The sermon this morning comes from Luke chapter 22. We'll start the reading at verse 24. If you're paying careful attention, you'll notice I passed over a section that's a section dealing with the Lord's Supper. That's because in two weeks we're going to have the Lord's Supper. And I'll return to those verses and preach from there at that time. For now, we'll be starting again, as I said, in verse 24. As we are looking in context, we see that there was the preparation for the Lord's Supper, and then the disciples are speaking after Christ has explained that he's gonna give up his body and his blood for them. They start an argument about who's the greatest between them. Luke chapter 22, starting with verse 24. And there arose also a dispute among them as to which of them was regarded to be greatest. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them. And those who have authority over them are called benefactors. But it is not this way with you. But the one who is greatest among you must become like the youngest. and the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves." Pray with me. Father, help us now as we look at the attitude and the posture of Christ as he came in the flesh and showed us the ways to love you and the ways to love one another. Please shine your light into our minds and into our hearts that we can examine ourselves and see in what ways we can be putting off the old man to draw closer to Christ and to walk more closely with him. that you will be glorified in our lives. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So we have Jesus's inner circle here at this point. It would be a place of striving and pushing. It would be a group of men who are able to look out and able to look down on the other people outside of the circle. I've described when I first came to faith, I was in a community church and there was a cry room on the back with a glass, big glass, window there, and there was a time of prayer in there before each of the services. The deacons who were the equivalent of elders loosely in that congregation, they would go in there, a few of the wonderful old church ladies would go in there, and the pastor would go in there, and they would all pray before the service, and anyone was welcome, but few attended. I would go after I was just saved with this zeal that I had, And I remember walking out of that room after praying, looking around, hoping people saw me walk out with the most spiritual people in the church. There was an arrogance to me. And I wanted people to see it. And I wanted people to know that I was in the inner circle. I don't say this to boast. That's a bad place to be. Obviously, I hope you can discern that. Well, we look here and we see this inner circle arrogance here. We can develop that in any circles that we're in. We could look at ourselves in the RPCNA. We could say, oh, we have the Westminster Confession. We can say even stepping beyond that, and we have the testimony as well of the RPCNA, we could have an arrogance and a confidence. Men in general, humankind, we will look and we see things based on comparison. These are the ways that we think. These are the ways that we see. Some people will describe, if you're hunting, that movement catches the eye. Well, it's not just the movement. It's the contrast that catches the eye. Contrast in color, contrast in light, contrast in any area. So we think in these ways, and we think by comparison. Well, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. They're thinking in these terms, by comparison, I am greater than you. I am higher than you. Christ comes in and says, that's how heathens think, as he speaks to them. You can look at it that way and think like heathens, Christ is describing it to them. He says, fall back and look at me. fall back and look and see and remember, I just washed your feet. Who's the greatest in the room? Is it the one being served? Or is it the one doing the service? Christ describes, and as he often does, he takes the world and its order and its priorities and flips it over. He says, look, the first will be the last, the last will be first. The least is the greatest. Maybe you'll remember the accusations brought against the apostles when they were preaching the gospel. They pointed at them and said, these guys are turning the world upside down. Well, there's a bit of truth to that, but the reality is it's not upside down. The world's already upside down and the gospel sets it right. Jesus set it right. So we come and we listen to Christ's instruction. We follow Jesus in service and we draw close to him. We put ourselves in the position to humbly serve like Jesus. So our first step is check your heart for comparisons. This happens to me. I do comparisons every time an accusation is brought against me. Wrongly so, I do this. If someone accuses me of something, my default at that moment is to think, yeah, well, you do this, which is worse. So even though you're bringing an accusation against me, clearly, you are worse than I am. You can tell me later if I'm alone on this. I hope I'm not. Actually, I guess I should hope that I am. Jesus describes it here in this way, and there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. There's always this pressure and there's always this competition that's taking place that we're hoping at least I won't be the lowest. Hopefully someone else is worse than me. I have had the experiences growing up in public school of being the last one picked for teams. I was not athletic in my youth. And it felt a whole lot better if just one other person was left after me, if at least I wasn't the worst one, the last to be chosen. Well, we live by these comparisons and we look at our lives. Satan knows this. Satan knows that this is the way that you think. He knows that this is a weakness in humanity and he will come up to you and he'll press on that weakness. intentionally to get at it. When I used to fight for fun, I would rejoice in punching a person in a particular spot and then I would also rejoice in continuously throughout the fight, punching them in that spot again and again and again because I knew by then it was weak and I could keep hurting them in that way. You as a person have a weak spot, as a human being, have a weak spot, and Satan has and will continue to hit you there again and again and again. In Genesis chapter three, verses four through five, Satan comes and he works by way of comparison in his temptation. saying, I will make you to be like God. I will lift you from where you are. I will make you higher. In Isaiah 14, 14, we see the