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HUMBLE PIE
Luke 14:1-24
Pride tells me
I’m smarter than God.
It happened that when He went into the house of one of the
leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were
watching Him closely. And there in front of Him was a man
suffering from dropsy. And Jesus answered and spoke to the
lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the
Sabbath, or not?" But they kept silent. And He took hold of him
and healed him, and sent him away. And He said to them, "Which
one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will
not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" And they could
make no reply to this.
Pride tells me I’m superior to others.
And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He
noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the
table, saying to them, "When you are invited by someone to a
wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more
distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who
invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to
this man,' and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last
place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last
place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may
say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will have honor
in the sight of all who are at the table with you. For everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself
will be exalted."
Pride always asks, “What’s in it for me?”
And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, "When
you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or
your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise
they may also invite you in return and that will be your
repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be
blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you
will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Pride says that what’s important now is most important.
When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard
this, he said to Him, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in
the kingdom of God!" But He said to him, "A man was giving a big
dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his
slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for
everything is ready now.' But they all alike began to make
excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of
land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me
excused.' Another one said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen,
and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.'
Another one said, 'I have married a wife, and for that reason I
cannot come.' And the slave came back and reported this to his
master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to
his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the
city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and
lame.' And the slave said, 'Master, what you commanded has been
done, and still there is room.' And the master said to the
slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and
compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I
tell you, none of those men who
were invited shall taste of my dinner.' "
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