Turn in your Bibles to Luke 4. Luke 4, we're gonna get into the book of Luke today. I'm excited about that. Luke has something special for us.
We've been talking over the last month about having soft hearts and not having our hearts grow cold as there's pressures that are setting in in our lives and there's storms that are in our lives. And in the last days, Jesus prophesied that many hearts, the majority of hearts in the church would grow cold, offended, bitter. And the Lord's been talking to us about having unoffendable hearts, right? And then he's been talking to us about how he's the judge and he carries this heart of justice for us.
And then we get to step into forgiveness and speak mercy and peace over even our enemies. And so we've been going after that. And we've really been talking about those remedies so I don't get a hardened heart. So I don't get a cold heart as the years go by because there's so many opportunities for offense.
Isn't that right? There's so many opportunities to just get offended, bitter, resentful. And today I felt like the Lord was highlighting this word that none of us feel applies to us. And that is the word entitlement.
Oh no. I know none of you are entitled because as I searched my heart and allowed the Holy Spirit to search my heart, I discovered there's no entitlement that I have. And so this is really a message for you and not for me. No, I'm just kidding.
But entitlement, the entitled heart believes that privileges are a right. The entitled heart believes that privileges are a right. And when I was thinking about who has the right to be entitled, I was thinking about Jesus, actually. I was thinking about how entitled Jesus could have been to having all of the luxuries that we have in life.
I just wanna read a couple of things that we see in our lives as entitlements. I like I deserve this. This is a right, even other privileges. Are you guys ready to listen to your lives through the life of Jesus as a lens?
This is what Jesus didn't have, okay? This is what Jesus did not have. Showers. Jesus didn't have electricity.
Jesus didn't have a king-sized bed or a queen-sized bed or fitted sheets. Jesus did not have a fridge or a smartphone. Jesus didn't have people waiting on him hand and foot. Jesus didn't have people serving him food as they went through the line and chose every single item that they want in their burrito.
Jesus did not get checks in the mail from the government. Jesus did not get celebrated or loved the way that he deserved to be loved. Jesus didn't have a convenient life. He didn't own a car.
He didn't own sneakers. He didn't own any Nike shoes or Adidas. Jesus did not have air conditioning. Some of you guys have experienced not having air conditioning here.
And that's why we want you to know Jesus didn't have that. So who do you think you are? Jesus did not have internet. He didn't have a phone.
He didn't have a retirement plan, a 401k. He didn't have an inheritance that he got from his dad. Jesus didn't have PTO. He didn't have third-wave coffee.
He didn't have drive-throughs. He didn't have a spouse. He didn't have kids. He didn't have a private education.
Jesus did not have vacations. He didn't have a home birth. That was just like a very nice home birth. Big tub.
His spouse didn't have a home birth, very nice, peaceful. None of that like sterile medical. He didn't have that. Jesus was a refugee.
Jesus was hunted by a king and was a refugee for the first six to eight years of his life and moved to Egypt. He was one that was not safe. We even take those things that are like innate desires in our hearts as like, I deserve this, right? All of those things, the majority of the things that I just read, we actually believe, like as in our culture, we need to remember 85% of the world don't own a car.
And the majority of us in the room are like, I deserve a car. And when I don't have my car, everybody should feel bad for me. And I have reason to be really upset because I have car trouble. And there's all of these things that are inside of us.
Like I deserve a spouse. I deserve kids. I deserve what I want because when I look at Psalm 37, Psalm 37 says that if I delight myself in the Lord, he'll give me the desires of my heart. So I get the desires of my heart.
And this is what I desire. And the Lord loves me and he wants me to be happy, right? He wants me to be happy. And I have a calling and I have dreams and my dreams and my calling.
My parents and culture and my teachers have all said that I get to have my dreams. And I get to do what I want and whatever makes me happy. And if they don't make me happy, then just leave them. Because you deserve to be, this is called hedonism, that your whole purpose in life is pleasure for you to be happy.
And then I look at Jesus' life. And I look at the man who deserves to be entitled to all of the air conditioning that he wants. And all of the hot showers, he is deserving of more hot showers than all of us, right? And he's literally like swimming in, like, I don't know what, I don't know where he took a bath.
But listen, he deserves what we're living in. And he chose to be alive 2,000 years ago at that moment, at that time to be in convenience in all of those different ways. And then he says, I'm going to go to the cross. And I deserve to have all of my friends be loyal, and then they're not.
