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Luke 14 14 the Bible says for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted so just as a title for this morning or this afternoon now it's he that humbleth himself he that humbleth himself all right God wants us to be people of humility in fact in order for you to be saved the first thing you need to do is be humble to put your hand up and say hey I can't save myself hey I come short of the glory of God I come short of his commandments I'm a sinner and it's when you get to that point that's when you bring you show humility right toward God and that's when you can yell out and say Lord please save me I need a Savior so let's look at this let's look at verse number one Luke 14 verse 1 so we're gonna see a story play out here where Jesus Christ again heals on the Sabbath day we saw the same thing happen in chapter 13 but what we saw happen in chapter 13 was in a synagogue this time it takes place in a chief Pharisees house look at this in verse number one it says and it came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day and they watched him okay do you think these Pharisees they had it you know invited Christ into the house do you think they're just watching him because they really want to learn his wisdom they want to see what he's teaching no they invite him to his house because they want to catch him out they invite him into the house because they want to see what you know what can we accuse Jesus off and you see this in verse number two look at this and behold there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy okay now remember this is the chief Pharisees house so he's invited his bidding people to come in and participate of the supper that he's got on and for whatever reason he invites this man with a dropsy now I looked up what this was okay it's an archaic word for a condition where it's kind of like fluid retention in the body okay and you get puffy skin and it's a very painful it's a very painful condition okay so this fluid retention puffiness painfulness and they they have him there with Jesus Christ and they watch him okay because they already experienced they really know what happened in the previous chapter they know that Jesus Christ would heal on the Sabbath day and it's as if they're just watching to see what he's going to do you know it's you can clearly see that they're trying to set a trap for Jesus Christ okay that's number three and Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees saying is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day so is it right is it against the law verse 4 and they held their peace and he took him and healed him and let him go why do you think they held their peace if you remember the previous chapter it's because Jesus Christ showed them for the hypocrisy and if you remember what it said that they were shamed they were shamed that they were people that would take their their animals you know to get a drink of water but they would not care enough to help heal a fellow human man okay and you see they hold their peace with Jesus Christ okay do you think this is a hard question to answer is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day no they don't speak because they don't want to be seen as the hypocrites that they are but we see Jesus Christ he's got no problem the God the creator of all things to heal on the Sabbath day okay there's no problem to help your fellow man on the Sabbath day there's nothing wrong with going and preaching the gospel on the Sabbath day okay it's perfectly fine the Sabbath is for the man let's keep reading verse number five and answer them saying so now he asked another question which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day so look if you have an animal that falls into a pit which of you would not pull try to help that animal out do you think they're gonna answer him verse number six and they could not answer him again to these things look is Jesus asking a hard question common sense right you have you have a pet it's gone stuck somewhere on the Sabbath day oh we can't work no of course you'd go and help that animal of course you go helping that creature okay Jesus is asking common sense questions hey here's another red flag for the false prophets if you ask them basic questions and they don't answer it you know they skip away they turn to another topic you know you ask one of these preachers don't you believe salvation is by believing on Jesus Christ alone and then they go off on some other tangent or they don't answer it hey there's a red there's another red flag of a false prophet okay when it comes to simple straightforward common sense questions you know any man of God any preacher should be able to give you know a good answer to that now you know of course you know some questions come up they complicated you know you know it requires a deep understanding of scriptures whatever sometimes you may need time to think about it but you don't need time to think about whether you're gonna help your animal out okay you're not gonna have to take time whether you think you know can I kill this person and I help this person no you know common sense you know the natural love that you should have for a human being will dictate you if I can help that person I will go and help them okay that's number seven and he put forth a parable to those which were bitten okay so this just shows you that this supper that was being had all this invitation to eat bread were was by invitation okay because it says to those that were beaten so that way they were asked to come they were invited to come to participate this wasn't some public thing that's why I believe they were trying to catch Jesus out they brought that that sick man along as well all right and it says when he marked or he observed and saw how they chose out the chief rooms okay saying unto them when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding sit not down in the highest room lest the more honorable man then thou be bidden of him and hear that baby and him come and say to thee give this man place and thou begin and with sorry and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room so we have Jesus just observing these lawyers just observing these Pharisees and he sees that they're trying to pick out the chief rooms they're trying to pick out the best place for them to sit okay where can I be seen of men you know where can I sit so it looks like you know I'm someone of a high social class I've have high importance and Jesus observes that and watches that and then he gives this parable of the wedding day all right it's kind of like the wedding reception you know maybe maybe maybe the wedding ceremony we don't do it so much but generally speaking even with a wedding ceremony you still would leave the front seats normally for you know for the pageboy you know for the parents of the groom you know for family that may have traveled a long distance you know usually that's reserved for that so that's like coming into a wedding where you've been invited as a guest you know you're just a friend of the of the bridal party and you just rock up and take up the top of the best seat you know but because that might be reserved for someone more important you know that person is asked now you got to go sit somewhere else you know and and that's that's that's in back that's an embarrassing right to be embarrassed to do that you know just flying on the on the plane sometimes I see this quite often now that I fly every week you know sometimes you see people seated on the wrong seats you know and then you see other passengers walk up and go hold on oh that's my seat and then for a minute they're both like no you you know that one's wrong no you're wrong and then the air hostess comes up checks the tickets he goes no you actually have to move over there and it's embarrassing cuz like you know in a plane you're in a little thing and everyone's like talking everyone's like watching what's going on you know so you got to get up in your seat and go see where you've got to sit it's embarrassing right so Jesus is basically teaching about humility you know it's better to take the lowest seat first okay it's better to be humble and then to be brought forward then to be exalted then it is to exalt yourself and then be made to to eat humble pie okay look at verse number 10 but when thou art bidden go and sit down in the lowest room and when he bathe thee cometh he may say unto thee friend go up higher then shall they have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with them with thee so look this is a good principle for us you know be take the place of humility first even if you think you might be upgraded look just take the lower seats first okay I'm not talking about just a wedding I'm talking about in life in general okay you know if you're someone that you know you're you know you're in employment you know you're working you know you're working hard you know you don't need to be someone that suits their own horn and say look how look how great I am look how much I've achieved you know I was often rebuked by my manager and says you know Kevin you've got to promote yourself you know you're doing all this work you know but nobody knows you gotta promote you gotta tell people you're doing this and I like why God knows you know God knows I'm working hard and if I read my Bible here's the one that exalts is the one that promotes I'll leave it in God's hand if I don't get promoted oh it's not worthy to be promoted yet you know might come later in life you know and I'm telling you everywhere I've worked I've been promoted pretty quickly okay because I took my own horn I let people know of course not I just wait for the Lord to set things in order you know and you get promoted you know becoming a pastor you know I might my my pastors at one of my old churches they wanted to ordain me they wanted to send me out but because of the end times you know because of the rapture poster rapture they wouldn't do it you know so I had a couple of people in my church say why don't you just go out and start your own church why why would I do such a thing why would I do something against the Lord God you know pastors ordained pastors churches we get churches okay that's what we see in the Bible and so look if that's not my time to be promoted I'm not going to force it I'm not going to force the issue you know I just prayed to the Lord he opened up another door and I went through that process okay it took me longer than I thought but whatever you know I went according to the way God has asked it's such an important thing look not just in life but especially in a church okay and one thing I just want to make very clear is that when I'm preaching behind the pulpit I've said this before I'm not someone here it look my my office gives me authority in the church my office of the bishop the office of being a pastor that's what gives me authority but me standing behind this pulpit is me taking a position of servitude okay it's a position of humility I'm coming preparing a sermon and I'm offering you a meal okay that's how I am like a waiter you know I get the food and I come and offer that meal to you I'm serving you when I'm behind this pulpit and unfortunately a lot of people make the wrong mistake they think well if I'm standing behind the pulpit I must have authority no okay there's two officers in a church the office of a bishop the office of a deacon and it's these people that have some level of authority within the church okay when I ask you to come up here and preach behind the pulpit you're not taking a position of authority and I think you all know that anyway whoever preaches that okay and right now I'm not taking a position authority right now I'm just teaching the Word of God I'm being a humble servants as much as I can and doing the best job that I can okay but unfortunately like I said time and time again and we're just