The Arrogant Guests, Part 2

Tonight we want to continue our study of the parables of Jesus Christ, our Lord, as we understand what the Lord Jesus Christ has to say about our lives. Before we get to our parable in Luke chapter 14, I want to read to you a very familiar verse in Matthew 11, verses 28 and 29. You know it. It reads as follows, Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my load is light.

That verse in Matthew 11 helps us come to grips with the character of Jesus Christ, our Lord. He tells us to come to him because he is gentle and he is humble in heart. He wants us to get a greater glimpse of his character, and so he begins to describe himself to us. Unfortunately, that's very hard for us to grasp. It's hard for us to understand. But if we are to ever be like Christ as his children, we need to understand his character, one that's gentle and one that's humble at heart. Yet in our world, that exalts the ego, that exalts pride and arrogance, and looks down on humility, it's hard for us.

We are a boasting, parading, egotistical, narcissistic society to say the least. That's what we are. And unfortunately, when the Lord comes along and says, I am humble and heart, I want you to follow me and to be like me, we look at that, we think about that and think that goes against everything our society teaches, everything that we're raised on, that we're brought up in.

And yet that's what Christianity is all about. It runs completely contrary to our culture, completely contrary to our way of thinking. God calls us to be like him. It was the same in the days of don't think for any moment that we are more arrogant today than those that Jesus minister to. No arrogance and pride and egotism have been a part of our society since the fall of man, all because Lucifer himself was egotistical. Pride was his problem, and behind every sin is pride, is arrogance, because Satan is that way.

He is an arrogant being, and he wants his people to be arrogant. The Bible says in Proverbs 8, verse number 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

And then he says, pride, arrogance, and the evil way. When you hate evil, you're going to hate pride. When you hate evil, you're going to hate arrogance. You're going to hate the evil way. Now, if we were to take a survey, not an external survey, but an internal survey of your heart and life, I'm pretty sure most of us to say that we're not arrogant people. We're not boastful people. We're not prideful people. We know those who are prideful, but God forbid, that's not us. And we can think of people who act arrogantly.

But very few of us would ever really say, yes, I'm arrogant. Yes, I'm boastful. Yes, I have a lot of pride. Tonight's parable, as they are called, searchlights for the soul, will shed light on your soul's condition. Help you understand what God says about what's really going on inside.

your heart. The Bible says that if we at any time are unwilling to submit to authority, we have a pride problem.

We don't like to look at it that way, but that's the case. The Bible says these words over in Proverbs chapter 10, verse number eight, these words, the wise of heart will receive commands, but a babbling fool will be thrown down.

The man who's wise receives the commands from God, is willing to submit to those who give them commands and who are in authority over them. But because so many times we are raised in our families on how to be disrespectful to society and not to submit to those who don't agree with us, then we go out of our homes and we begin to take that into the marketplace and live lives that are not marked by submission. The Bible says that when we scoff at another person's opinion, We are demonstrating our arrogance and our pride.

Oh, they think that. Well, they're wrong. I'm right. Who do they think they are? But, of course, none of you ever say anything like that. But instead, we must realize what the word of the Lord says. Over in Proverbs chapter 21, verse number 24, it reads as follows, pride, haughty, scoffer are his names who acts with insolent pride. The man who acts with insolent pride is a scoffer, is a haughty man, is an arrogant man. The Bible says in verse 10 of chapter 22, drive out the scoffer and contention will go out.

Even strife and dishonor will cease. Drive out the scoffing man, drive out the haughty man, the prideful man, the arrogant man, and guess what? Contention, contention ceases. That's why James is so eloquent when he says in James chapter four. What is the source of quarrels among you? Why is it you're that way? Why do you fight among yourselves? Because you're arrogant, he says. You've got a lot of pride. You're jealous. You're envious of one another. And that is the source of our contentions. Think about it in your family.

It's a husband and wife relationship, and an argument ensues. You know, you're the man of the house. You're the one that's right. Your wife can't always be right. You've got to be right every once in a while. And so you have to press home your point. And our arrogance begins to well up inside of us. And although we might not look at it as arrogance, it is.

And that's why we argue amongst ourselves. That's what we argue with our children, because our children want to defy our authority. We might think our children are sweet and nice and innocent and kind and loving. But in reality, rebellion is born in them because they're born sinners. And they push the limits at times. And they argue with us. It's their arrogance. It's their pride that comes out. All of us struggle with arrogance. The Bible says these words over in Proverbs chapter 30.

