“HUMILITY IN A ME WORLD”
Luke 14:7-14
INTRODUCTION TO SERMON:
I want to start today by telling you a story. This story was told at a dinner party 2,000 years ago. Jesus had been invited to the home of a very prominent religious guy in the community known as a Pharisee. Now, the Pharisees were extremely religious and pious people, very proud of following all their rules and regulations. They primarily did it so that they could be seen by other people, so that others could applaud them for their goodness. So they loved the way people looked at them when they went through their long ritual prayers, when they wore their Gucci robes, when they flashed their season tickets to the synagogue, when they made a big deal out of their giving so others could see it, when they used their titles and their Rolex hourglasses to remind people that they were better than everybody else. Purposefully, created this distance between them and others.
So, this Pharisee had invited some other Pharisees and Jesus to join him for a dinner party in his home. Now at dinner parties in those days, the table arrangement was in a horseshoe shape. And it was the custom at the dinner party for the host to be seated in the middle of the head table and then the most honored guests were seated to the right and the left of the host, and the other members of the dinner party were seated on around the table in order of descending importance. So Jesus attends this dinner party, and he notices as people arrive, that there is this mad scramble to get the seats of honor up next to the host. They want to be seated next to the host; they want to be in the top spot, they want to be next to that place of honor. And when he sees that it prompts him to tell this story, this parable that we have printed for you in Luke 14. Jesus says in vs:8- “If you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t always head for the best seat. What if someone more respected than you has also been invited? The host will say, ‘Let this person sit here instead.’ Then you will be embarrassed and will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!”
Jesus says to imagine that you go to a dinner party. You get there early and you make a mad scramble to get the seat of honor. You swoop past everybody else, get the place up there and sit down feeling real good, wave at all the little people seated out at the end of the table. A little bit later, after it begins, the host comes to you, taps you on the shoulder, and says, “Excuse me, I’m sorry. You’re in someone else’s place. I’m going to have to ask you to move.” And now all the other seats have been filled, except the place at the end of the table. How embarrassing! You’re not waving at anybody now! You are the little people! Then Jesus applies this to everyone who’s attending the party, saying in vs:10 “Do this instead - sit at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place than this for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored.”Reminds me of another saying: “He who gets too big for his britches will eventually be exposed in the end.”
Let me ask you: Why does Jesus make such a big deal about this pride issue? Why is it as you leaf through the pages of Scripture that you find over and over again that God feels and reacts strongly to pride? Pro. 16:5 says, “God can’t stomach arrogance or conceit...”(Msg) Psa 101:5- “I will not tolerate anyone with a conceited look or arrogant heart.”(GW) James 4:6: “God sets Himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.”Why does God feel so strongly about pride, arrogance and ego, and why does the Bible consistently call us to the contrasting virtue of humility? I want to suggest to you this morning that the reason this is such a big deal to God is that he knows the ugliness of pride and the damage that it’s doing in business arenas, political arenas, educational arenas, in families, between friends, even in churches. So, let’s look at the burdens or harm that pride brings and then look at Jesus’ solutions.
I. BEARING THE BURDEN OF PRIDE:
First, the burden pride creates when we allow it to get out of control. I think all of us understand that pride wrecks relationships. In fact, let’s do a little survey. How many of you love to be around people with big heads? Just raise your hands. How many of you said today, “I can’t wait to go out to lunch after church with a conceited jerk!”Of course not! No one likes prideful people. And the Bible has been telling us what pride does to relationships for thousands of years. Proverbs 13:10: “Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.” I know long time friendships that have dissolved into pieces because one or both parties can’t humble themselves and admit their mistakes. I’ve watched marriages break up because one or both of them has to win every argument, every decision. I know parents that can never admit that they made a mistake, and their kids grow up wounded and broken and resentful. I know people who silently struggle with a financial issue, a relational issue, an addiction issue, a moral issue, but they are too prideful to open up to somebody and say, “I’m in over my head, and I need help.” Pride. Pride. Pride. That kind of pride is destructive and kills relationships.
My guess is, in an audience this size, that there are some of you living with very fractured relationships right now. May I be honest enough to tell you that they’re going to stay that way until one or both of you humble yourselves? Until you go get that counseling, until you admit that you’ve got a problem. You see, when you’re humble, you don’t have to be right all the time. When you’re humble, it’s easier to handle criticism. When you’re humble you can say the 12 words that hold a relationship together: “I am sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me, I love you.”
