Dixon, Larry: How Practical is Your Christianity PM meeting ~ Luke 14

We have a lot to do tonight, Luke chapter fourteen. and, uh, if you were not with us this morning, or perhaps obligated in Sunday school, uh, we will take just a moment to recap some of the things that we emphasized this morning. We're in Luke chapter fourteen, just finishing up tonight, uh, this little series of messages entitled, How Practical is Your Christianity? How practical is your Christianity? This morning we were emphasizing the fact from Luke chapter fourteen verses one through six that if your Christianity, if my relationship with the Lord Jesus is really practical, then it means that we will really care for those who are hurting. I'd like to read these short six verses very quickly again, and then finish up what we're doing in these verses, and then move on in Luke chapter fourteen. Luke chapter fourteen, beginning verse one. One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. Then he asked them, if one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out? And they had nothing to say. Now, we emphasized this morning, in looking at Luke chapter fourteen, verses one through six, that it is not enough for us simply to claim that we belong to the Lord Jesus, that we love God, and that we're on our way to heaven, as much as we appreciate those things. It's made quite clear by John, the gospel writer and the one who wrote the three epistles, especially in his first epistle, that if we claim to love the invisible God, we prove it by caring, caring for visible people whose needs we see. We emphasize this morning for verses one and two that if we really care the way the Lord Jesus cares, your compassion will be shown by the vision that you have. And our question that I believe we finished up with this morning in verse two, uh it was simply the question, who is there in front of you who has a need? All of us have contacts wherever we go, and there are people all around us that have needs. I heard a preacher not too long ago say that he goes to essentially the same restaurants or diners. He, uh, when he buys groceries for his wife, he goes to the same grocery store, not because they have the best prices or because they have the best food, but in order to build, build relationships with those various people, in order that hopefully one day he can share something about the Lord Jesus. There are more important things in life than getting the very best price on a jar of peanut butter, even though we would not put anyone down for trying to be good stewards of God's money. But there are other things of value, such as building a relationship with that checkout person who needs Christ and whose life is falling apart. So we emphasize from verses one and two that your compassion and my compassion will be shown by the vision that we have. Notice secondly, verse three. We just got into verse three a little bit this morning as we emphasize that your compassion will be demonstrated by the determination you possess. And there we emphasize the fact that Jesus took the time in verse three to ask a question. Remember, there was a man there who had dropsy. It was a condition in which various parts of the body would fill up with fluid. And he cared about that man, and the man was right in front of him. And, uh, but Jesus, rather than secretly healing that man, took the time to ask the Pharisees the question, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? Now, may I emphasize the fact that that was a pretty straightforward question. You could call it an question. The answers could have only been one or the other, yes, it's lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or no. Now, my mathematics tells me that those Pharisees had at least a fifty percent chance of guessing the right answer, but notice what they did in verse four. They remained silent. They said not a word, not a word. Now, let me suggest to you that perhaps they s- said not a word simply because it would jeopardize their own authority, their own power. You see, they were looked at as experts in the law, and for them to have said the right answer, which is it's always lawful to do good on the Sabbath, then it would have given them no excuse for being angry with Jesus when he healed this man on the Sabbath. If they had said, no, it is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath, it would have shown how callous and cold-hearted they were. You know, a lot of people claim to be experts, don't they? I once heard the definition that an expert was simply made up of two words, ex, which means unknown, and spurt, which means a drip of water. So an expert is an unknown drip. I'm not sure that's exactly right, but to buttress my answer, I have a Ziggy cartoon. You'll forgive me. I hope some of you are like me and you do read the funny papers from time to time. Ziggy is standing in a doctor's office. He's standing up on a stool, and as the doctor is looking at his chart, Ziggy is looking at what appears to be the doctor's metal- medical degree hanging on the wall, and Ziggy says, hey, wait a minute, this isn't a medical diploma, it's an old Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes certificate. Well, there are a lot of people that claim to be experts in what God wants. We need to be very careful and always let the word of God have the final say. Jesus, as he asks this question in verse three, knew that the Pharisees had nothing to say. You'll notice that they did not take a stand. They were afraid to say either yay or nay. Perhaps you heard about the politician who was always wavering on questions that were asked him. If he were in a certain locality and they had a certain political issue and they asked him his stand, he