Be Careful of Being Big Time Watch You SEAT
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost — August 31, 2025 Text: Luke 14:1, 7–14; Hebrews 13:1–2 (NRSVue)
Big Idea
Jesus says real greatness isn’t grabbing the best seat—it’s how we treat the people others overlook. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:11, NRSVue).
Jesus teaches that greatness in God’s reign isn’t about being the most important person in the room; it’s about how we treat the people the world treats as least. In a season when arrogance gets applause and cruelty trends, the church answers with humble honor, protective boundaries, and revolutionary hospitality.
Luke says the Pharisees were watching Jesus, but Jesus was watching the room. He saw folks rushing for the “best seats”—performing importance, competing for status.
That’s not ancient drama; that’s today’s America, where ego struts, lies get loud, and power mocks the poor. Some of us are tired—tired of an administration that baptizes bullying, tired of a climate that rewards bigotry and calls it “strength.”
Hear the Lord: when you scramble for honor, you set yourself up for humiliation. Status is a shaky chair.
So this morning I want to work with a little thing I Call the S-E-A-T mentality a very Simple Memory Hook: S-E-A-T, Because I believe that when Disciples Learn to S-E-A-T they are better persons and better disciples. Yes, I believe when you live your life with a
S-E-A-T mentality you are a better person , a better parent, a better leader.
And I believe this morning you can get all this from the gospel of Luke 14th chapter 7-14 verse
S — Sit Low
• When you’re invited, take the low seat (Luke 14:10).
• Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of others first.
• Church, say it with me: “Low seat, high heart.”
E — Examine Your Heart (and set boundaries)
• Don’t play pride’s game. Stay calm; speak plain; be respectful and firm.
• You can say, “We’ll talk when we can be kind.” That’s dignity, not weakness (Romans 12:18–21).
• “Kind voice, strong spine.”
A — Add the Overlooked to Your Table
• “Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (Luke 14:13).
• Rewrite the guest list: widows, shut-ins, young folks without grandparents here, folks living alone.
• “Make room for who can’t pay you back.” (Hebrews 13:1–2)
T — Trust God to Do the Lifting
• You may not get payback now, but God sees and will repay “at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14).
• We live steady, not showy. God will do the exalting.
• “God lifts the lowly.”
So Church This Week (Keep it plain)
1. One Low-Seat Choice: Let someone else go first; park farther out; take the last piece of chicken.
2. One Kind Boundary: “I love you, but I won’t join in meanness.”
3. One Added Guest: Invite someone new to your table, pew, or ride to church.
4. One Prayer of Trust: “Lord, keep me small in myself and big in love.”
Concluding Illustration — The Lunch Counter Lesson
Picture Greensboro, 1960. Black students sit at a “whites-only” lunch counter—the lowest seat in Jim Crow’s social order. They don’t shout or throw punches. They sit with quiet, stubborn dignity. They refuse to leave. They absorb insults, hot coffee, and hatred without surrendering their humanity. What were they doing? Exactly what Jesus taught: choosing the low seat that exposes the lie of supremacy and invites a higher word.
By day’s end and over the months that followed, those stools—once symbols of exclusion—became testimonies of inclusion. Sitting low moved a nation higher. That’s Luke 14 in public: humble courage, boundary-keeping dignity, hospitality that changes law and life.
Call to Response
If you’re ready to live S-E-A-T, say it with me: “Sit low. Examine my heart. Add the overlooked. Trust God to lift.”
Benediction
May the Lord who sets places and raises the humble keep you gentle and strong. May your table be wide, your spirit steady, and your hope sure—until every seat is mercy and every guest is kin.?“Let mutual love continue.” (Hebrews 13:1)