seeing a recent example of this you know just because I've been preaching I must have you know some I must hold some level of authority I must have be some sort of leader no okay it doesn't work that way all right I mean Paul think of the apostle Paul of course he was his office of being the apostle but he wasn't there in every church preaching day in day out okay he'd go and travel around yet he held his position of authority because of his office the office of an apostle all right so just keep that in mind in context of a church okay just because someone preaches behind the pulpit does not mean they have any authority in the church all right now let's I look at verse number 11 oh by the way just want to clarify something in verse number 10 it says you know sit it says uh uh at the end of it says then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them of course we know we shouldn't worship men okay but the idea of worship there is basically you know you'd be you you're given honor you're being given glory when you're asked to be you know moved into a more prominent position that's what that idea of the worship means there verse number 11 and this is a verse that we should live by you know did I ask you if I didn't ask you guys to memorize this verse please memorize it okay for whosoever exalts of himself shall be abased it's not they might be it says they shall be abased okay anyone that exalts themselves will be brought down low by god okay it will happen and he that humbled himself shall be exalted okay if you want god to exalt you you want god to give you that honor a position of of uh of of honor you've got to first humble yourself okay and that's hard because we have the flesh we have pride you know man generally wants to uh be be uh acknowledged man you know generally wants to be seen well of men you know they generally want to have you know good words to said sometimes when i preach you guys say to me oh that was a good sermon you know and then there's a war in my flesh there's a war it's got my flesh goes oh man you're a good preacher and then my spirit is like no no you're preaching the word of god it's god's word right whenever that happens like this war in my body is like whoa hold on what's going on right because look we all have that flesh we can all fall into pride pride is one of these sins it's so secretive you may not even realize you know that you're being prideful okay until you fall many times okay but um i just want to quickly uh quote to you first peter chapter five was five you don't need to turn there but this is in the context of a church it says likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder okay so in a church environment the younger needs to submit themselves to the elder to the pastor yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for god resists of the proud and giveth grace to the humble humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time what does due time mean in god's time okay i didn't have to go and just start my own church and just be a rebellious person no god had his time god had his due time where i would be ordained and able to start start start this church but look in the context of this church you know i have authority over you while we gather together the church okay and the instruction is that you would submit to the older okay submit to the pastor and i appreciate that i'll give you one quick example of this where i won't say who it was but one of the men was getting prepared to preach a sermon you know and he had a position which was slightly different from mine you know and he asked me you know should i preach this can i preach this at first i said yes then i thought about it a little bit and i came across some passages and i thought no you know what please don't preach that you know and what did he do he said all right no worries you know and he submitted himself to the elder submitted himself to the pastor okay i appreciate that you know i appreciate that that it wasn't some issue of contention you know oh hold on why don't you believe it just like the way i do no you know what that showed humility you know and the bible says there that humbleness says before you know therefore under the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time i mean how many promotions of god have we maybe missed out on because we've promoted ourselves because we've exalted ourselves i mean we don't know we don't know how much promotion we've missed out on okay because of pride because of exaltation so it's a you know i love it i love seeing that not because you know it makes me feel good i love seeing it because i can see that people generally love the lord you know they love this church and they want it to function they want it to work as biblical as possible and i'm really thankful for the for the people that we have in this church i'm really thankful what god has given us and i'll just read to you quickly from proverbs 15 verse 33 it says the fear of the lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility before honor is humility god will only ever honor you if you first humble yourself before him okay that means you have to humble your will to god's will in your life all right then god can work in you god can lift you up god can exalt you and make you a greater christian than what you already are back in luke 14 verse 12 luke 14 verse 12 then said he also to him that bade him so now he's talking to the one that invited him when thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy friends nor thy brethren neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors lest they also bid thee again and a recompense be made thee and this is this is a hard this is a hard saying okay when jesus christ came on the scene not only did he reinforce the old testament laws but he lifted up the bar okay he lifted it up and this is what he says verse number 13 but when thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shall be blessed for they cannot recompense thee for thou shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just okay so wow you know basically jesus christ in a sense is rebuking the man that invited him to the supper you know you've invited all these dignitaries and you invited these you know chief rulers and these lawyers you know but he goes look you're not going to be rewarded for that you're not going to be rewarded for that because they're going to come back and recompense what you've done for them they're going to invite you they're going to you know show you gifts and we've gone and all those kind of stuff and it's the same teaching that we've heard you know before is that you know if you're trying to you know if you're you're at church and you're serving the church but you do it um to be uh seen of men then your reward is on this earth okay but if you do it to be seen of god then god will reward you in the resurrection of the just okay the rapture let me just i'll just quickly say this those that teach that jesus never taught in the rapture what nonsense right right here he's talking about the resurrection of the just what do you think that's about it's the rapture the rapture is the resurrection okay the resurrection of uh believers but here's the thing are you saying saying pastor kevin are we i might i'm out am i meant to find the scum of the earth right now you know the the disabled and the poor and whatever bring them into my house and feed them is that what jesus teaching them i don't believe that's the primary teaching here okay because jesus keeps talking okay um but i think there is a blessing for that i think you can take the principles and apply it in many ways okay even in a church environment you know um you know if you see someone that you know comes to church but they don't have any friends you know you should go out there and make them welcome as you know as welcome as you would anyone else they may not be able to show you any kind of appreciation or anything like that but you do it and the lord will reward you at the resurrection okay you um but we keep reading here because i believe what jesus christ is actually pointing to ultimately is preaching the gospel okay preaching to the gospel to those that are maimed to those that are lame and blind because we keep reading look at verse 15 remember jesus just finished talking about the resurrection of the just but then in verse 15 and when one of them that sat at meet with him heard these things he said unto him blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of god so this man that responds to jesus after talking about the resurrection of the just recognizes that the resurrection has something to do with the kingdom of god has something to do with eating bread in the kingdom of god you know and uh this man is not even saved okay this man's not even saying we'll see because jesus responds to him this man's gonna say he goes yeah it's awesome you know talking almost about himself that it's blessed to to be in the kingdom of god and to eat bread you know because he recognizes that jesus is not just given a uh a literal lesson here but actually a spiritual lesson about uh you know the rewards in heaven the kingdom of god etc and look how jesus responds to him verse number 16 then said he unto him so jesus is definitely responding to this man that just said this okay he goes a certain man made a great supper and bade many and sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden come for all things are now ready and they all with one consent began to make excuse the first said unto him i have bought a piece of ground and i must need to go and see it i pray thee have me excused and another said i have bought five five yoke of oxen and i go to prove them i pray thee have me excused and another said i have married a wife and therefore i cannot come all right so we know this is just a story this is a parable and if you read it you're familiar with it it's about salvation it's about the supper of god being going out and people coming in and participating of that supper okay and jesus gives this illustration here that many were invited but they were making excuses not to come remember he's responding to the man he's responding to the man what do you think he's trying to tell him here that you've not yet come you're still making excuses okay you're still making excuses not to come to the supper you're still not yet believed on me you're still not believed on lord jesus christ okay let's have a look at this so you have people making excuses okay making excuses not to come and i'm often reminded with um you know we've got soul winning okay we've got soul winning knock doors you know would you give me a couple of minutes to show you what the bible says about going to heaven ah i've just uh i've got to study for my exam tomorrow you know oh i just married a wife you know no or whatever you know oh no i've got uh you know i've got something cooking in the kitchen you know or they make all these excuses not to come not to come to the supper it's the same kind of idea here okay verse number 21 verse number 21 so that servant came and showed his lord these things this is this is still the story then the master of the house being angry said to his servant go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the hit of the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind this is the same group of people same type of people that were mentioned in the previous one remember so i think jesus now is given the the spiritual teaching here what is he trying to teach okay now the teaching here is basically those that are hungry those that are needed those that are without you know if they're offered a free supper they're gonna be there okay they have needs they're gonna be they're gonna be like yeah where is it at at what time i'm gonna be there okay and that's a reality of of salvation when you go and preach the gospel where are people more receptive it's in those lower social