would side with them. But if he were in another locale on the opposite side of the question, he would side with them. And finally, a, uh, radio, uh, reporter tried to pin him in a corner, and he said, he said, sir, don't you take a stand on anything. He says, tell us categorically, what is your favorite color? And the politician said, plaid. There are people like that who are afraid of taking a stand. These Pharisees knew that if they answered Jesus' question, that either they would be flying in the face of God's truth, or they would be showing no love at all for this man who had such a great need. One might ask the question, why did Jesus even take the time to ask this question? We emphasized this morning that Jesus took the time to teach, and he cared enough to confront, and he cared not only about people in need, but he cared about principles of godliness, and he took the time to teach by asking that question. One commentator has suggested that Jesus asks them this question specifically so that after he performs the miracle, they will have no reason to complain. It is as if in verse three, i- it's not exactly he's asking their permission, but at least he is saying, what do you think? What do you think? I think there's a little bit of a smile on his face, but I believe there's also a tear in his eye as he realizes that their own laws added to God's word had made them cold and uncaring and absent of compassion for their suffering fellow human being. Your compassion will be demonstrated by the determination that you possess. I would suggest, verse four, that they are silent because they cared more for their traditions than for those who were troubled. They were not interested in what was morally right, but they were interested in what was personally to their own advantage. That's nothing less than simply an uncaring attitude. I found an article not too long ago about Marcel Marceau. Have you ever heard of Marcel Marceau? He is a, uh, a French master of mime. That is, he is one who can do various things, uh, with his hands and his arms and his, his body in a dramatic fashion without saying a word. He can communicate all kinds of things. Uh, he can, uh, he can make you think he has literally been drinking a glass of water just by the way he uses his gestures. Incredible. He's been doing it for about forty years. Now, I understand that the only time that he spoke a word was when he was in Mel Brooks' film Silent Movie, and he said the French word no, non, in the movie. That sounds like something Mel Brooks would do, although I'm not a fan of his, but Marcel Marceau has been a mime for forty years, where he communicates by his silence. An article described him this way. The character that Marcel Marceau often portrays is a man by the name of Bip. He's a white-faced and whimsical philosopher tramp who lives inside Marcel Marceau. His familiar red flower remains eternally flesh, uh, fresh, but he's still not talking. Marceau, Marceau said this. Bip reveals the human being. The message that he communicates is deep and eloquent because it is a silent cry. I'd like to suggest to you that that's exactly what does not characterize the Pharisees in verse four. They are silent, but it's not a silent cry. It's a silence of hypocrisy because they were convinced that they were right, and yet they didn't have the courage to speak out. Your compassion for those for whom Christ died will be shown by the determination that you possess. Notice lastly tonight, number three, if you and I can answer yes, we really care about those who are hurting, we will show it by the vision that we have and by the determination that we possess. Lastly, verses four through six, we have another sermon to come up. You know that, don't you? You're not getting out early. I'm just trying to finish this one up. The third thing I notice is verses four through six, your compassion will be apparent by the action you take. Verses four through six. It's awfully easy to claim to love a lost and dying world, isn't it? We can sing beautiful hymns about wanting to be a blessing, make me a blessing. We can sing those things, but when we leave this place and we move into the world in which it is so difficult to live for the Lord Jesus, if you're like me, you sometimes find yourself disgusted with your lack of courage to really be caring for people who hurt. Jesus says in verses four through six, we show our compassion by taking action. Notice Jesus' action in verse four. Remember, in verse three, he had just asked the Pharisees, the experts, the ones who should have known, whether it was right and lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Now notice in verse four, they were silent, they had no answer, and Jesus takes action in verse fi- verse We're We're told, first of all, he takes hold of the man. He touched him. He touched him. Now, I know that there are some who suggest that we should be a more touchy-feely type, uh, society, and yet I can tell you that there have been a few moments in my own Christian life, a few situations in which I have had older brethren in Christ come up to me and lovingly put an arm around me and say, tell me what's going on in your life. And I can openly weep. In a lot of ways, it's good to touch another believer in that sense and care. Jesus cared. And you'll notice in verse four that he takes hold of the man and he touches him. Do I need to remind you that the common Jewish idea was the more severe your disease, the greater God's judgment? They thought that if you, uh, for whatever reason, had a terrible disease like dropsy or leprosy, it meant that you were, you were condemned by God, and God was furious at you. Well, the natural reaction to that is not to touch those people, don't you think? In fact, the Pharisees and the scribes, when they saw a leper coming, they'd throw rocks at them. And the leper was required by Jewish law to call out, unclean, unclean. Well, a man with dropsy, I would assume, had some of the same stigma. Perhaps this man had not felt a human touch for the duren- endurance of his disease, and Jesus took the time to touch him. Touching someone else. Do we care enough to reach out and touch other people? Now, we have to be careful here. I do know of some Christian groups, especially those that have a lot of young people, that they literally take the admonition of the scripture to greet one another with a holy kiss, and there's a lot of kissing and there's a lot of hugging. Uh, I would suggest be careful in some of those situations, but I have developed a few friends over the years. They're male, by the way, and when we see each other, they give me a hug. Saw one fellow not too long ago that I had not seen in years, weighs about two hundred fifty pounds. He hugged me just a little bit too tight, but it was nice to see him. It was nice to see him, and it was, it's hard to describe. Sometimes words don't do it, but a big bear hug, uh, providing it's not too tight, uh, helps a lot. Jesus took the time to touch. Notice also in verse four, we're told that Jesus healed him. May I suggest to you there that he uses the power at his disposal to meet that need? Now, I am not one to say that God cannot heal today. If he chooses to do so, he is God, and I am not. I cannot tell him what he ought to do. I do not believe that we can demand that the Lord heal. There's no verse that tells us we can tell God when he must heal. We cannot command him to do so. He chooses to do so, that's fine, but I don't have the power of healing someone else. If you fall asleep tonight and you fall over and you hurt yourself, we'll call the paramedics, we'll call the lifeguards, we'll call somebody, we'll take care of you, but I can't heal you. But, but God has given me gifts, he's given you gifts, and we can use those abilities and the power that he has given to us to minister to other people around us. Notice a third thing, though. Did you notice in verse four, Jesus not only took hold of this man and touched him, he not only healed him, but notice also, we're told in verse four, what did he do then? He sent him away. Len, why do you think he sent him away? Put you on the spot here, brother. We're friends. We used to be friends. Anybody, any of you brethren know, why, why do you think Jesus took this man and sent him away? We won't make this a full-fledged open Bible study, but I'm just curious. Anybody have any idea? That's a good, that's a good answer. It's wrong, but it's a good answer. I don't think it's wrong. I don't, I, the Bible doesn't tell us here, but I had a different answer. Yours is better than mine. Let me change this. No. I would suggest that's a possibility to minister to other people, but I would also suggest maybe the Lord was protecting this man. Maybe he was, after the man was healed, he sent him away from the bad influence of the Pharisees. That's a possibility, possibility. Yours is better. We'll give yours a 9, mine has a six point five. but I don't know. Uh, I would suggest, though, that he sent him away, perhaps in the sense of giving him guidance, giving him guidance, so that he knew the truth of God and he would not be confused by these Pharisees. But notice verse five. There is a charge brought against Jesus. I'm sorry, there's a charge that Jesus brings against the Pharisees. He says, if one of you has a son, I'll make a comment on that in just a moment, a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out? Uh, if you were a believer in that Pharisee's home and you were listening to what Jesus was saying in your heart, you might be thinking, Lord, ease up on these guys. You've already nailed them with that question in verse three, and they were humiliated, and now you've healed the man. Couldn't we just kind of slip away? No, the Lord has a point to prove. And the point I would suggest in verse five is that Jesus is illustrating their lack of compassion, and he's making a charge. He is saying to these Pharisees, if it is someone or something that's important to you, you don't hesitate. You go and help them. You go and help them. Now, I'm aware that the King James says, uh, if one of you has a donkey or an o- ox that falls into a well and so on. Well, you may sometimes think that your sons or your daughters are like donkeys, but there is a little bit of manuscript difference there, depending on what Greek manuscript. I won't bore you with that detail, but it's possible that it reads son. And I believe what he's saying is to these Pharisees, look, you care for your own children, you care for your own animals, but you don't care for someone right in front of you. You have no compassion. By the way, notice he says, if one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath. Doesn't that sound like an accident? The son or the ox is not pushed into the well. They don't jump into the well. They fall into the well. I would suggest he's saying that's what happened to this man with dropsy. I believe he's saying that that man's disease was not the result of some kind of horrible personal sin, but in a sense it was a kind of accident. We live in a fallen world, and in this fallen world is disease, and those who contract diseases are not necessarily being judged by God. We live in a fallen world, and I would suggest the Lord is saying, this man is not a more wicked sinner than you. He just happened to have that disease, and you should care for him. Notice Jesus says if to the Pharisees, if you have a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath, will you not immediately pull him out? Immediately emphasizes a sense of urgency, don't you think? They would not think twice. Isn't it interesting they had no sense of urgency about the man with dropsy? There was no urgency there. There was no urgency there. At times, I'm tempted to think that maybe this was a setup. Maybe these Pharisees invited the man with dropsy to the home. It's possible, if you check out Mark chapter two with the man who had the withered hand, I think it's Mark two, Don't look now, that would discourage me, but sometime there's a man with a withered hand who's in the front of the synagogue. Don't you think he was there by invitation? And it's another circumstance in which the Pharisees and the scribes were sitting like hawks watching the Lord to see what he would do. I believe they tried to set up the Lord, and maybe they tried to set him up here. Jesus says, if you have a son or an ox that falls into a well, will you not immediately pull him out? That phrase, pull him out, I think emphasizes empathy, ability, and perhaps even a willingness to get dirty. If you have an animal fall into a pit, you're probably going to get dirty pulling that animal out, aren't you? Well, I hate to tell you, but it seems to me that showing compassion, as the Lord Jesus did, will get us dirty. I'm not suggesting we compromise. I'm not suggesting we fall into sin, but we will get dirty as we reach out and seek to minister to other people. I mentioned last week, I think, this book that I've enjoyed so much from Stephen Brown called No More Mister Nice Guy. He talks about the fact that, that he sees sin all around him, and he says he has had to clean up after more suicides and piece together more broken homes than you would ever want to know about. He's getting dirty in God's business, and we ought to get dirty too. Jesus says to these Pharisees, you won't even hesitate. You'll go and salvage your possession. You'll notice what happens in verse six. They have nothing to say. They have nothing to say. The eloquence of their silence is deafening, don't you think? They had nothing to say. Do you have compassion? Do you really care about those who are hurting? We need to. Let me close this message by reading something I found in the other day that I thought was really good. You're aware of the fact that Jesus in Matthew chapter twenty five talks about really caring for people who are hurting, uh, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, I'm sorry, clothing the naked, caring for the poor, visiting the prisoners, and so on. Here's a bit of a satire called Matthew twenty five contemporized. It's written by someone who worked in a Christian bookstore, and the writer said, I know what types of books our customers buy most often, and it sometimes seems that Jesus' teaching about the judgment should be rewritten thusly. And this is a kind of paraphrase of Matthew twenty five in today's language, quote, then will he say to those at his left, I was hungry, and you bought another Christian diet plan. Thirsty, and you bought books on the end times. I was a stranger, and you read religious romances. Naked, and you poured over your personal color analysis. Ill and in prison, and you studied how to achieve health and prosperity. Then they will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison and did not serve you? Then he will answer them, I assure you, insofar as you failed to read books on service and maturity and read only books on Christian self-gratification, you failed to know my needs. What a stinging indictment, don't you think, of the way that many of us often live, rather than really caring for people who are hurting. We may well go out and buy books on things that interest us. May God help us to be on the lookout for people around us who are hurting and need the care of the Lord Jesus. Now let's press on to Luke chapter fourteen and uh, moving on to verses seven uh, verses 7 through... uh, fourteen here, verses seven through fourteen. And uh, here the emphasis, I would suggest, is on the issue of humility. I'm sorry, verses seven through eleven. Follow along as I read Luke fourteen seven through eleven. When Jesus noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable. When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, give this man your seat. Then humiliated, you will have to take the least important place, and when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, friend, move up to a better place. Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Let's bow for prayer, shall we? Father, how we thank you that we can read your word, and we have the privilege of being reminded that we need to be humble. Lord, we do not deserve your grace and your mercy, but we are thankful that you have so wonderfully showered it upon us. Thank you for the invitation to become your children, and help us to be marked by humility as our Savior was marked by humility. We pray you might help us now, in Jesus' name, amen. What I'd like to do in the few minutes that we have remaining is look at verses seven through eleven very quickly. Have you shifted gears with me yet? Okay. I know that's hard. I know it's hard. But shift gears with me. I want to give you just a few things on what I would call, uh, the fact that practical Christianity really demonstrates the quality of humility. I have found so often that as I have shared the Lord Jesus with others, and as I have said something to them such as, I know that I'm going to heaven when I die, frequently they misunderstand, and they think that I am somehow being prideful in a religious sense, and that I think that I'm better than they are. Well, in some ways, it's probably my mistake in failing