chant praise of God. of the Babylonian here. I will ascend above the heights of the cloud. I will make myself like the Most High. We come to that place of comparison. We see that this resulted in the crucifixion of Christ, that in Matthew 27, 18, it was by comparison and it was by envy that the Pharisees were sacrificing Christ. James 4, one through two, talks about the source of quarrels and conflicts among you. And he comes along and then he boils it down and he says, isn't it because you're envious? Isn't this why you have your fights and your dissensions and your battles? So Jesus, as he's speaking to the disciples, he says, okay, look at how the heathens do it. They lift themselves up, they press others down, they lord their authority over others. They come to this place of strength. In Matthew chapter 20, verses 20 through 28, we look and we see another comparison in the same way. We can also think in terms of the Pharisee when he was praying and he looked out and says, I thank you God that I am not like the tax collector. Thinking by comparison and exalting ourselves. So why do we have this attitude? Why do we have this posture? And what does Jesus tell us to do about it? Well, in verse 26, he says this, but it is not this way with you, exalting yourself and being higher, but the one who is greatest among you must be like the youngest and the leader like the servant. So our second step, is remember being low makes you high. Now what kind of low are we talking about? We're not talking about disgusting dead low. We're not talking about a dead animal along the road stinking low. We're not talking wormy and detestable. Think differently about this. We would be talking about dirty hands and dirty hands from doing work. That's a good thing. We are thinking about considering other people as more important than ourselves, but this doesn't take away from us because we're not standing in the place of comparison and finding our value in comparison with others. The nearness of God is our good. And truly, the lower we bow, the closer we are coming to Christ and his posture and his attitude. So this lowness, it's not, again, the lowness of a dead animal. It's the lowness of a newborn. Or the lowness of a child. And Jesus says, you must become like a child. We look at a child with food all over their face and we don't say, oh, disgusting beast. But we look and we say, how cute. Look how lovely this little one is. You must become like a child. We admit that we don't have it together, and it's not a big deal. It's not an issue for us. We're being drawn close, and we're being loved. This beauty is described in Psalm 110.3. Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power. In holy array from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. There's a newness to it. and the beauty as we come, and the holy array is Christ. It's not what we have accomplished, it's us being loved because of Christ. We see that when we get this out of order, there is a serious problem with it. Luke 14, 11, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. We saw this picture in Matthew 23, as Jesus is pointing at the prettiest people in the room, the best dressed people, the ones who kept the law down to the letter, every jot and tittle, every I dotted, every T crossed, as He looked at them and says, woe to you, you hypocrites, who look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. There's a horrible place there. James 4, 6 reminds us, God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. He brings us to this place of humble submission in 1 Peter 5, 5. You younger men, as if to say, don't exalt yourselves, don't walk out of the prayer meeting all puffed up. You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. Take that in, and you can do a beautiful study on the one another's of scripture. That one another, that's a, it's a single Greek word to the point where I always misspell it, and spell check always has to say, no, no, one another is not one word. In the Greek it is, and it's the opposite of what it sounds like. The Greek word is alelone. Makes you sound like you're all alone. But it's a reciprocal thing. It's one another. I am doing this for you, as you are doing this for me. Love one another. I am doing this for you, while you are doing this for me. And neither of us are alone. Bear, allelu, bear one another's burdens. I am doing this for you, while you are doing this for me. Clothe yourself with humility toward one another. And it goes on in 1 Peter 5, 5 to say, because God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. This doesn't isolate you and this doesn't remove you from the place of value and joy and happiness, but it brings us more solidly into it. It brings us more solidly into the presence of Christ. As we sang in Psalm 73, verse 28, but as for me, the nearness of God is good for me. I have made the Lord God my refuge so that I may tell of all of your works. That's where our good is, in the nearness of Christ. And we see the humility of Christ and the ways in which He served. So our third step is learn from Jesus. Look with me at verse 27. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves. this learning from Christ this morning in our Sabbath school class, we're doing a study on marriage. And there's that conversation about husbands loving the wife as Christ loved the church. And he pointed out, look, you gotta look further. One of the elders pointed out, you gotta look further ahead there in the book of Ephesians and see the ways that Christ did love the church. And he asked the question, in what ways did Christ love the church? It was an active and continuous love and service. I pointed out right away, he fed them. Because that's one of my favorite love languages. Feed me. He fed them. He healed them. He taught them. He cared for them. And the elder pointed out, it was way before Jesus ever spread out his arms and died. that he was showing what service in life looked like. Loving one another, serving one another, following Christ together. Matthew 11, 28 through 30, Jesus describes his role in this way and invites us into this role. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle. and humble in heart. There it is. Humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. There are ways in which this service is a release. I find my office and my calling quite burdensome very often. The care and administration of souls looks good on a business card, feels a bit heavy when you're trying to live it out. There was a time at our after school program where a child spilled a drink on the floor and I was just way too delighted to go get get what I needed to clean it up, because that was a lot easier than the care and the administration of souls. There is a simplicity to service. And there's a peace that can go along with it. Remember the scripture, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. you can be at peace in that place of service. There's a peace and there is a gentleness to it. As Christ said, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. We sang in Psalm 25, this is the ninth verse, Psalm 25, nine. He leads the humble in justice and he teaches the humble his way. Who are the people being taught? Who are the people being led? It is the people who are small in their own sight. Our comparison isn't with one another, but our comparison is with Christ. And I'm going to fall back and read the rest of Psalm 25 there. Listen to the humility and the place that we are living in, and that humility as a result of verse nine. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Do not let me be ashamed. Do not let my enemies exalt over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for you will be ashamed. Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed. Make me know your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God of my salvation. For You I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindness, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to Your lovingkindness, remember me. For Your goodness sake, O Lord, Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in justice and he teaches the humble his way. So this brings us to that place and each of us have to look at our lives and ask the question, what will this look like in my life if I'm serving those around me like Christ? If Jesus were living where I live, if Jesus woke up in the house where I wake up, if Jesus went to work the way that I go to work, if Jesus had that same interactions that I am having with the same people, what would his service look like? Well, we each could go and we can look at the law We can look at the commandments, and we have that broad commandment, love God, and the next one is like it, love your neighbor. In different ways in each of our lives, the blade is going to come along that commandment, and it's going to be whittled down, and part of our life is whittling that down to our individual circumstances. to see in what ways Christ calls me to love. We referenced that great summary of the commandment from Matthew 22, 37 through 40, love God and love your neighbor. Now we'll take that and another broad statement of it is from Galatians 6, 10. It says, so then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people. Okay, right? Pretty broad there. Let us do good to all people. But that's going to need whittled down, isn't it? I mean, there are people out in the world and people that aren't near you, people that you can't touch their hearts and people whose hearts you shouldn't be touching at this point in your life. Where are you specifically to be doing your good. That Galatians 6.10, do good to all people, immediately the Holy Spirit whittles it down just a little bit and says, especially to those of the household of faith, there's a particular care that we find ourselves living with one another, loving one another, to be blessing each other and to be bearing one another's burdens. We can take that and we can whittle it down a little further. If we took the 10 commandments, that's another one of these giant, just being dropped down in front of us. This is how you love God and this is how you love your neighbor. But even in the midst of that, God takes it and he whittles it down a little bit with each of the commandments and says, and as this applies to you, do this. He says, honor your father and your mother. right off. Those people who are closest to you, those people who have brought you up and the people that I have set in your house as an authority in your house. He also takes it then and he whittles it and changes it a little bit for the change in circumstances in our lives saying, and don't commit adultery. This other piece, as Jesus talks about, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. This is that next place and that next care. In the midst of our own household, 1 Timothy 5, 8 says, if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household. He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Do you see these tears and these ways that we are to love and the ways that we are to be prioritizing our lives? And we've all seen people who have gotten these out of order and their life has become a shipwreck because of it. If someone focuses entirely on their children and neglects their spouse, There'll be a shipwreck because of it. If someone focuses entirely on the church and ignores his own house, isn't there a shipwreck because of it? We look and we prioritize in our lives our love for God and our love for our closest neighbors, and we carefully let that stack out while we love those who are closest to us, caring for our closest companions. Now, I admit, it's easier to run away and care for realms that aren't yours, areas that aren't your dominion. Can't you see siblings in a house not cleaning their own room, but telling their siblings specifically how they should be doing their business? Sure, that's a problem, but it's an echo and reflection of all of our hearts. We want to compare ourselves to others in order to exalt ourselves and not care for our own dominions. Christ has shown us. Christ has shown us how to love, and it is through service. Make the nearness of the Lord your good as you follow him. as you deny yourself daily, as you take up your cross and ask Him to show you His ways, to walk in His truth, to live in that place of humility, that Christ will be glorified in your life and you will know that good of His nearness. Pray with me. Father, we thank you as you do not leave us wondering or guessing We thank you that you show us who and what is most exalted, that it's Christ and that it is service. Please help each of us, Father, as we look at our lives and as we find the comparisons that we make in our own lives to exalt ourselves, Father, and help us to put off that old prideful man. May we live in that place of humility, in that place of grace, in that place of honorable service, and please be glorified as we walk in the footsteps that Christ has made into a way. We love you, Father. Thank you for speaking to us this morning. May we apply your truth and love. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen.