What Are You Looking For

Let’s pray father. We thank you for this day. You’ve gifted it to us. We thank you for this word that you’ve given to us. This is your word. It reveals who you are. It reveals what your character is like. It reveals your will for us and God, we are thankful for this revelation. And so Father, we ask that in the moment that we have together this morning on the day that you’ve gifted to us with the words that you’ve given to us God, that we would leave here with every everything that you intend for us to understand about this word. And lastly, the Lord, we give you thanks for jesus, christ your son our savior, who shed his blood for our sins, that we might be forgiven. It’s in his name, that we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, good morning. So our church. Some of you are awake this morning. Welcome to sword Church. If this is your first time, I haven’t met you. My name is dan. We’re glad you’re here. We hope that we can get connected with you and learn a little bit about your story, how God is working in your life and what drew you here. And so we’re glad that you’re here um church this morning. My question for you is this what are you looking for? What are you looking for? I think we’re looking for rest and by rest. I mean assurance and peace. We want some assurance about the future. We want some peace in the midst of everything we’re dealing with in life. Peace and assurance. Piece that everything that we’re dealing with? Everything that we’re facing isn’t going to overtake us or overwhelm us or set us back too far that we won’t ever be able to recover an assurance that there are good days ahead. There are good things waiting for us. I think we’re looking for that. Are you looking for that? That’s something I’m looking for. That’s something that I believe I found in jesus. And this morning, I hope that you’re able to see that some people are looking for peace and assurance and they aren’t looking for it in jesus. And so they can’t have it. They don’t find it, they don’t experience the benefit of it. And as we read this morning in the passage in Luke 14, everybody is watching, everybody is looking at someone, starting with the Pharisees, looking at jesus and then the rest of the hosts that were invited to the dinner party, looking at one another. Everybody’s watching everybody’s looking and everybody is looking for something. What do you think they were looking for? Have you ever been to a carnival? County Fair State Fair? It’s okay. You’re you’re not going to God’s not gonna be discouraged or upset at you for raising your hand saying that you’ve been to a carnival before in the past, Right? Um Some people might think that clowns were, you know, the invention of the devil, But, but carnivals are okay right there okay, Right, Cotton candy, right, ferris will, right? That’s okay. Right, so again, have any of you ever been to a carnival or a county fair or state fair? Yeah, there you go. We’re here this morning. We’re right here this morning. Have you ever been to one of those funhouse mirrors? You know, you walk in and the entire room is full of mirrors and each one presents a distorted image of yourself, right? Your eyes right like right here and massive, your chin is hanging down to your toes. You know, it’s made you look like a figure eight or something. I mean, just completely distorts the image. Right, Well, that’s what send us. It distorts the image. It distorts how we view God Ourselves and one another. Sin has distorted the view of the Pharisees as they’re looking at jesus, they’re watching jesus, but sin has distorted their view of him. They think that jesus is a lawbreaker, not man’s law, God’s law. They think that he is a lawbreaker. So what do they do? They invite him over for dinner? Now, this was a custom, jesus more than likely spoke at the synagogue. Probably the same situation that we dealt with in Chapter 13. Sorry. So it was a custom for the ruler of the synagogue to have over for dinner. The one who spoke at the synagogue that day. If a guest came and taught at the synagogue, he would be invited over to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and they would have dinner. And so the ruler of the synagogue affairs see, invites, jesus over invites over some more distinguished guests. And then they plant a man there with a medical condition that the scripture calls dropsy. Why do we believe that? Well, because the Pharisees, because sin has distorted their view of God and themselves and others, they don’t really want to be around people with medical conditions. They don’t want to be around people who have serious problems going on in life. They view that as a form of God’s judgment on that person. two, Why is this man in the dinner party? Because they’re watching jesus and with their distorted view of jesus, they think that jesus is a lawbreaker? So they try to set him up. But again, Jesus being the son of God, dual nature, right, fully human and fully God, and the two exists in the same person without confusion. So he knows that they’re trying to set him up. So the pastor says one sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of the ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully and behold there was a man before him who had dropsy and jesus, knowing that they’re watching him carefully responded to the lawyers and the Pharisees saying is it lawful to heal on the sabbath or not? Is it a violation of the law of God to heal on the sabbath or not. And the fair season would say yes, you should do that on the other days of the week, not on the sabbath, and sin has so broken them, it has so distorted their view of God, that they can’t see that the sabbath is about the ultimate healing for mankind. God healing us from sin that has fractured our relationship to him, and the same sin that fractures our relationships to one another. God giving a true rest. They can’t see it, they can’t see that jesus isn’t a lawbreaker, and neither does the law of God prevent a person from doing good on the sabbath. The law of God does not restrict or refrain. A person from showing mercy and compassion on the sabbath. You’re fundamentally misunderstood the law of God if you think that way, and why do they think that way? Because they have a distorted view of God themselves and others? Because the summary of the same law says, you are to love the Lord, your God with all your heart mind, soul and strength, and you’re to love your you know, neighbor as yourself. And so man being used to try to take down jesus, a man with dropsy man with something that would be similar to, you know, Dema where like there’s a massive amount of fluid in the tissue inflammation, painful, probably painful to walk probably painful to stand up, taking this man and trying to use this man to take down jesus boy that’s distorted, that’s sinful, but jesus, there’s no fear of man in him, even though he’s an invited guest into this home, even though he knows that these guys are trying to take him down, he will not back down from demonstrating the heart of God the goodness of God and the righteousness of God. He won’t back down from that. No, he even tries to show mercy to those guys, these same guys who are trying to sabotage him. It does so by asking a question, is it lawful to heal on the sabbath or not? The question is designed to reset the paradigm of thinking is to challenge their accepted and assumed paradigms about the law is an act of mercy to unsettle this faulty way of thinking. Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath? But they remain silent, seeing that their hearts were hardened and having mercy on the man that they have tried to use in his pain to take him down. It says that jesus took the man and healed him and sent him away. Again, another act of love and mercy removing his pain and yet also sending him away so that his healing would no longer be controversy for the rest of the dinner that night. Then again, showing mercy to the same hard hearted people, he says, which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out and they could not reply to these things. Some Translations will say in verse five, I’ll say which of you having a donkey or knocks, not necessarily a son. The reason why there’s a bit of variance. There is when we look at the thousands of copies of translations of luke’s account, it may have been a slight scribble air, but the principle and the point is still clear, you do good, you do good. If it were an ox, a creature not made in the image of God that fell into a well, you would do good. You wouldn’t simply just leave it there and saying that he’s saying that God means to do well by us by giving the sabbath as the ultimate gospel rhythm in our lives. That sin has pulled us all into a deep muddy pit and we can’t climb our way out of it. God saves us. God doesn’t simply just leave us. He makes it possible for us to be saved. He does good. The reason why this is hard for the Pharisees to see it is because the heart and the mind affects everything that we see. The heart and the mind affects everything that you see affects everything that I see and sin has corrupted human nature. That means that our hearts and our minds are bent. They have a bias towards sin and selfishness and we’re not equal to God. So we we can’t know everything. We can’t see everything. We can’t anticipate everything. And so we’re limited. So sin has made it difficult for these men to see the goodness of God in the Lord, jesus christ sin has made them biased towards their own way of living. It is an act of God’s grace for the human heart to rejoice at the will of God being done, especially when the will of God involves crossing our own wills. It is an act of grace for us to see that, to experience that and to rejoice, edit. It takes God doing that kind of work in us, left to ourselves. We all walking in uh a clown house with distorted mirrors and distorted images with distorted views and thoughts about God and ourselves and others text God stepping in to clear things up for us. So jesus is trying to do that for the Pharisees here And then he moves on to the distinguished guest of the Pharisees Verse seven, it says now he told the parable to those who were invited. He’s speaking to the guest next