Proverbs chapter 30, verse number 13. There is a generation. Oh, how lofty are his eyes. And his eyelids are raised in arrogance. There is a generation. What generation is that? That's every generation. That's every generation. Who think themselves better than they really are. The Bible says in Proverbs 30, verse number 32, if you have been foolish in exalting yourself, if you've plotted evil, put your hand on your mouth.

For the churning of milk produces butter, and the pressing, and pressing the nose brings forth blood, so the churning of anger produces strife. If you're a man of arrogance, you'll be a man of anger, and anger will always produce strife. Just like when you punch somebody in the nose, blood comes. When you churn, the milk, butter comes. that's what happens. It's a byproduct. Luke chapter 14 is our parable this evening. I've called it the parable of the arrogant guests, for lack of a better phrase, not knowing what else to call it.

It says in verse number one, and it came about when he went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbathe bread that they were watching him closely.

It says in verse two, and there in front of him was a certain man suffering from dropsy. Now, now, drop. was a condition where the body would swell up. There was some malfunction in the man's organs, his internal organs that would cause his body to swell, that he would look so grotesque. Now, he wasn't there because some Pharisee decided to invite this guy because they felt compassion on him. He was there because they were going to use him. It says this, and Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is the lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

And you'll note that nobody answers the question. What are they going to say? Well, you know, Lord, we know this man looks pretty ugly here and we know that he loved to have his condition changed, but you know what? You probably shouldn't do that. That would make them look pretty foolish. And yet, in verse number four, but they kept silent and he took hold of him and healed him and sent him away. You'll note that when people heal today, they have to heal with a TV camera in front of them. They can't heal somebody in the privacy of a hospital room or in the privacy of the home.

They have to do it on TV. Because after all, if they're going to make money, they've got to make sure everybody sees what they're doing, right? But Jesus would heal this man. See, the Pharisees were silent. He said to them, which one of you shall have a son, donkey, or an ox fall into a well and will not immediately pull them out on the Sabbath day? They wanted to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord knew that. And they would use a diseased man to try to catch Christ in a trap. They could not do so.

They keep silent. Follow with me, verse 7. They began speaking the parable to the invited guests. When he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table saying to them, stop right there. Christ gives this exhortation in the form of a parable. He says this, when you invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor. Let someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him. And he who invited you both shall come and say to you, give place to this man.

And then in disgrace, you proceed to occupy the last place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place. So that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. And this is what he says in verse number 11. For every one who exalts himself shall be humbled. and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. You see, this is more than just a little piece of advice that Christ give.

This should be the lifestyle of a person committed to Jesus Christ. Over in Revelation chapter 18, you will notice that Babylon, that great city as well as the system at the end of the world.

It'll be arrogant, filled with pride. Why? Because it's ruled by the Antichrist who is filled with pride, and God will bring it down in one hour. Bring it down. Because God won't stand for that. Now, I know some of you are thinking, I'm not like, I don't go around saying, look at my new house, man, this is a great house I built.

This is a good house. I don't do that. I don't go around saying, this is a great, great Sunday school. This is the best Sunday school class. Look at, look at I did.

I don't do that. Oh, you don't go around saying, man, you know, look at my body. It's so strong and healthy and I'm buff. I'm just amazing. I'm a sculpted Greek God. I know you don't do that. At least I don't hope you don't. But you know what? It rises up within us in subtle ways, isn't it? That arrogance and pride? There are people who are examples of lowly-mindedness in the Bible. Is Abraham? Remember Abraham Genesis chapter 18? He realized the people of Sodom were no better than he was. He knew that.

So he would beseech the Lord on behalf of those people. You can read John the Baptist, who realized that Christ must increase, he's got the decrease, that he wasn't even worthy to untie us. sandal because the son of man was was so great tell the baptist knew that there there was moses who in lolliness of mind would would tell us even in numbers chapter 12 that he was the the meekest man on the face of the earth nobody meeker than moses he would beseech the lord on behalf of israel on behalf of his sister miriam his brother aaron because he was a lowly minded man he wasn't seeking the preeminence it was an arrogant oh used to be and god put him on the backside of the desert for 40 years changed his whole life.