I'm entitled to be honored. I'm entitled to be respected. I'm entitled to get a bonus check at the end of the year. I'm entitled to get a raise.
I'm entitled to get the promotion. I'm entitled for people to get me and understand me and know who I really am. And I'm entitled to get praise for my good performance, because I'm a hard worker. I'm entitled to have them actually understand who they hired.
Do they not know who they've got? In fact, I came to church. Don't you should be happy. I'm in the room.
I left this church, and now I came to this church. And now you are privileged to have me here. And the Lord is just like, oh no. There's so much entitlement in our hearts.
And we've been raised and trained from a young age to think that I am entitled. And Jesus, all over the book of Luke, just takes entitlement and puts it in his crosshairs and just starts hitting it off over and over and over again. He just starts taking stabs at entitlement. So turn in your Bible, so Luke 4, if you haven't already.
We're looking at Luke 4 over 16. Actually, we're going to start in verse 18. Jesus is at his hometown. And he came home.
He just got back from Capernaum. And Capernaum is like about 30 minute walk away from Nazareth. So it's a neighboring town. And all the people in his hometown, Nazareth, are like hearing stories of Jesus, healing people in Capernaum.
And so then Jesus, he's at the synagogue, which is like a community center in his hometown. He's at the synagogue. And he stands up, takes the scroll, because he doesn't have an iPhone with a Bible app, right? So literally they have one scroll in town that is the scriptures and he takes it out.
And he rolls it onto this little table and he starts reading from the book of Isaiah. Look at what it says. The spirit and verse 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, set at liberty, those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Look at how they respond. He rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant, sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Look at how they respond and all spoke well of him. And they marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son? And he said to them, doubtless you will quote to me, this proverb, physician, heal yourself.
What we have heard, you did at Capernaum, do hear in our hometown as well. And he said, truly I said to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel and he starts telling these stories of Elijah and Elisha. And this leper named Naaman experienced healing, but he wasn't part of the chosen nation of Israel.
And so this leper gets healed. And he shares this story where a widow that is a Syrian gets healed, or a name in the Syrian, and the widow is, you can read it, is from Sidon. And so there's these neighboring countries of Israel. And they're actually oppressing the people of God.
The Syrians and the Sidonians are oppressing the people of God. But in the Old Testament, Jesus is talking about how this widow from this oppressive people and this leper from the oppressive people get healed or provided for. And the people of Israel, it's during a famine, and they don't get provided for. And they don't experience healing.
The lepers of Israel didn't experience healing. And the widows of Israel didn't experience provision. And Jesus is quoting that scripture to his hometown, anticipating that they want to see all these signs and wonders that Capernaum experienced. Now, what's the point?
Jesus is walking into his hometown, and he's perceiving all of my friends and family and all of my acquaintances. They actually want all of the stuff that I do, but they actually don't want me. Because they're minimizing, look at what happens. They're minimizing the man, but they like the message.
They like the message of freedom and liberty and healing and all of the blessings that he can bring, but they're kind of minimizing the man, Jesus. This is what entitlement does. Entitlement makes it about things, and people are a means to a different end. People begin to be a means to get what we want.
That's what entitlement is. The core of entitlement is you exist so that I can get something. We hear this all the time in reality TV. She makes me so happy.
She makes me so happy. At the wedding altar, I always talk about that, right? Well, I really like this job, but it's kind of, like I'm not happy, it's not really, I'm hoping to find something different. And we show up, how often in life do we show up?
And we think my job, my spouse, my family members, my friends, my things, all of them exist to make me happy. And so the people of Nazareth are going, Jesus, we love the message that's going to make us happy, but we don't really care about you or a relationship with you. And we think, have you ever had a relationship with someone that knew a celebrity? And they're like really excited that they know the celebrity.
Where they say things, or maybe you've heard of stories of celebrities walking around, like musicians, athletes, and people sending the messages that they went to high school with. And it's like you were in an acquaintance in high school and now you're asking for money. That's literally what's happening in Nazareth right now, where it's like, Jesus, we knew you, you're in acquaintance. So pay up, we want all the stuff, we want all the blessing.
This is what we deserve, we know you're from here. I deserve this stuff. Yeah, I was in your science class, remember? Chemistry lab, I sat three rows behind you.