week. We’re going to look at the parable, he tells again to the Pharisees. Now he’s speaking to their guests. He says that he noticed that they chose the places of honour, saying to them when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast. Do not sit down in a place of honor less someone more distinguished than you be invited by him. And he who invited you both will come, will come and say to you, give your place to this person. And then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes he may say to you friend, move up higher, then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. Let me describe the setting for you a bit. This dinner party probably a dining room that shaped the settings kind of shaped like a U. With the host being in the center part of it and the more distinguished guests to his left and right and then leaning back on cushions what they call couches and eating and conversating and so you want to be closer to the host and the more distinguished guests. Why politics? You wanna talk politics, not politics like hey, I want to become mayor or commissioner or senator or something like that may be. But politics in the sense of I have an agenda, I need favor, I need someone to scratch my back. I need you to give me this, I want to see promotion. I want to advance. And so these guys jesus noticing that they’re all flocking, fighting trying to get closest to the more distinguished gas. He said you need to be careful. It may be in one of these days that you asked to give up your spot to someone else and then you will really be embarrassed. You thought to honor yourself. But then you’ll be embarrassed. The principle here for us is the kingdom of God has no place for any man or woman who seeks to grasp that power and position and influence over others is not a place for that. You may succeed at it. Even you may accomplish some of your earthly or worldly goals of having this position of influence and power over others. But God doesn’t miss a thing. He will demote you. You will make you give that place up to one more deserving. That’s what Jesus is saying in the case of this story here. Looking at the Pharisees and and the lawyers, they were the religious leaders of Israel. Israel is to be God’s covenant people. Jesus has went out and he’s called a collection of fishermen, tax collectors and social deviants, so to speak. Who have been redeemed brought back into the fold of God and they will replace these men as leaders among God’s covenant people. God doesn’t miss a thing. He didn’t miss the fact that those men were trying to use a man with a medical condition against his son and he won’t miss men trying to assert power over others and misusing that power being heavy handed and authoritative in that power. He won’t miss, he doesn’t miss those things. He is a just God. He heals the man with the medical condition and at the right time. He will demote the one who has wrongfully promoted himself as an ambassador of his kingdom. But again, I ask the question, what are you looking for? Because these men are looking for a type of assurance and peace and they’re willing to do anything they can in their own strength and being motivated by their own central flesh to get there. But it won’t yield the fruit of peace and assurance. It will never yield it. Because at the root of their driven nous, at the root of their inability to see jesus correctly, to see others correctly is pride. Pride and pride does not yield rest. Pride is the equivalent of looking for a needle among the haystack. You just can’t find it when it comes to rest. You’re not going to find it. You’ll never have enough. You’ll never achieve enough. You’ll never accomplish enough. Someone will always threaten your position. Someone will always be a threat to you because of pride. You will have no rest. So the rest you’re looking for. You can’t arrive at it. The heart full of pride, but humility, it flows from a place of rest. It begins from a place of rest. I am who I am. Because of the grace of God. I’ve been redeemed by the Grace of God. I’m a son of God. I don’t feel threatened when I see other sons and daughters of God succeed. I don’t feel like I’m gonna miss out. I’m not judging their slice of the pie with my slice of the pie? You never know his kids doing that. Why is this cake so big and my is only this big again. The heart and the mind affects how we see everything. And pride. That’s really the sin that keeps these men from seeing jesus correctly, from seeing a man in need of desperate relief correctly. Pride is what is causing them to jockey for position. That sin, that sin of pride. That’s what keeps them in that deep muddy pit where peace and assurance is so elusive, keeps them there. But what we have here in jesus is a testimony to the patience of God and the goodness of God and ways in which our sinful hearts and minds just don’t understand. He knows that these men have tried to set him up. He knows that these men aren’t his fans and yet he would appeal to them and yet he would boldly demonstrate what the love of God looks like and call them to pursue it. He demonstrates the patience