their pride, because of their arrogance, they can't see him. They can't see the one standing in front of them, saying, Hey, I'm the one that the Lord has sent. And the problem is, is that it's not much different for many of us today, our desire for glory and honor here in this on this planet, on this earth, is pointed in the wrong direction. We want to be seen. We want to be heard. We want to be the most important. And Jesus tells us in verse 11, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. If you don't have humility, you will eventually be humiliated. That's just the way that that's that's a that's a joshism, I guess, for what Jesus just said, If you do not have humility, you will eventually be humiliated. It may not happen on earth, but it will happen at the judgment seat, right when you're standing before the Lord. If you don't have humility, you will be humiliated, and the wrath of God will be poured out on you. When I was thinking about this text, I was thinking about the person who makes his way up to the most important part of the table, wants to be seen, wants to be heard. They think they have something to offer. And so I've told this story before, but I think I don't know if everybody heard it. When we moved from North Texas to North Carolina after I'd finished my bachelor's degree in Biblical studies, I went to North Carolina going, there has to be somebody here who needs me. There has to be a church here who wants me to serve. I mean, why wouldn't they? I'm awesome, right? That that was the mindset and the heart set that I had, like, there's God is is moving us to North Carolina. So somebody has to need me there. And guess what? God used that time to humble me. God used that time to go, no Josh, you need me. Nobody needs you. And that was hard, because I went from waiting tables and going to school in North Texas to then going and waiting tables and going to school in North Carolina with no real change. And I was like, surely God, like, come on, we're listening to you. We're doing what you asked us to do that you you've called us here for a greater purpose. And I will tell you that my takeaway from that time in North Carolina was the greatest. The greater purpose that the Lord called us there to was to humble me, to humiliate me, to cause me to recognize who I am. And that was a hard lesson to learn, but I tell you what it is, probably the most valuable lesson that the Lord has ever taught me, and honestly he's still teaching me like I still struggle with a lack of humility. I still struggle thinking that, you know, I'm bigger, or, as mama used to say, right? I'm too big for my britches. I still struggle with that. But the Lord is teaching, and one of the things that Jesus promises here is not only that, if you are, if you go to the table, or if you think that you're you're exalting yourself, that you will be humble. But he says that those who enter into with humility will be exalted. That if you come to the Lord with humble, with a humble heart and humble spirit. He will lift you up. He will, will make you, will exalt you. We don't know what that looks like, right? Ultimately, it looks like this, fact that one of these days, we will enter into glory, and we will be with the Savior for all eternity. We'll get to sit at his table and worship and and just enjoy the feast of the Lamb. That's the that's the exaltation that we're looking for. But we don't know how it's going to play out, but we can trust the Lord that he said it and it's going to happen. And I want us to know that those those phrases, that the one who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Those are what they say in the Greek divine passes. These are works of God, that God is going to humble you, or God is going to exalt you, depending on the position in which you come to him with. And so I don't know about you, but like I told you, being humbled was hard, but now I know it was necessary, and so it's easier to just to bypass the humility or the the humiliation, and just go in with humility. But that's just not the way our hearts usually work. Um, anyway, so we've seen throughout the the new test, or throughout the Gospel of Luke, some perfect examples of humility. I guess you would say we look at Mary when the Lord came to her and. And she says, My life is yours. Whatever you need that's that's a humble spirit, and that's what we need to have. We need to have that kind of humble spirit. We need to not just have the humble spirit of Mary, but we need to have the humble spirit of Jesus. This earlier, Levi read Philippians, chapter two, verse one through 11. And the reason why Paul is writing that so the letter to Philippians is probably the most joyous letter in all the New Testament. And yet Paul knows there's still going to be some problems in Philip and Philippi. And so he's saying, just make sure that you humble yourselves. And the phrase that really hits it is verse five, adopt the same attitude as Christ, Jesus, as believers, as followers of Jesus, we should have the same attitude as Jesus that we don't think too highly of ourselves. Jesus came put on flesh and died for you and for me. There is no greater humility ever demonstrated than God coming to live with man and to die to save us. That is humility, and Jesus is exalted because of that humility. What does it say? So that at the name of verse nine, says, For this very reason, God highly exalted him, giving him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to The glory of God, our Father, for the Christian, humility is an identifier of one who has truly