to communicate Christian humility and to let them know that what I have found in the Lord Jesus is free salvation that he and only he can provide. And I need to communicate the image to them that I was a beggar who was starving, and I have been given food, and I'm not starving anymore. And that if they recognize they are beggars, I know where they can find food, and it's not of my own doing, but it's been provided by the God who made us. Notice a couple of things about humility tonight, just as we look at verses seven through eleven. The first thing I would emphasize about humility, verses seven and eight, is simply this. Don't forget you are Christ's by invitation. Verses seven and eight, you are Christ's by invitation. You'll notice in verses seven and eight that the Lord Jesus noticed how the guests had picked the places of honor at the table. Where is he right now in this passage? If I connect it to verses one through six, he's still in the home of the Pharisee, isn't he? It sounds like it was a pretty good banquet that was going on. Apparently, there were a lot of people there. And, uh, what's quite fascinating is that the Lord Jesus did not get thrown out of the man's home after verse six, But rather, he stayed there for a little bit of time. He is there as an invited guest, and the Pharisee is the host. And if I understand my Bible correctly, all that we talked about in verses one through six just occurred. The man with dropsy has been healed, he has been sent- sent away. Now we get to verses seven and eight, and I believe Christ is reminding us here that we are his by invitation. Notice verse seven, that Jesus was observant. You'll see that he noticed the guesses, the guests that picked the places of honor at the table. Have you seen that in your own study of the Gospels? The wonderful quality of being observant by the Lord Jesus. It happens over in chapter twenty one, verse two, where Jesus with with was with his disciples and was standing outside the treasury, and he observed a widow putting in her two small coins. Jesus notices, doesn't he? He observes. There in Luke twenty one, it's a situation of commendation. Here, it's really a situation of condemnation, don't you think? He noticed the people who scrambled as they came in and grabbed the best places at the table. I'm sorry to tell you that I really don't know that much about Jewish, uh, uh, eating situations to exactly describe to you, uh, what the places of honor would be, and yet I would assume they would be places that would be closest to the host and probably closest to the nicest piece of leg of lamb. Can you taste it with the mint jelly and the roasted potato? I'm sorry, I'll, I'll get off of that. The place where you got the best pickings, don't you think? And you were close to the host. Uh, John the gospel writer, I believe, felt he had place of honor as he was able to lean on the Lord and be close to the one that he loved. No- you'll notice in verse eight that Jesus tells a story. Don't you imagine people love to be around the Lord, as long as they weren't Pharisees by trade? They love to be around the Lord because you knew that eventually he was going to tell a story. Isn't it fun to be around people who tell great stories? You know, it's even more fun to be around people who tell great stories that are about life and the way life ought to be lived. Notice that the Lord Jesus, in verse eight launches into this story, and he talks about the fact that if somebody invites you to a wedding feast, you should not take the place of honor. Uh, one of my favorite commercials has Bob Euchre in it. Some of you know the commercial to which I'm referring. Uh, he's in a baseball stadium. He and his friends are in a particular section, and uh, the usher comes and he says, fella, wrong tickets, let's go, you're not here. And Euchre turns to his friend, he says, we must be on the front row. And he's way off in the bleachers somewhere. You see, he didn't have the right tickets, did he? I would suggest Jesus is saying in verses seven and eight, don't forget you've been invited to become Christ's. The ticket, the ticket is stained with his blood. You're there by his invitation, and as a result of that, you should not be running for places of honor. Notice secondly, verses eight and nine, I would suggest the Lord says about humility, don't forget you are Christ's by invitation, but he says secondly, don't embarrass yourself by self-exaltation. Don't embarrass yourself by self-exaltation. You'll notice he says in verse eight, if you hurry into this wedding fa- feast and you take the best seat, the place of honor, well, the host may come in, and you may be putting the host in an uncomfortable, embarrassing situation. The host may have to say to you, look, I'm sorry, but this seat is for somebody else. It's for somebody else, and you have to leave, and you'll be embarrassed, and you'll be humiliated. You're putting your host in an uncomfortable situation, and Jesus says that the effect on you in verse nine is that you will be humiliated, you'll have to take the least important place. Wonder why he says the least important. I wonder why that one who took the most important place couldn't just move down a chair or two. You may not think of those questions when you look at the word, but I think of them, and I wonder why does he move from the extreme of the most important place to the least important place? And here's the idea that I come up with. It may not be right, but on my paper I draw circles, and I have people sitting at the table. And the way I figured it out is this guy who has to be sent to the least important place, and he was sitting in the most important place, he has to go all the way to the end because that's