Okay, so I have $15,000 in credit card debt, and I know you're a millionaire, so entitlement. People are a means to an end. Okay, turn in your bow with Luke 7. Look at this, John the Baptist.
Oh man, JB, John the Baptist. Here he is. He's got some disciples, and John the Baptist is in prison. And he just got arrested because he was speaking bad about King Herod and his infidelity, and so he's in prison.
And his whole role, John the Baptist's whole role, is to prepare the way of the Lord. In other words, preparing the way for the king of kings, the king to come and bring freedom from the oppressor. And so John the Baptist is going, yeah, I'm in prison, but guess what? I came before the conquering king, and so I'm gonna get freed.
And so Jesus is in prison, or John the Baptist is in prison, and he's waiting, he's going, Jesus, where are you buddy? You're the king, you're the coming king, you're supposed to set me free. Look at what happens. He's going, hey, disciples, come here, send Jesus this message.
Are you the one verse 19? Are you the one who is to come? Like are you the king that I thought you were? Or should I look for someone else?
Are you the king that's gonna set me free? Like I thought you were going to? Are you gonna be the one that actually, in my timing, gives me what I want? I wanna say that again.
Are you the king that is going to give me what I want, when I want it? Or should I look for somebody else? I don't know if you feel that, but I feel that in my life. So these circumstances happen, and now I feel like I deserve you to do something.
Right about right now, like I want it now. And if it's not now, then like before this date, you better do it. Because if you don't do it, then I don't know if you're the king that I thought you were. And we begin to put him on trial of like, are you really the king?
Or should I look for another? Should I look for another that actually makes me happy on my terms? Because don't you remember Jesus, that you're gonna give me the desires of my heart, and this is my desire and I want it. I'm a good person, Jesus.
I'm going to church a lot. I even go to prayer room and I read my Bible, and I'm a good employee, and I do a lot of good things, and I serve at the soup kitchen, and I am a very good person, and I just want this. Could you not just give me this? Jesus, I literally ate locusts and honey in the wilderness, and you're not gonna set me free.
And then Jesus begins to reveal himself. I love this because in each one of these passages, there's this response of I'm entitled to something, and then Jesus responds with this is who I am. Oftentimes what we want is things, but underneath the surface what we really want is him. What we really want is relational revelation of who God is.
Look at what he does. Men came to him, John the Baptist is sin, us saying are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? In that hour he healed many of the diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who are blind, he bestowed sight and answered them. Go and tell John what you have seen and heard, the blind received their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
Blessed is the one who is not offended by me, and John's messengers leave. How many of us are offended because we are not getting what we want in the time that we want it? Entitlement, do you know what it often does? It creates expectations.
I don't know if you've noticed this, but a lot of times it's entitlement. It surfaces in worry or anxiety, but most of the time it's anger. I don't know if you've felt this. I've been feeling this recently, personally my own life.
I feel like I'm quick to anger, and the Lord's just kind of putting his finger on that. Like I'm quick to, I'm easily getting frustrated. I don't know if you've felt that before. Wow, I'm really annoyed, really fast.
Why am I so impatient? And do you know what the root of a lot of that is entitlement? Because you think your day is about you, and you think you're waking up for you, and then people become inconveniences because they're supposed to exist to make you happy, and they're not making you happy, and you're getting angry. Yeah.
I feel that. Like personally, that's like really hitting me. Shoot. All right, let's continue.
Look at this, this is Luke 10. Here we go. Luke, he just keeps on taking the dagger and turning it. The word of God is just kind of sharper than a double-edged sword here.
Luke 10, verse 38. Mary and Martha. Oh, here we go. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet. And she listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve in the kitchen all alone.
Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will never be taken away from her.
Martha's feeling entitled to be helped, to be appreciated, to be advocated for. Martha's in this place of going, I am serving. And the question is, why is Martha serving? Why is she doing what she's doing?
I don't know what's going on internally for Martha. If it's like the rabbis here. And I need to put on a show and really serve rabbi and the disciples, I've got a lot of work, and I need to host them well. Because if I don't host them well, I mean it's the rabbi, it's the teacher.
What are they gonna think of me? Or I don't know what's going on under the surface, but I do know that she's entitled to her sister just doing at least something, right? I don't know if you've ever felt like that when you're with your roommates in your dorm. Or if you're in your home, when you got roommates in your house, when you got housemates, when you have a spouse, when you have kids that just throw junk everywhere all the time, whenever they feel like it, everywhere.
Doesn't matter where it is, it could be in the dark and they'll have stuff there in front of your feet when you're walking barefoot. My goodness. I'm entitled to a clean floor. When it's 2 a.m.
and I'm waking up to get a bottle. I'm entitled to a clean floor without pop atural cars on the floor. That's what I'm entitled to. Entitlement creates worry.
Entitlement creates anxiety. Entitlement creates offense. Entitlement creates unforgiveness. Entitlement is not good for us.
Luke 15, we're just gonna keep on going. Luke 15. Oh no. Luke 15, there's this story of the son that wants the inheritance early.
Many of us have heard the prodigal son's story. And the son goes to his father. He says, give me my inheritance early. You're as good as dead to me.
I want a third of my inheritance or half of the inheritance. So then what happens is he goes, he squanders it. And Jesus is sharing this parable, this story about this father. And this father actually welcomes this son, that was super disrespectful to him.
That was like a shame to the whole family. And the father welcomes him back, throws a party for him after his son betrayed him. And he's got an older brother that is the goody two shoes. Okay?
And so the older brothers doing all the right things, being a good boy, doing all these things for the father over the years. And the older brother comes back from being out and about, probably working throughout the day. And he starts hearing this noise of a party going on at his house. And he catches wind that the father is throwing a party for his estranged brother, who's just a dirtback.
And the older brother remembers dad crying when the younger brother left. And the older brother is like, is my dad going insane? What is my dad even thinking, right? And look at what the older brother is responding to.
The father like, in verse 25, we're just gonna pick up there. Now as older son was in the field, as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked him what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come.
Your father has killed the fat and calf. That was a big deal. The fat and calf was a big deal, okay? That's like filet mignon for everyone.
Big party. Everybody gets a filet, all right? Because he's received, that's not possible. It's only one calf, but, okay.
Because he has received him back safe and sound. He was angry and refused to go in. See that how entitlement pushes you into anger? So now he's angry.
Look at what comes out of his mouth. It's just like spewing entitlement. He answered his father, look. These many years I have served you.
I never disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. Hmm, but when the son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fat and calf for him. And he said to him, is it the father's response?
Son, don't you realize that people and me are not a means to the end of you getting what you want? That's what he says. Don't you realize that your happiness is not founded on you getting things from me as your father? Don't you realize that your sonship is not primarily about my checkbook?
That's what the father's saying. The father's going, you think the fat and calf or the young goat or the whatever, you think that the promotion or the spouse that you've been wanting or the retirement or the 401k or the blessing that you think you deserve because you're a Christian, you think that being a son is about all of the things and about my hand of blessing, don't you realize that I'm the reward? Don't you realize that you exist, not for yourself? Don't you realize that you wake up in the morning, not for you?
You wake up in the morning for relationship with me, to love me and then to love people. Don't you, you're missing it. The whole purpose of your sonship is that we get to be in relationship and I don't exist to make you happy, but I will make you happy because that's what relationship does when you're in relationship with me. The father's saying that, son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.
You're always with me is the first thing and it will always be the first thing. Connection with God and loving God as the first commandment is always meant to be in first place, even when I don't have AC. Even when I have to pay through the roof for my Uber because I don't have my car broke down. Even when I can't find the house or I put in an offer and didn't get it or nobody will buy my house or I deserved this grade and I didn't get the grade that I deserved because there was a mistake and there was a miscommunication and then I can't believe that I have to take care of my grandparent or my parent and none of the siblings will take care of them other than me.
I'm entitled to have them carry their weight. How dare they? I can't believe that they're so selfish. How self-centered they are.
How dare they? And then I realize that my life isn't about me and that people don't exist to make me happy and to serve me hand and foot. People don't exist and my job doesn't exist to make me happy. You mean I'm supposed to show up to my job to serve and not to be served?
You mean I'm supposed to show up to my job not because I just need the money but I'm showing up to the job because I get to be with God and represent him and love the person in front of me, even if it's an unjust judge, even if it's an unjust manager, even if it's an unjust boss and I'm supposed to actually lay down my life even for my enemies, even for the ones that are backstabbing me and they got the promotion. Even though they're mistreating me because I'm a woman in the business field and I'm getting mistreated because of my gender, you think I deserve that? No, there's injustices and the Lord is the judge and I'm just gonna give all the revenge over him. It's like, Jesus, you can take care of this.