Now, another reason that I think this was such a big deal to Jesus is that He knew that pride walks right by people with needs. As some of you know, I left a great church in Montrose a couple of years ago to start this church. I served as the senior pastor for Montrose Christian for 4 years. When I went there they were declining in attendance and didn’t have any excitement for ministry. One of the reasons I was hired was because I had served a growing church in Boca Raton, FL and they wanted a new vision for Montrose. So I accepted that challenge and did just that: leading through change, making transitions, building teams, teaching and preaching a philosophy of outreach and ministry. And over the next 4 years we saw dramatic things happen. We grew, doubling our attendance to the 600’s, we saw new leadership developed and literally hundreds of lives started changing.
And so when I left there to come to start Discovery, I had several of our younger leaders express concern over how the church would survive without Tim leading the way, without Tim riding point, without Tim doing the teaching. To be honest with you, I heard that enough that I started wondering a little bit: “Yeah, how are they going to get along without me?” Well, to the surprise of my ego, they’ve done amazingly well. They’ve stayed on focus with their vision, they found this bright, gifted, engaging new pastor who is “30 something.” Everybody loves him, he’s doing an outstanding job, the church is moving forward, in fact they’re running over 700 now! Can you believe that! I gave 4 years, 4 hard years of my life to that place and now I call back there and it’s like, “Tim? Tim who?”
You see, the truth is, I don’t have to look very far to see pride. I see pride every time I look in the mirror. And you know what I do when I’m self-absorbed in this universe called “Tim Smith?” I walk right by people who have needs. I can ignore people’s hurts, feelings, pains and problems, because I’m focused on my agenda, my dreams, my plan, my calendar. What happens when people are rushing to sit at the top spot at a dinner party? When they’re trying to get the place of honor? They walk by people in need. Right by a parent whose teenage son or daughter ran away last week. Right by a single mom who has 3 kids, a minimum wage income, and she is at the end of her rope financially and emotionally. Right by a professional guy who lost his job in corporate cutbacks and he’s about drained through all of his savings and is hoping to hang on to his house for just one more month. Right by a 5-year-old boy who’s never known his dad, never had a strong male figure in his life. Nobody’s ever kicked a soccer ball with him, shot some baskets, thrown a baseball with him. How could we miss them? Because pride doesn’t see them. Pride doesn’t respond to others because pride says, “It’s all about me, and my agenda.” Here’s a good verse to memorize. Let’s read it together: “Don’t be selfish. Don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.”(Phil. 2:3-4)
So, Jesus knew that pride wrecks relationships, pride walks right by people who have needs, and Jesus also knew that pride is the roadblock to true happiness in our lives. Everybody seems to be in a frantic search for happiness, and there is no shortage of advice on how to be happy. I did a search on Amazon.com; there are no less than 4,381 book titles on how to be happy. The Art of Happiness, Accidental Happiness, 101 Ways to Happiness, 99 Ways to be Happier Everyday, 1,008 Secrets of a Happy Marriage. There’s even one titled, The Basset Hound, an Owners Guide to a Happy, Healthy Pet. That must be some book because I’ve never seen a happy Basset Hound. There’s tons of advice on being happy, so why aren’t more people happy? Why don’t you have more colleagues that you work with who are happy? Why are there so many kids who seem unhappy? And a bit more personal, why aren’t you more happy?
Jesus taught that happiness is very counter-culture. The world thinks happiness is found in external circumstances. But please don’t miss this: Jesus taught that happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you but true happiness is determined by what’s happening in you. You know what the first step is toward true happiness? Humility. That’s exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, in one of his first sermons, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”(NIV) Just look at that word “blessed.” The word “blessed” literally means happy. Happy are the poor in spirit. Who are the poor in spirit? Jesus is not referring to those who are down in the dumps. No, people who are poor in spirit look themselves in the eye and say every day, “I say some things, do things, think things, refuse to do things that just underscore the fact of what a spiritual failure I am. I don’t measure up to God’s standard of holiness.” That’s humility. Not thinking less of yourself than you really are but thinking of yourself in light of who God is. Jesus is saying, “Happy are those of you who can acknowledge that you need God, because you’re the people who will truly be happy.” Because the kingdom of God belongs to those who can admit they don’t deserve it. Pride’s an obnoxious thing, isn’t it? Pride is what’s standing between some of us and better relationships, Pride is what is keeping some of us from God right now. It’s what’s standing between many of us and happiness, now and forever. Why was pride such a big deal with Jesus? Because it wrecks relationships. It walks by real people with real needs. It’s a roadblock to experiencing genuine happiness in your life.
II. BREAKING THE BACK OF PRIDE:
So, how do we break the back of that kind of pride? You want to know how to grow in humility in a “me world”? It’s going to require two things from you and me, two things that Jesus taught in this story that he told. First, Jesus taught in this parable, if you want to break the back of pride, you’ve got to reach outside yourself and serve others. Take a look at vs:12 and see the application Jesus made after he told this story at the dinner party day. After saying, “He who humbles himself will be exalted,” Jesus continues: “`When you put on a luncheon or a dinner,’ he said,`don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will repay you by inviting you back. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the godly, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.’” In other words, reach out to others when you can. Psychologists will tell you that some of those with the best mental and emotional health are those who look to serve others. This is one of the most effective antidotes to pride that I know of. When we see someone serve others in this way we recognize it as greatness.
Video Clip - Princess Diaries 2 - Chapter 7 Start Time: 0:54:25 End Time: 0:57:43 - 3:18
Pride keeps us from recognizing people in need, humility helps us see them. It’s all a matter of where you are looking - at yourself or out for others. Ask yourself right now.. As you drove to church today, even as you walked from the parking lot to this auditorium.. What did you see? Who did you see? I challenge you this morning. Ask God “Open my eyes to those who may need you through me today.” This is a ME world and in order to do this we’ve really have to be proactive on this one. We really do. When is the last time you had someone over to your house? Just to get to know them better? When is the last time as a family you reached out to someone else without being prompted to do so? And if you’re saying, “I need to be doing more of that kind of thing,” then take some action. Don’t just talk about it, do it. Look around to see where you can reach out.. At home, at work, here at church. If you are confused as to where to help here then contact Tim Garrett our Connections Pastor.. Be proactive.
Secondly, if you’re going to break the back of pride, you’re going to have to take a risk and acknowledge who you really are. Acknowledge it to God, acknowledge it to other people. That’s risky, I know. It takes a risk, to fall on your knees before the God who made you and say, “God, this is who I really am, a pride filled, arrogant, selfish person. I deceive, or I lust, or I covet, or I gossip or I wound people. There’s selfishness inside of me that’s doing so much that’s destructive, and I am utterly dependant on who you are, God. I’m in a hole that I can’t climb out of. It’s so deep only you can lift me out.” That’s hard for people to do, who live within a culture that puts up this front, this illusion that says, “I made myself who I am. I deserve all that I have. I worked for it; I did it all myself.”
It’s like the corporate CEO who pulled up to the full service pump at a gas station
one day. His wife was in the car and she got out for a moment. And the CEO noticed
that she was talking to the gas station service attendant, and they were having a pleasant conversation. And after they were finished, she got in the car. They started to drive away, and her husband found out that the guy she was talking to was a guy that she had dated in high school. And so, feeling rather cocky, her husband says to her, “I bet I know what you’re thinking. I bet you’re thinking that you’re pretty lucky that you married me, the CEO of a mega-corporation and not a service station attendant.”And she said, “No, actually I was thinking that if I married him and not you, he’d be the CEO of a mega-corporation right now, and you’d be working in this gas station.”
Listen, none of us would be anything without the God who made us, the God who gave us gifts and abilities, without the God who gives us opportunities, without the God who gave his only son for us. There are some of you in this room that I need to get real personal with for a moment. The obstacle that’s standing between you and God, between you and accepting Jesus, is not an intellectual obstacle, it’s not a knowledge obstacle, it’s nothing more than stubborn pride. Some of you have a deep pride in your life that refuses to let you acknowledge your need for Jesus. And you exalt yourself. You compare yourself to everybody else. “I’m not sitting where they are sitting. I’m better than that person; at least I don’t do that.” In order to break the back of pride you’ve got recognize spiritually who you really are; to simply confess your sins before a perfect holy, unblemished, loving God.
When you do that, two things happen: (1) When you confess your specific sins to Him you realize you’re not so hot. One of the truths of the Bible given over and over again is you can never be good enough on your own to earn heaven. Because once you sin one time, you can’t brag to a perfect God how good you are. I mean, you don’t impress the engineers of Boeing with the airplane that you made from paper. You don’t brag about how far you can drive a golf ball in the presence of Tiger Woods. You don’t look Michael Jordan in the eye after shooting a jump shot and say, “I got game.” And you certainly can’t boast about your goodness in the presence of a perfect, holy God. (2) But secondly, and here’s the really great news. When you humble yourself before God He erases all of that sin! Yeah, just wipes it out. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he forgives them and erases from our lives everything we’ve done wrong.” (GW) And the truth is, when you lay yourself down before Him, humbling yourself something else amazing happens. You begin to find it easier to erase, to forgive the faults of others because you know how much you have had erased. You begin to live with the everyday, amazing, humbling truth that you have been covered by His love, covered by His blood, covered by His righteousness.
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Excellent recourse for this message:
Willow Creek Community Church’s 2004 sermon series entitled "Risk It".
