Weapons Formed Against Us - 5 - Pride

Scripture: Luke 14:1,7-14

Luke 14:1 NIV

1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

Luke 14:7–14 NIV

7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

8/31/2025

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Standard

Opening Prayer:

Almighty God,

in your goodness, you provide for the needy.

Remove from your people the pride of place

and the pursuit of power that mocks humility.

Open our hearts in generosity and justice

to the neglected and lonely,

that in showing esteem for others,

we may honor and please you

through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pride

Pride and Dignity

Isaiah, the prophet, promised the people of Israel that if they would trust in God above everything else, no weapons forged against them would prosper. That's one verse of many that show us from Scripture that there are weapons forged against God's people. This month, we've elaborated on several of those. We've talked about greed, sloth, divided loyalties, legalism, and there are many more. We saved one of the best for last.

Today, we're going to examine the power that pride has in our lives and the disruption it causes as we try to follow Jesus faithfully. The word "pride" has some powerful political connotations that can take our minds to many different places. If we're not careful, we can be swept away by some of those thoughts and feelings surrounding that single word before we even reach the word of God. If we can't get into the Word of God, we will be unable to reach the will of God.

I'm not going to try to define pride for you, but I do want to give you a different word to compare it to, and that word is dignity. Last week, we read about a synagogue leader who became indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath day in the middle of a Sabbath service. He felt that it wounded his dignity. Both pride and dignity are closely tied to how we perceive our own value and self-worth.

Dignity is worth what's given to us by someone or something outside of ourselves. Things like human rights and even privileges are often given to people because we believe they have a certain amount of worth, even if they've done nothing to earn them. God gives us dignity in creating us and in claiming us as His creation. Jesus expands upon that dignity by dying for us and welcoming us into his family as brothers and sisters, even though we don't deserve it. When we recognize that we have self-worth bestowed upon us through dignity, we treat ourselves differently and see that dignity and worth in those around us, which in turn leads us to treat others differently. So dignity is generally a good thing.

Pride, on the other hand, is self-worth gained and maintained by the self, not from others. Pride says I'm a self-made person, and I don't owe anything to anyone. It's based on a lie from the very beginning. That means a person has to work very hard to maintain that self-worth if they're not getting help from anywhere or anyone outside. We can only tread water for so long when our life and our sense of self-worth are based on a lie, which is why Proverbs 18:12 tells us that pride goes before a fall.

In the Middle Ages, the poet Dante described hell as a series of concentric circles that progressively deepen, each level corresponding to one of the seven deadly sins. At the deepest level, he placed the sin of pride, and there he put the devil himself and Judas Iscariot. Not only did they suffer from pride, but that pride led them to betray God and his Messiah.

As interesting as Dante’s picture is, the Bible gives us an even clearer example. When Jesus asked his disciples who they believed him to be, Peter boldly declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus honored him, calling him Peter the Rock, and gave him the dignity of leading the church. But only a few verses later, when Jesus explained he must go to the cross, Peter’s dignity slipped into pride. He tried to correct Jesus and block the very mission of God. Jesus turned to him and said, “Get behind me, Satan.” In moments, Peter went from the rock to build on, to the stumbling block in God’s way. Pride had become betrayal.

I don't think there is a quick, clean formula that leads from pride to betrayal, which in turn leads to a fall. However, I believe those three aspects of a spiritual life are intimately connected. Pride blinds us to God’s will, and in that blindness, we turn against the very ones we love most. That is why pride is one of the worst weapons forged against us. If we let it, it will keep us from following Jesus faithfully.

Finding Your Seat/Throwing the Party

In the first example Jesus says, "When you walk into the room and you're looking for a seat… trying to be successful socially, to make friends, maybe network professionally..." You've been there. The first day of school, discussion groups at a convention… and many of these social situations involve business, with real-life consequences. Your public persona significantly influenced your success in business, perhaps even more so in the past, in the days long before social media, television, and radio we can hide behind.

The world tells us, just like the Eminem song, you get one shot. You miss too many opportunities, and you don’t have any left. As bad as it is to fail, it’s worse to never try. That’s the lesson drilled into us, and that’s what we pass on to our children and grandchildren: step up, grab the spotlight, take your swing, go for the home run.

But Jesus says that when you enter situations where there are opportunities to make yourself known, you should take the seat in the back. You take the spot away from the spotlight. Because if you take a seat up closer, you might get moved, because there may be someone more important than you. And that’s a harsh reality — we might get humbled and someone else lifted up, not of our choosing, not in a way we would choose.

That’s the difference Jesus shows us: the world says fight for the best seat; Jesus says trust God to honor you in His timing.

There are two ways we try to game the system with Jesus when it comes to the challenge of finding our seats in social settings. The first is that we strive to be ambitious in our humility and fight for the seat in the back, competing to be the most humble person, refusing to accept the honor and dignity bestowed upon us while others try to show us love and value by offering us a better seat. When we do that, we communicate that we know our value better than the host. And while that may be true in some situations, we do not know our value better than God.

I wonder how many times the greeters at the gates of heaven have heard people stop and say, “Oh no, I can't come in. I'm not worthy of this reward.” To which they might respond, “Of course you're not worthy. None of us are. That's not the point. You're here because God wants you here. And you've been given the choice to accept and receive that gift. Or not.”

