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Grace and peace to you from God, our Father and from the Lord and

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Savior

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Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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The text today is the text from Luke 14, that was read.

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And I recall from my time as a pastor.

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One of my favorite things to do was to gather with my brother pastors

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in the circuit, for Winkle meetings.

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That was always a highlight of the month when we would gather together

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as brothers, and my Winkle group was a very diverse group with pastors

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from both seminaries, and it was led by a man who came out of the

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Seminary, this seminary in the 1960s.

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Who was a bold confessed gospel reductionist.

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In other words, he didn't think that

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we should preach the law other than to inform people of their need for

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a savior and his view of the Gospel itself was very I thought very

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tame and inoffensive.

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It was the simple message that God loves everybody and he thought that

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all of us young pastors should just preach every Sunday.

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God loves everybody and and very often when we would this is how the

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Winkles

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would work one that we would take turns hosting. And the hosting Pastor

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would have a service with usually the Gospel reading from the previous

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Sunday.

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He would have a communion service and although we always had business

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to do every single time

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we would, I won't say degenerate,

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but after the sermon we would end up having a debate about the meaning

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of the text and a critique of the sermon.

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And often this old Pastor

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would he would get on our case if he thought we were just a little

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too harsh with the law.

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And he didn't like what he called offensive passages of the

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scripture.

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In other words,

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he identified some passages as being offensive and he just thought,

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better not to talk about those passages.

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And so I can recall the Tuesday when I was leading the Winkle and the

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text was Luke 14:1 well I actually

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carried it beyond verse 11 into the text, that followed where

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Jesus advises his host on who he should invite to the next dinner

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party.

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Not your equals not people who can invite you back.

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But the poor, the crippled, the lame people who can't invite you back.

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And then we pressed on even to the parable of the wedding feast or

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the great feast, which also is a part of this setting. Where Jesus

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kind of insinuates that the original guests invited to the great,

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eschatological feast are going to turn that invitation down.

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And so it's going to go out to others.

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And I remember this old Pastor kind of smiling at one point after the

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sermon and saying, you know, this is one of those passages

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better left, untouched.

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He was bothered by the fact that in his words Jesus offers unsolicited

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advice to his fellow guests about how they should go about choosing

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seats the next time, they're invited to a wedding feast and you have

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sure this is Jesus.

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But I mean really, I mean nobody asked him for his opinion about this.

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He just takes it upon himself to to advise them.

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Next time

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you come to a feast, don't pick the best seats, pick the lower seats

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so that you can be honored in the

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of everybody not shamed. Kind of practical wisdom

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but really, how does that apply to Christians?

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And I mean, you know, Jesus just takes it upon himself and to tell his

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host next time, you throw a party invite, these people not these

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people.

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I mean, it's not like anyone ask Jesus for his opinion.

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He just sort of gives his opinion.

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In fact, this may even back up and said he had trouble with the

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fact that Jesus healed that man with dropsy on the Sabbath.

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In other words

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yes, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.

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This was now the third time

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 in Luke that he heals somebody on the Sabbath day.

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He has every right to do that.

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But really, I mean, why get in these people's faces with this stuff,

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wouldn't it be just a little less offensive if Jesus had waited till

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the Sabbath was over and then healed that man.

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It's not like the guy with dropsey

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would have been any less grateful to be healed on Sunday then

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Saturday.

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And uh, this was his take with this text

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And basically it was his critique of me Dave Lewis. Dave,

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why did you pick this tax to talk about today, you know?

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And of, and we had a debate that, that then took up the rest of our

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time, then we all had lunch as brother's never got to the business

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that day.

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As we ended up arguing about Luke 14, which I think is the best way to

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spend your time at a Winkle meeting.

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And it really came down to what I would say is

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the verse that anchors today's text verse 11, where Jesus says and

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this is his explanation of his advice his unsolicited advice about how

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his fellow guests should pick seats

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the next time, they go to a wedding. For everyone who exalts himself

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will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

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This was the kind of passage that challenged

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that older Pastor.

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He didn't want to hear stuff like that.

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I mean the message should be God loves everybody.

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But now we've got this verse where God is humbling some and exalting

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others because indeed this is how we should understand this verse. For

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everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Humbled by whom? Well,

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humbled by the God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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And not only is this taking place

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now as God's reign is being established, but even more

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so on the

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Last day when everything will be consummated and he who humbles

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himself will be exalted.

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Well, exalted by whom? Well exalted by the god of Israel.

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The Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ who even now is lifting up people

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through his gospel, and this will be then consummated

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ultimately on the last day, when our Lord returns.

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This is something that God is doing in his son Jesus

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as he brings his kingdom of grace here on Earth.

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He is exalting some and humbling others.

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And in fact, if we were to carry this text all the way through to the

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parable of the great feast it is the very people Jesus is warning and

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giving this advice to those who are first invited who are going to

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find themselves humbled because they reject the invitation to come

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to that eschatological feast. And so God will send his servants out to

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gather others others who may not have been the first listed to come to

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this feast and they are the ones who will fill up that banquet hall.

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See, this isn't just some unsolicited advice about how you should pick

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seats

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when you go to an event. Probably keep this in mind

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I guess. We'll all be fighting for the least seats to see who gets

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exalted, right?

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No, Jesus anchors his teaching, and his warning, in the very

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eschatological acts of God as he is bringing about salvation to this

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world, through his son, Jesus Christ, and if we listen to Jesus words,

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then we know that we are called to humility.

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This is the proper response to what God has done for us by sending his

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son to be our Redeemer.

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And yet this is also good news for you.

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This may sound unflattering.

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But everybody gathered here today are actually a bunch of nobodies.

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I mean, seriously, I'm some of you made be descendants of Abraham,

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Isaac and Jacob.

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Most of you are not.

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In fact, we're descendants of nations that weren't even around Israel

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at that time.

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We were nowhere in the story

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and yet end time, God has sent his servants out to you with the Gospel

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of Jesus Christ.

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To call you to repentance for the Forgiveness of sins, on the

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basis of Jesus name.

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He has elevated you to the status of Disciples of Jesus.

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And in baptism, he's elevated you to the status of being his true

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children, in Jesus Christ

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our Lord.

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In fact, I look at a bunch of nobodies who have become somebody

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because of what God has done in Jesus.

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He has called you to be his people.

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And so those who were once

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nothing

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God has lifted up in Christ

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Jesus to make you who are not his people,

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his people. You who were sinners, those who are now forgiven in, on

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the basis of Jesus name. Those of you who were actually God's enemies

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now, you have become his children in Christ Jesus

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our Lord.

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This is what God does in Jesus.

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Those who are exalted, he brings down, but those who are humble, those

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who are nothing, he brings up.

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And so it is our response

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then to follow our Lord, to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and

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follow him. To humbly walk with our God, but that is because we follow

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the God of Israel who is now your father through Jesus

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Christ.

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And this is the God who takes those are nothing and lifts them up and

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turns them into something.

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And so he has turned you and do his very people children called to serve

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him in this time and in this place.

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And so to our God and Father, be all the glory both now and forever.

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Amen.

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And May the peace

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that passes all understanding.

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Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Amen.

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Please stand.