repented. Humility is an identifier of one who has truly given their life to Jesus. We won't come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness if we're not humble, we won't come to Jesus recognizing our sinfulness. If we're not humble, we have to have humility, to love and to serve and to follow Jesus Christ. And then Jesus closes out this section with a example of practical humility, verses 12 through 14, says this. He also said to the one who had invited him, when you give a lunch or dinner, don't invite your friends, your brothers or your sisters, your relatives or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back and you would be repaid. On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame or blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be be repaid at the resurrection of righteousness. So this is practical humility. So again, Jesus is at a dinner party with a bunch of different people. The dinner parties were simply to kind of they weren't just like, come over and have dinner. It's like a social gathering where we get to see the in groups and the out groups, the people who are important. You know, it's kind of like going to a presidential dinner. He doesn't just invite Josh, he invites people who are important to come to the presidential dinner, right? And so it's a who's who list, and Jesus here says, those of you who have the the funds and the ability to invite people to dinner, don't invite your friends. Don't invite people who know you, don't invite people who would offer a quid pro quo for you. Instead offer or invite those who can't offer you anything. That's a demonstration of humility. This is not a tit for tat. Jesus says this isn't to follow after Him and to to love the Lord isn't a tit for tat thing. Instead, it is a a gracious giving to those who have nothing to offer to you, generosity towards those who have nothing to offer to you. And this would be, would have been really scandalous in the first century, because, again, it's all about who you know and what you know, and you don't want to invite them, because, you know, if I invited Susie, instead of inviting John, John, he's going to invite me back. But Susie, she doesn't have a place for me to eat. She doesn't have food and and I've tasted her cooking before, and it's not good, you know, and whatever it is, and so I would rather invite John now. Jesus never is not saying, here, he's not saying, Don't ever invite your friends, don't ever invite your brothers, don't ever invite your sisters. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that when you're thinking about this type of stuff, you need to be concerned with those who can't offer you anything else that it's so easy to want to be around people who can provide for us something that we don't have. But it's humility to invite people over, to be around people, to do ministry with people who can't give you anything. That's what Jesus is saying here, like the heart of the servant is to the heart of the servant. Wants to love Jesus with everything is to give to those who can't give anything back. And this is so amazing to me, because if we think about these parables, these parables are demonstrations of the gospel message. These parables are demonstration of the gospel those who are invited, the ones who went to go sit at the table, at the place of honor, if we want to think about it this way, those were the Israelites who think that they deserve to be there, and they were humiliated because they didn't believe in the Messiah. And then those who came to the party, who said at the end, those are those who trust Jesus, and he moves them to the head of the table, exalting them to be with the honored guest. And then with this one, when we're talking about the one who invited us, there is nothing that we can give to God. There is nothing we are the lame, we are the maid, we are the ones who don't have anything to offer to Jesus, and he invited us to the table, knowing that we could give him nothing. I love this quote from Jonathan Edwards. It says this, you contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. You contribute nothing to your salvation except for the sin that made it necessary, and there you were in rebellion against God. There you were spitting in the face of the Lord, and Jesus says, Come on. I humbly invite you, knowing that you cannot give anything to me, I invite you to partake in the supper. I invite you to partake in the love of God. It's a beautiful picture of what God did for us. So as we leave this place, as we close out with a song, and as we get ready to leave, I want us to think about how we can demonstrate the humility that Jesus has demonstrated to us. How can we go about our lives day to day, knowing that we're not as special as we think we are, no matter what the culture tells you, no matter what your kids tell you, no matter what your parents tell you, you're not as awesome as you think you are, and that's okay. You don't have to be because Jesus is the awesomest, right? He's already been awesome in your place. He's already demonstrated that he loves you, and though you may not be the best, the fact that Jesus invited us in is he is humbling, right? And so we should praise him, and we should thank him, and we should sing songs and live our lives in a way that reflects his glory that reflects him, that imitates him. So who can we demonstrate humility to today doing something that we know we don't want to do, but it's a good thing for us to do, because it's the right thing to do. I'll leave you with that. Let's pray and we'll.