Sermon Video: Humble yourself - Luke 14:7-11

In many instances, the teachings of Jesus are counter-cultural, running against the grain of what the religious leadership of his day was teaching the people, but at other times, the problem wasn't a matter of changing minds but of changing hearts.  While at a dinner hosted by a Pharisee, Jesus notices the scramble among the guest for the seats of honor at the table and uses that display of pride to tell a parable about guests at a wedding feast.  The parable itself, and its moral, are both things that previous rabbis had taught, they were not controversial in any way, they just weren't being followed.

Pride is a tricky sin, one we may often miss seeing in ourselves, but one that must be dealt with because pride is at its most basic a form of ingratitude toward God.  Why are we full of pride, because we don't give God adequate thanks as Creator, we don't recognize that our own accomplishment (or accident of birth) is not our greatness but God's grace.  Throughout the Scriptures, God consistently opposes the proud and uplifts the humble, this principle is stated explicitly often enough, as well as being illustrated implicitly in the lives of prominent people in the Bible like Moses or Ruth, who exemplify humility, and Sampson or Nebuchadnezzar who reaps the penalty of pride.

So where are we prideful?  What do we need to do in our lives to set aside pride and embrace humility?  We have been called to be disciples of Jesus, as such we need to take seriously our need to imitate the man who had more cause to be glorified than any other, but was willing to take upon himself the role of the humblest servant for our sake.

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