The second way we try to game this system is by taking control of the whole party, so we don't have to be a guest and find our place. We can be the ones to lift others up and give them the honor and dignity they deserve. Jesus had something to say to people like that as well.

Perhaps that resonates with those of us who don’t just fight over the best seats but strive to take control of the entire room. We don't have to be the guest anymore — we’re the host, the one pulling the strings, deciding who gets honored and who doesn’t. It’s a different kind of pride, but it’s just as dangerous. The second example Jesus gives is about those who throw the parties.

Jesus says, “When you throw a banquet, don’t just invite your friends and neighbors — the people who can pay you back.” That’s what the world tells us to do: build influence, invest in relationships that will return the favor, and make sure your generosity gets noticed. Whether it’s a write-up in the local paper, a photo spread on social media, or a string of compliments afterward, the reward is recognition. And the world says that’s the whole point.

But Jesus points us in a different direction. He says, instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. In other words, invite the people who have no way to repay you. They can’t increase your influence. They can’t boost your reputation. They won’t move you up the social ladder. They can’t give you anything — except the opportunity to love them.

And Jesus says, when you do that, your Father in heaven sees it. He remembers. He will reward you — not with applause from the crowd, but with His own approval.

Hidden Faithfulness

Jesus says, when you choose humility, your Father in heaven sees it. He remembers. Even if no one else notices, God does.

Imagine God pulling you aside in prayer and saying, “I just want to talk to you about what you did back there. No one else saw it, no one else will ever notice — but I did. You struggle day after day, you feel like you fall short, but in that moment, you nailed it.”

The truth is, the most important things we do in life, the differences that matter most, are often invisible to everyone else. Some of you know exactly what that feels like. Someone gave you a gift, helped you through a tough time, maybe even changed the direction of your life — and they left this world without ever knowing what an impact they made.

We’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount in Bible study, and Jesus makes it clear over and over again: give, pray, and fast in secret so that only your Father sees. If we’re seeking affection or gratitude from others, that’s all the reward we’ll get. But when we serve in ways that may never be noticed or repaid, our Father in heaven sees, and He will reward us.

That’s why Jesus says it’s not enough to love those who can love us back. Anyone can do that. The test of hidden faithfulness is when we love and serve those who cannot, or will not, return it. And that’s exactly where Jesus takes us next — to hospitality that welcomes people who can’t pay us back.

It’s good to pass along a gift or help someone in need — that’s a glimpse of Jesus at work. But Jesus calls us to go deeper.

When He speaks about inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, He isn’t just talking about handing out money or paying a bill. He’s talking about opening our homes, our lives, and our hearts to people who cannot repay us. Pride whispers that those spaces are ours to guard. But humility opens them up.

Think about the disciples after the resurrection. Most of them had no homes of their own. They depended on the hospitality of others as they carried the gospel to new places. Jesus had to work ahead of them, stirring the hearts of strangers to welcome them. That’s how the church grew — through humble hearts, welcoming homes, and serving hands.

In Matthew 25, Jesus describes the final judgment in a parable about a shepherd separating the sheep and the goats, sending them to eternal reward or punishment. The difference between them wasn’t bible knowledge, it was hospitality. The sheep fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, clothed the naked — and Jesus said, “When you did it for the least of these, you did it for me.” The goats failed to show hospitality to the least of these, and they failed to see or serve Jesus.

That’s the heart of Christian hospitality. We don’t just open our lives to people in need — we welcome Jesus Himself. And that’s how the church has always grown: not by working for Jesus, but by working with Him to love the least of these.

Holding Us Back

Pride will hold us back and say, “We don’t have enough. We’re not successful enough. We’re not ready yet. We don’t know enough. We don’t have anything to give.” And in one sense, pride is telling the truth: none of us has enough. None of us knows enough. None of us is ever ready to do the miraculous, grace-filled work of Jesus.

But here’s the good news: the only thing we have is Jesus — and the only thing we need is Jesus. Every penny in our pockets, every inch of dirt we watch over, every truth we know, every breath we breathe is a gift from Him. And when we share Him, we share not only all that we have received, but all that He is. That’s far more than anything we can ever offer ourselves.

Pride will push us to share everything but Jesus. We defeat pride when we realize He’s the only thing we really have to give.

So here’s the question:

What holds you back from sharing Jesus with others?

Where are the places, who are the people, where you feel self-conscious or inadequate?

As you think of them today, remember: pride blinds us. But Jesus opens our eyes. Pride isolates us. But Jesus places us in His family. Pride convinces us we don’t have enough. But Jesus is enough.

Let go of the hidden hold that pride has in your life, and you will be free — free to share Jesus with anyone He sends you to, and anyone He sends your way.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus,

In this life, because of you, we experience love and joy and peace, happiness and hope. And even more than all of that, we experience the gift of being able to share that with others and see them come alive around us.

Lord, we pray that we may be successful in the work and service that You've called us to do with You. And we pray that you would keep our eyes so fixed on you that we would never be tempted to think that the good things in our lives, and especially the work we are able to do with you, ever come from our own strength.

As we face these weapons of the enemy, help us to stay grateful. Help us to stay focused. Help us to keep you first in our hearts and to keep our relationship with you above all else, as we follow you into the world to share you with others.

Help us to know our poverty and our foolishness and our weakness, and to know that none of that matters when we are with you, because you are the greatest thing that we have to offer. In Jesus' name, Amen.