It wasn't that way anymore. There's Jesus Christ, our Lord, who tells us in Matthew 11 that he was gentle and humble, and he reached out to the poor, the beggars, the blind, the naked, the people who were struggling and suffering, and he had a passion upon them. That's our Lord. The Bible says in the book of Romans, the 12th chapter, for through the grace given to me, I say to every man among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

But you know what we do, don't we? We go to church and we think we're better than that guy. We think our marriage is better than that guy's marriage. We think our kids are better than their kids, because we've seen their kids misbehave and our kids don't do that kind of stuff. We think that we're better than another guy because we put more of the offering plate than they do. How do we know? Because we're looking. That's how we know. Why are you looking? Well, just to make sure I'm giving more than he is.

is. And yet there's very subtle ways that we tend to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Paul will say it again this way in the book of Galatians, the sixth chapter third verse, for if anyone thinks he has something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

But see, we don't like to think that way. And the Bible says there is none good, no, not one. There is none who seeks after God. None. And yet we, we, we, we don't like to think that way. And the Bible says there is none who seeks we want to think that we did seek after God, that we did do something to earn our salvation, that there was something about us that God liked.

Oh, no, there's nothing about you that God liked. There's nothing in you that would ever draw God to you. It's all about why God is the way he is. It's God himself who drew himself to you. See? We forget that. And yet somehow we really do think we're better than somebody else. We really do. You know why? Paul tells us, second quix chapter 10 verse number 12 because we compare ourselves among ourselves we measure ourselves by ourselves and paul says those who commend themselves by themselves and measure themselves by themselves are not wise people they're foolish people but you see we begin to compare ourselves as other people but that's not very wise because our comparison is to be where between us with god that's our comparison and if we compare ourselves with god we're all on the same level right nobody's better than anybody else but see we don't want to be equal we want to have equal rights but we want to have equal rights but we We don't want to be equal.

We want to be better than somebody else. So we look for those who are worse off than we are, which leads me to the implications. This whole thing about lowly-mindedness and humility is not synonymous with low self-esteem or low self-image. Oh, I am just so wretched. I am so, oh, I hate myself. No, no, no, no. Why? Because that's just the disguise for your arrogance. Because the Bible says in Ephesians in 5 that no man ever hated his own flesh.

No man hates himself. Every man loves himself. That's why we are to love one another just as you love yourself. The people who say they hate themselves and they're no good, they're just looking for you to give them some kind of accolade and say, oh no, you really are good. They want to hear you say that. So next time you hear somebody say that, don't say anything to them. Say, yeah, you're right. You're nothing. You are wretched. You're rotten. You're right. You're absolutely right. I agree with you.

100%. You have never been so right in your entire life as you are right now. Now, see, they're not going to be your friend anymore, because they want you to reverse that. They want you to speak well of them, see? That's why they say those things. So let me give you two implications a seat.

Remember one is this. Remember the dignity in helping the needy. Remember the dignity in helping the needy. That's the first implication.

The outworking of a high mind, the outworking of arrogance and pride, is the inability to think about other people in their needs. and to meet those needs. Christ would begin the whole scenario with the healing of the man with the dropsy. Those religious leaders could care less about the man's condition. They wouldn't use them against Christ. Christ would heal him and use them as a perfect illustration. But Christ goes on. If you have your Bible, you're still in Luke chapter 14. Turn out there with me if you would, please.

And look what Christ says in verse number 12. And he also went on to say to the one who had invited him. I got a word for you, my man. Here's what he says. When you give a lunch or dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors lest they also invite you in return and repayment come to you. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

See, Jesus was looking at their little system. He knew what they were doing. I'll invite you over here to my party, and then you in turn will invite me to your party. And then you and turn will invite me to your party. And these all got invited to everybody's party. Let's put it in the 21st century. This Christmas, don't invite any friends to your house. Don't invite any family to your house. Instead, invite the lame, the blind, the cripple. Invite the people who can't repay you. Invite the low life.

Invite the ones that from your perception are inferior. Invite those people. That's what I want you. See, we don't want to do that. Because we want to invite people who are going to be comfortable with. that we can have a good conversation with, that we'll feel at home with, and they'll feel at home with us. And Christ says, why do you do that?

What's there about, that's not hospitality? That's not ministry. Real ministry is inviting those people who can't invite you in return, who can't pay you back, who can't do anything for you. You see, the reason we don't do that is because in the depths of our heart, we want to be paid back. We've got to have something in return here. We've got to get something back. And Christ is saying, look, if you really want to do it from the heart, if you're a little want to have a ministry, invite the people who can't repay you.