economic areas that people are more receptive isn't it okay those that have that are without and even then in australia those that are without it's still very rich okay even then you know that's why you know if you go to places like third world countries like the philippines or you know places in africa or whatever you know people are flocking to hear the gospel okay these are a great example of people that are poor maimed halt and blind okay they've got nothing to live for they're gonna you know to hear great news about salvation this free supper they can come to is music to their ears and they're going to flock to hearing that so these are the people that god is pointing to these are the people that are going to come in to the supper all right now does that represent the people that were at the supper that jesus christ was in no the supper that jesus christ was in was all the high and mighty right all the pharisees and the lawyers and that's why i believe this man that said this to jesus was not even saved because jesus given that illustration you're like those that are making excuses okay that's why we need to go to the poor maimed halt and the blind all right verse 22 and the servant said lord it is done as thou has commanded i love it the lord said go and do it go invite these people what does he say it is done as thou has commanded that's what we need to say okay when we go out we preach this the gospel guys we go out and do the works of god i want us to just with a clean heart say to god it is done as thou has commanded what a shame if we're a church that god commands us to do his work and we don't do it say well lord i didn't do what you commanded you know no we need to be a church that says it is done as thou has commanded and look what he says and yet there is room it says look there's we have more space we can bring in more people you know if we end up knocking all the sunshine coasts do we all right done we think we accomplished our task no we should be the same and yet there is more room that's what we should be saying hey let's do it again let's go out there invite people let's let's let's try again let's uh go and and and water what we've planted let's go and reap the harvest of what we started with it's a great uh attitude that this servant had to the lord and then in verse 23 it says and the lord said unto the servant go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled hey that house will not be filled until god creates his new heavens and the new earth okay we we can continue filling that house until that happens i've been giving out great honor to continue doing that okay and notice that it says compel them to come in what does it mean to compel it means to encourage all right to apply some pressure okay i'm not saying like okay man all right you know one two three repeat after me come on this is gonna get you safe say it you know that no you know they gotta believe the gospel right they gotta believe the gospel you know there's nothing wrong with you saying to someone look you know they're like ah you know i need some time to think about it and you know it's like look you may never hear this again i'm passing through you may never see me again in your life you may never hear it ever again today is the day of salvation why don't you place your faith on jesus christ right now nothing wrong with that that's compelling people to come in that's showing them that's important hey you know and sometimes i say this i said look i don't know when i'm gonna die you know i might be talking to you now i'm driving back home afterwards i have a car accident that's the end of me you know we don't know when our lives are going to end why don't you receive christ right now that's compelling them to come in right i mean you can't force someone to believe okay you can't force them to believe but what you can do is show them the seriousness of the position they're in and and the need for a savior you know and there's nothing to lose it's a free gift you know it's fine to compel them to come in all right none of this one two three repeat after me business okay verse 24 verse 24 for i say unto you that none of those men which were beaten shall taste of my supper all right so again this is why i don't believe this man was saved okay because jesus says none of those men which were beaten that were first invited shall taste of my supper those that made excuses i can't be there for whatever reason remember remember who is talking to you know the top of the the best you know the high-ranked people you know jesus christ say no it's the it's the it's the blind it's the maim they're the ones they're going to come in they're the ones they're going to participate of that supper okay and uh and notice that he also says this in verse 24 this is very i was going to say brave but can god be brave i'm not sure but look it says for i say unto you that none of those men which are bitten shall taste of my supper what was this man talking about the kingdom of god blessed is he that it's bread in the kingdom of god jesus says hey that's my supper what's he saying i'm god okay that's my kingdom i'm the king of kings i'm the lord of lords you know participate of my supper okay because this is your chance i'm here right now you know if you keep making excuses and you don't receive me you're not going to taste of his supper you know what a great thing you know those that reject christ those that reject him will not enter into the kingdom of god will not okay now look your sin your sin does not send you to hell okay your sin makes you deserving of hell what sends you to hell is if you do not believe on the lord jesus christ what sends you to hell is if you reject the lord of the supper okay that is ultimately what sends you to hell but it's your sins that made you first deserving of going to hell okay the reason i say that you know um your sin does not send you to hell is because we all have sin okay we all have sin and we know that if you're saved i'm not going to be sent to hell even though i'm deserving of going to hell i'm i know i'm not going to hell because i've believed in the lord jesus christ that's why i know okay so just because you believed on christ doesn't mean you're any less uh not deserving of going you are still deserving that's why it's called grace that's why god has given us his grace because grace is something that is unmerited grace is something that is not deserving of god by god okay we don't deserve his grace we don't deserve his salvation we don't deserve this supper you know we're like that those lame and the maimed and and uh the blind you know but yet god you know saw saw sought out someone to give us the gospel you know whether face to face or via some video or something and we heard the invitation to the supper we've said yes i'm going to that supper yes i need that salvation okay so if you've been saved you will eat bread you what a blessing to eat bread in the kingdom of god all right um sorry what am i up to guys you don't know verse 25 i think verse 25 okay verse 25 takes something changes here because it says and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them so you can see he's no longer in this pharisee's house he's gone off and a great multitude are with him a great multitude of following him okay so what does he say to them verse 26 if any man come to me and hates not his own father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple and whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple so we've touched on this a little bit i've touched on this uh brother calum touched on this not long ago as well but always keep in mind when jesus christ says these things okay the primary application was to those that were literally following christ okay the multitudes that are literally at that time when jesus christ was on the earth were literally following after him okay they wanted to hear more they wanted to know more and jesus christ just just gives them the reality of it okay you've got to hate your father your mother your wife and your children your brethren your sisters and your own life otherwise you cannot be my disciple you know jesus says look if you want to follow me you know if you want to you want to come after me these these years that i'm here serving this ministry you've got to give it all up okay because if you don't come now i'm going to be long gone i'm going to be long gone you won't find me again okay now this is not salvation we know that salvation is not discipleship okay you've given up everything to follow after jesus does not save anybody okay again we've said this before judas is scarier gave up everything made himself a disciple and followed after jesus was he saved no he's burning in hell right now okay so this is just the reality of if you wanted to be a disciple of jesus in that time you had to bear up take up your cross follow after him otherwise you could not be that disciple but of course we can take a secondary application for us okay just because it's not directly for us doesn't mean we can't take the lessons the applications and apply that to our lives you know one thing i'm reminded when i when i read this passage and if i use this illustration before forgive me but i used to work with a with a muslim man okay and we would talk about the bible we'll talk about the gospel and i would share the gospel with him he had asked a lot of questions and i got to a point where i was just getting frustrated he kept asking me it's like just leave me alone but he got to a point where he said to me out of all the ways to heaven that i've that i that i've heard what you've explained to me makes the most sense okay it makes the most sense i realize that we cannot earn our way to heaven i realize that jesus christ took on the sins of the whole world and i'd love to believe it he said to me but if i believe it he said to me then i have to accept that my mum and dad are on their way to hell and because of that i can't believe it okay because of that i can't believe it so what is he putting first in his life was he putting jesus christ first his own salvation or was he putting his parents first in that example his parents first right he he couldn't accept he knew what i was saying was true but he couldn't accept that that means mum and dad mum and dad they're not going to hear what i have to say they're going to reject this and because they're going to reject it then i'm going to reject it hey listen to me god comes first okay god comes first before our mothers before our fathers before our wives before our husbands before our children before our workplace god comes first before this church god comes first before the government god comes first in our lives he has to take priority okay he has the preeminence i promise you this you put god first in your life and everything else in your life is going to get fixed you know quite often we think man i've got this problem i need to take time to fix this this issue in my my family or in my workplace or in i don't have time to read the bible i haven't got time to pray i haven't got time to go to church because i've got to sort out all these other issues listen put god first okay and he'll sort it out for you okay god wants wants wants uh wants your worship he wants your time okay he wants you in church he wants you in the bible he wants you fellowship with him and praying with him first don't you think if you put him first he's going to take care of your little things that you deal with and they are little things in comparison to you know some of the some of the you know problems other people go through it is little in comparison to people going to hell and spending you know eternity in the lake of fire okay look we need to put god first in our lives we cannot allow other people to prevent stop that okay and i i'm saddened i'm sad because i get emailed by people i get phone calls by people and you know sometimes i get from like usually i talk to men i don't talk to ladies you know on the phone but you know it's like i want to serve the lord i want to do this i want to pursue it but my wife's not on board you know and and in my you know i'm trying to to follow up to him but it's causing strain in our marriage it's causing problems in our marriage you know what do i do that's very hard you know how do you you know how do you provide you know um counsel for that kind of situation because you know they need to put god first okay but if they had good leadership then their wife would be along the way their wife would be coming along and um you know not causing you know turmoil in their family or whatever but you know something you know what we need to make sure he comes first okay we need to make sure god comes first in our lives verse 28 verse 28 and which of you intending to build a tower sit if not down first and count of the cost whether he has sufficient to finish it lest happily after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all that behold it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish and i touched upon this last week right we've laid a foundation for new life baptist church you know i want to keep building i want to keep building guys i want to push forward but we need to make sure we check the integrity we're gonna we've got to give ourselves a bit of a shake right and whatever's creaky whatever's not solid we need to fix that before we continue building okay but we need to make sure that we count the cost you know what to be faithful strong believers serving god doing great things for god it's going to cost us something and we need to make sure that we're able to afford it okay we need to make sure that we're able to finish the work that god has given us to do okay i was very you know with the building just just just a you know a very practical thing i was a little concerned can we afford it thank god we've been able to do that right but how embarrassing would it be if i saw it a six-month lease and then like two months into it oh we can't afford the building now we're stuck with this lease you know we can't finish what we had started now thank god that you know that's one area that we are completing you know we are finishing what god has given us but also you know our own spiritual lives you know keep your finger there turn to hebrews chapter 12 turn to hebrews chapter 12 turn to hebrews chapter 12 and men sometimes we're like this we start projects and we don't finish it okay and and they're sort of halfway done then we start another project and we don't finish it and then our wives come up can i chuck this in the bin you know can we get rid of this why haven't you finished it you know hey you know we should finish what we started but in your own spiritual life look at hebrews 12 verse 2 hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 it says looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him and duered the cross despising the shame and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of god hey you want to finish what you started you've been saved you got excited you want to grow in the lord you want to serve more ladies of your life you're going to have to set your eyes on jesus christ looking unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith okay it's not pastor kevin that you set your eyes on okay it's not some other past in america that you set your hearts on and your eyes upon okay they're not the author and the finisher of your faith that people can help you along having good examples can help you along can uh can you know people they can turn to and ask questions that's fine okay but as we've seen pastors can fail okay as we've seen you know people get hurt when men of god fail but if your eyes are set on jesus christ he will make sure your faith is finished he'll make sure that you see it through but your eyes have to be on jesus you know sometimes we get saved like great yeah i've learned so much but then we try to finish it in our own strength no you know what no it's jesus christ we've got to be more like him we need to be growing in the faith okay growing every year 2020 we should be more mature we should be more godly we should be more holy than we were in 2019 than we were in 2019 we need to continue on that course okay because if we give up if we just go stale we start going backwards that's when we're going to fail that's when we're going to fall in temptations and all kinds of manner of sins and yeah we'll be ashamed because we didn't finish what we had built it go back to luke chapter 14 verse 31 luke chapter 14 verse 31 or what king going to make war against another king sit if not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand or else while the other is yet a great way off he sendeth an ambassage and desire of conditions of peace so look if you're a king and you're being attacked by an enemy of twenty thousand and all you've got is a trip of ten thousand you've got half the army you need to first consider can i win this war with ten thousand now let me just say this very quickly yes you can okay you know yes you can win that war even with us i mean look the bible is full the bible is full of stories of the underdog winning right the most popular one being you know dave and goliath but the bible's full of stories like that you know when the people of god had great victories even though there was few okay and this church right now we are few okay we are few but does that mean we can't have the great victories of course we can but before we go into the battle we need to make sure can we win that fight okay i don't want to put ourselves in a position fight some battle that's going to destroy our church okay we need to be careful about that because if it's going to destroy our church then it would have been better to just have made peace like you said there in verse 32 right just just go sit in ambassador and say hey let's just not fight let's sort this out amongst ourselves you know