the only empty chair left. But the point is, he has embarrassed himself because he has exalted himself. He has acted as if he deserved to be sitting on the front row. Thirdly, Jesus says, don't, don't forget you're not only mine by invitation, you should not embarrass yourself by self-exaltation, but he says lastly, verses ten and eleven, humble yourself consciously. Consciously make sure that you are humbling yourself. If you'll notice in verse ten, he tells what the alternative action ought to be. He says, when you're invited, see, there's nothing wrong with being invited. There's nothing wrong with us saying to people, you know, I was invited by the king to his wedding. I was invited by the king to become a child of the king, to feast at his table for all eternity. There's nothing wrong with saying that, but what's wrong is to give the impression that you think you're going to have the closest place sitting next to him. You remember, of course, that James and John argued about that, who would sit on the Lord's right and who would sit at the Lord's left. And they were so serious about it, they got their mother to ask him. And if you read carefully one of the gospels, you'll find that the other disciples, after Jesus said, it's not given to me to tell you to sit on my right or my left, you'll find the rest of the disciples were furious at James and John. Do you know why they were angry, angry? They were angry because they had their mothers waiting outside to come to the Lord, I'm guessing here, and to ask the Lord the same request. Jesus says in verses ten and eleven, make sure that you are humbling yourself consciously. And he says, when you're invited, take the lowest place so that when your host comes, and the impression I get is that the host would kind of make a grand entrance. Let's pretend this is a banquet hall and we've all been invited. We're all here, we've said hello to each other, we're sitting, and we're waiting for the host. Presumably, the host would come in dressed very nicely, maybe he would come into a round of applause, but how embarrassing if he came up to the front and he leaned over and he says, I'm, I'm sorry, you have to get up and go to the back. All the eyes are on, are on you. But Jesus says in verse ten, when you're invited, take the lowest place. Friends, that's why we need to leave the last few pews empty on a Sunday morning for visitors, so they'll have somewhere to sit. It's pretty tough, especially for, uh, perhaps non-Christians when they come in, to come in and see that the only empty places in their first three pews. That's a little tough on them, but Jesus is saying, when you're invited, take the lowest place, and he says why? Verse ten, When the host arrives, he will say to you, friend. Friend? Notice verse nine. The one who had exalted himself and had to be sent down to the least important place was not addressed as friend, was he? Verse nine. He was simply s- uh, spoken to, give this man your seat. That's kind of abrupt, don't you think? But you'll notice in verse ten, the one who comes in and humbles themselves and takes the lowest place, the host will come in and say, friend, friend, there's a better seat for you. And that person will be escorted, verse ten, and he will be honored in the presence of all of the fellow guests. May I suggest to you what I think the Lord is saying in this passage? He is speaking some very important truths about salvation, for the Pharisees thought that if anyone in the earth, on the earth, were saved, it would be they. They thought that by keeping all of God's laws and doing what they thought God wanted, and creating new laws so no one could even get close to God's law and be tempted to break them, that somehow they were right with God. Well, they missed the point in verses one through six that if you're right with God, you'll have compassion on those who are hurting. And the Pharisees, as well as their invited guests, had missed the point in verses seven through eleven that if you really know the Lord, you'll have every reason to be humbled. Because knowing the Lord means admitting that you're a sinner and you cannot save yourself. And if you, you are there at that wedding feast or at that banquet place, you are there by invitation only. And it's the invitation for which Christ shed his own blood. Listen, we need to not only care for a hurting world, but we need to very quickly let them know that we are saved not by any goodness in us, but solely because the host has died for us. He's given his life for us, and we have no right to demand a higher place in the seating arrangement. But I believe the Bible emphasizes that when we serve him in humility, he will exalt us in due time. We humble ourselves under his mighty hand, he will lift us up, he will exalt us in due time as we do his work and as we serve the king. Shall we pray? Father, we're grateful tonight that you have said so many things to us, far more, I believe, than we are able to practice at once. And yet, Lord, through this series of messages from this tremendous Gospel of Luke, we know you've spoken to us where we live. And Father, we pray that the things that we have seen and that your Holy Spirit has revealed to us, that perhaps we would just grab one of them, and we would pray, Lord, help us, help me to be the kind of person you want me to be. That when people hear that I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, that they will be drawn by my conduct and by my testimony, and by the practical nature of our relationship with our Savior, that they might somehow be attracted to him. Father, we thank you for the good study that we've had together, and we pray that you might dismiss us with your blessing, in Jesus' name, amen.