and goodness of God and the way in which we just don’t understand. And yet we need to see it. He comes to them. They are the ones and the deep muddy pit unable to climb out. He comes to save them and they won’t take his hand. Some of you may be like that right now, you’re in a place of sin, you’re in a place of you know, you’re not living the way that God would have you to live pride, what have you tried to climb out? Try to figure it out your own way. And just when it looks like you’ve made a little progress, what happens? You fall right back down because you can’t climb out of this. You need a savior and you seek rest, but you’ll never find it in your own efforts. So if you’re struggling with secret sin or if you’re struggling with just rebellion towards God, jesus is the only way you’re gonna climb out of you confess your sin to him, you humble yourself before him, you submit to what his word says and you’ll find that he is able to pull you up and out of that deep muddy pit. Others of you, you’ve fallen into that pit because something has happened to you, it wasn’t necessarily your fault, but something has happened to you. And the pain is louder in your mind and in your understanding, the pain is louder than the goodness of God. You can’t experience the peace of God because you’re distracted by the pain and the suffering. Have you ever been in that place before? Hey, we’re human? I’ve been in that place numerous times. It is hard in that place to find rest. But do you know how you get out of that place? You get out of that place again. Turning to jesus, responding by turning to jesus, we think that we’ll get out of that is simply the pain if it’s just removed and and if we get the miracle that we have been praying for that somehow that will get us out of that place and we’ll have peace and assurance. Know the peace and the assurance comes from jesus. Even if the circumstances don’t change, you get the peace and the assurance even in the storm, even in the fire, you get the peace and the assurance, even as you’re dragging that cross around and it feels heavy, you get the peace and the assurance from him. If it be his will, he’ll take that obstacle, he’ll remove that pain. He’ll give the healing. But the piece and the insurance can be had can be a real experience for you. It’s just resting in here, accepting that he’s still good. No matter what’s happening to you right now, no matter what you’re feeling right now, he is still good. That’s the fight. The pain will distract you from his goodness. The adversity will distract you from this goodness. I think it was C. S. Lewis that said the pain was like a megaphone in the air. The louder the pain seems to sound, the more passionately, the more desperately we looked to him and cling to him 10. It’s him. We need. And lastly some of us we don’t have rest because we secretly desire earthly rewards and promotion. We secretly want that place of prominence and I want you to hear me clearly here. We’re not anti success in life. There are many of you in this room are very talented and gifted and work hard at what you do and you’ve earned legitimate success because of your labors. But if you don’t have peace, if you don’t have a sense of assurance even with all of your success, the answer isn’t more success. It’s jesus humility begins from a place of rest in him. Assurance and peace comes from resting in him. He shows us that he is good, he’s willing be patient and to come to us and to make salvation available to us When we are in that place, when we are in that deep muddy pit. Unable to climb out comes what is your response? What will be your response? I pray that it is to cry out to him that it is to look to him and to see a good loving and just savior has come to give you his peace. So let me leave you with this verse as we close first peter 56, it says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you brothers and sisters in christ there is a heavenly crown and a heavenly name for those who have made jesus their reward in this life. There is a banquet feast where you will be God’s distinguished guest were all the privileges and all of the blessings of christ being distributed to you. That’s what we live for. That’s the hope that anchors us in the storm. That’s the piece that keeps us in the face of challenging circumstances and challenging relationships and people. We look heavenward at our savior and we say there is our salvation a man and then let’s pray jesus. You gave your life that we might find life in you. You endured the shame and the scorn and the ridicule of the sinful world that we might receive the joy of peace and assurance from you. Lord, for those who bow their need to you, we belong to you. For those who aren’t sure God opened their eyes to see that your mighty arm is extended in their direction. Right now Lord do a work of grace in her heart to see it and to cling to it. God, we desire to be a kingdom minded people, so God empower us by your grace, according to your word, to the praise of your glory, to live out our days seeking first the kingdom of God and your righteousness. I pray this in christ’s name. Amen