and um and sort things out that way but look christianity is a battle okay we heard today about contending for the faith okay it's not something that we should just be relaxed and sit back no we need to be fighting for the doctrines that god has given us we need to be fighting for the souls of men in this area we need to be mindful we can't just fight everyone in every battle we need to be careful as to what battles we fight and the battles we choose to fight we better make sure we win them and yes we can win them even with you okay because we're on the lord's side okay and if the lord is fighting our battle you know who can be against us if god before us who can be against us chapter verse 33 verse 33 so likewise by the way let me just before i read that you know just what's happening in america is just on my mind you know because do you think a man just you know sleeps with prostitutes i just fell into sin of course not you know where that started on his computer you know i have no doubt on his phone looking at pornography no doubt okay and listen if you can't win the battle with your computer if you can't win the battle with your iphone or your ipad then just get rid of it throw it out okay if there's pornography on your computer just take that rubbish and throw it in the bin go get a baseball bat and just smash that thing get rid of it okay can you fight the battle or not okay we can't win it we can't fight those battles okay it can be done but if you're losing and you've lost get rid of it okay wait wait for the lord to exalt you you know humble yourself before god you know seek him you know put him first in your life and then maybe then the lord will give the strength and the experience and the patience and everything else that goes with it to be able to fight those wars in the future okay please be careful we see great men of god failing okay we can fail too you know it's easy to look at other people and say oh look at them hey it can happen to us okay make sure if you're losing battles in your life get rid of it okay get rid of it all right verse 33 so likewise whosoever he be of you that forsake if not all that he have he cannot be my disciple salt is good by the way i like salt in my food okay and if you're going to make me a meal put a bit of salt jesus said so is good all right i'm with jesus on this one all right you have all the dietritian the doctor saying don't put salt in your food it's going to kill you whatever i'm with jesus all right so it is good anyway side point but if the salt have lost his savor wherewith shall it be seasoned it is neither fit for the land not yet for the dunghill but men cast it out he that have ears to hear let him hear now when i was reading this again you know when you don't really study the Bible just read you read things and sort of gloss over it but have you ever wondered what it said there in verse 35 it is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill you know and also look this up you know what does salt have to do with manure you know or the dunghill well apparently i didn't know this but apparently salt can enrich manure okay can actually make it more effective um and it also has an um it can also mask the smell a little bit as well okay it has those properties of masking the manure spill but also to make it more rich so the plants can uh can uh um you know grow out of it okay but first of all salt is used for savor okay to season food you know and we ought to be people that are salty people that stand up people that that have flavor you know i don't want to be like again i think did we talk about last week i'm getting confused now you know about being some stale christian no we need to be christians that are salty that stand out people go man you taste different okay you've got something different about you that's how we ought to be but if we've lost our savor you know if we're not living for the for christ we're just like the world if we lose it we're not even fit for the dunghill we're not even fit for the manure so how bad then are you as a christian if you're not even good enough for manure all right you're worse than that and that's why it says it's cast out you know and um but men cast it out he that have ears let him hear jesus wants us to hear this okay this is a truth that is not being preached in churches okay that a christian can become stale that a christian can lose their savor they can lose their light and god has no more use for that person it can it's true you know the bible teaches these things it's not about losing your salvation i'm just saying you can you get to a point where you're no longer effective for god you're no longer effective for him because you've not put christ first in your life okay you put other things in your life you're pursuing the world and god's like you know what this person's can't be used anymore you know god might wipe you out might happen or he just might let you see it through whatever you know it's it's down to you know god's point at that point you know at that stage but that's a sad thing because jesus christ saying here you know he that have ears to hear let him hear you know it's a reality you've been to churches you've seen those stale christians you've seen those people that don't care about serving the lord okay i would hate if we become people like that okay i would hate it so uh that's what i've got for you today guys um just remember be humble okay we all have the flesh we all have pride you know we all want to kind of be seen of men a little bit you know it's it's in us you say no no not me i'm a very humble person yeah that's pride speaking we all have it in us okay let's be mindful know that god is watching us be the husbands we need to be the wives we need to be the church members that we need to be the employees we need to do just work hard right and know that god is watching us serve the lord and wait for him to promote you wait for him to exalt you all in due time in his timing let's pray