Oh, then you'd be blessed at the resurrection of the righteous. Oh, then, then you really receive the true blessing of God. You see, love demands self-denial, love demands esteeming others better than yourself. Humility, listen to this. Humility is measured not by how much one puts himself down, but how much he sacrifices himself to put others up. Isn't that good? I wish that was original with me. It's not, but it's good. But it's Let me read it again.

Humility is measured not by how much one puts himself down, but how much he sacrifices of himself to put others up. That's the point. You know, when I was going through high school, in our youth group, we had a kid who was completely different than I was, and we all despised. We all made fun of him. His name was Greg. I don't even remember his last name, because we never called him Greg. We called them noodles, because he was so skinny. I mean, you have never seen anybody that's getting into this guy.

And we ragged on that kid every Sunday, every Bible study, good Christian students we were. And he'd chase us because he got tired of being called noodles. And he couldn't catch us because he wasn't as fast as we were. We were athletes, and he wasn't. He was in my school. And he said, I was too good. I was an athlete. I was too good to hang around noodles, man. I mean, he went to my church. If I hung around him, I'd have to, you know, admit that I was going to church at this guy. And I didn't want to do that.

And I'd see him come down the hall, I'd go the other way. He'd come up to me in the lunchroom and started to talk to me. I'd completely ignore the kid because I didn't want to even think I was his friend. This is your pastor, by the way, talking there. This is the way I was. Amazing. Went through four years of high school with this kid in my high school, in my church, in my youth group. Didn't give in the time of day, but ragged on him, ran from him, made fun of him and in front of others to put myself up.

Oh, man. You know, if all the things I've ever regret it in my life, that's the one thing I regret more than anything. else. I don't know where he is today. I don't know what he's done with his life, but I certainly did not help him on toward Christ's likeness at all, at all. See, I thought I was better than he was. I thought I looked better than he did. I thought I acted better than he did. I was funnier than he was. I was an athlete. He wasn't. I could get a girlfriend. He couldn't. I was good.

He wasn't. He was inferior. He was a zero. So I made fun of him. Amazing. I wish, I wished over the years, I prayed over years at some way I'd meet that kid again. So I could ask him to forgive me of all the things I said and the way I treated. What a fool I was. It wasn't better than him? Not at all. Because there's dignity in meeting the needs of the needy. Because Christ said so. This is what it's about. You have reception? When I had a graduation party, you think I invited him? No, I didn't invite him.

They didn't even like him. Why would I invite him? Christ says, who do you invite to your parties? Who do you invite to your house? You have a reception? The lame, the crippled, the mangled, the ugly, the inferior. Invite all those people. Now you're doing the right things. That's what humility is. Humility is willing to sacrifice to put somebody else up higher than yourself. Wow. Remember the dignity in helping the needy. Number two, relish the opportunity to be lowly.

Christ said, come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble and heart. If you want to be Christ-like, then you're going to have to be humble and heart, right? And you've got to realize those opportunities to demonstrate a Christ-like attitude. You see, it's so hard to be like Christ in that area, isn't it? You know why? You say, no, why, Pastor? Well, let me tell you why.

Satan took us captive to do his will before we were born again, arrogant, haughty, high-minded, prideful, Lucifer. I will ascend to the heavens. I will ascend higher than my God. He was the most beautiful of all the created beings. Went to his head. He was arrogant. And when you're taken captive by Satan to do his will, you are arrogant. And when Christ buys us back from the slave market of sin, the most difficult thing for us to do is to follow that aspect of Christ because Satan wants to drag us back into his domain.

Can't do it. So it gets us to think we're better than everybody else. We look better, we act better. We've got a better church. We've got a better car, better house, better marriage, better family, better kids. State says, yeah, you got it. Everybody's better about you. Oh, you're so much better than everybody else. Yes, yes, yes. We buy into it. Hook, line, and sinker. And that's why you have such a hard time with it. And Christ says, wait a minute, you need to be lowly and humble.

How do you do that? By occupying yourself totally with God. And Christ says, if you just focus on me, look to me, seek me, And the natural byproduct of that is that you will be humble and mind.

You will be lowly minded. You won't be arrogant. That's what Christ wants you to do. I can't think of a better thing to do than to be so focused on Christ that I stopped thinking about myself. Isaiah 57, verse number 15 says, For thus say us the high and exalted one who lives forever whose name is holy. I dwell on a high and holy place and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit. in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contract. That's what we need to do. Maybe you're not as arrogant as I am.

Maybe you're more humble than I am. I know what I need to do. I just hope that all of us have learned what we all need to do in order that Christ would shine in and through our lives. It's pretty good.