I exist love. I exist to be like you. You're my reward. The bonus isn't my reward.
The promotion isn't my reward. The new house isn't my reward. The bigger and the better and the nicer and the more beautiful and the stronger it's not my reward. The affirmation isn't my reward.
All of those things is not my reward and all of those things got us on a hamster wheel, over and over and over again. And we go from hamster wheel to hamster wheel, trying to get happy. And then we're sad and we're mad and we're frustrated because it's all about me and my life is about me being happy and that's why I'm so unhappy. That's why we're so unhappy.
That's why I'm so impatient and so annoyed and so frustrated most of the time because I'm not getting what I want. And the Lord's helping us unravel all of it and he's like, I'm what you want. John, I'm what you want. You think you want set free, but I'm bringing the kingdom in a different way than you thought.
But Lord, I want it now. I want the things. I deserve it. And the Lord's like, okay, man, I love you.
I love you so much. I need to remind you that your life is not about you, but man, I love you. Come close. Like give me a bear hug, I love you so much.
Listen, I wanna show you how to love. Let's get out of that entitlement mindset. You deserve and you earned it and all that stuff. It really is making you miserable.
I want you to be happy and I know the path and do you know what the path is? This is so crazy. The path is Psalm 37. Delight yourself in the Lord.
He'll totally give you the desires of your heart. You start delighting yourself in him and he becomes the delight of your heart. And then all of a sudden you just desire what he desires. And it's not primarily about retirement and it's not primarily about the vacation next month.
And it's not primarily about the PTO and it's not primarily about the car, private education or whatever it is. It becomes, you all of a sudden want what he wants because you begin to delight in him. The only way that you delight in him is you spend a lot of time with him. But I am entitled to have at least four hours on my phone, maybe seven.
I'm not looking at my screen time app thing and I don't have time to delight in him. I'm entitled to go to bed doing what I wanna do and then I'm entitled to wake up and eat what I wanna eat and then do what I wanna do before I go to work because I don't wanna go to work. And then I'm just gonna squeeze every last moment before I show up to work and squeeze every moment to get myself satisfied and try to just like wrench it out so I can go, okay, I'm good, I had some me time. Oh man.
And then the me time is making us more selfish so we go into work and we're me focused. And then someone said something and it kind of irked me. Do you see how this all plays out? You see how this is like such a big part of my subconscious life and the Lord's like, hey, let's be together, delight in me, be with me.
I want relationship, let's go together. Let's like John Poehler was in the air, he's on the way to the airport and he's like in self mode. He's like I'm feeling lonely, I'm feeling discouraged. Man, I hate traveling and he was in self.
It's like I can't believe I have to do this. And then all of a sudden he's like, I could be with him. And all of a sudden all of the self entitlement turned into delight. And guess what?
He got the desire of his heart. The desire of his heart was to be with him and Jesus in every one of these passages, the reward is him, a revelation of who he is. Let's all stand, I just want to respond to the Lord. Band, you guys can come up.
Let's just spread out, we're gonna go into a time of worship here. I don't know about you, but I felt like this message was for me from the Lord. And I felt like it just exposed some things where there's not alignment in my life. And I believe that that's true for so many of us, that there's an aligning that the Lord wants to bring.
The Lord before this year, for years and years and years, he was speaking this phrase to Katie and I for years. And all of a sudden before the start of the year, he said that word is for now. And it's this word of alignment. In Luke 12, 34, it says that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
And this phrase of where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It begins to land when we start realizing all of my life, what I'm treasuring and what I'm searching after, what I'm looking for is just serving myself. And the Lord's going, oh, that's a little out of alignment. That's a little out of alignment.
Let's make this not about you. And I want to bring alignment to that. And so would you close your eyes with me? We're just going to ask Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, actually, let's just spread out before you close your eyes. Let's just spread out a little bit more, get some spaces where we're going to respond to the Lord. If you want to come up front, you can. Thank you, Lord.
Lord, we're so grateful when you pinpoint areas in our lives that are hurting us and causing us to not walk in the way that you destined us to walk. We were always meant to look like you and to smell like you and be like you. And we want that. And then we're realizing in all of these areas that feel like they're not submitted to you and they're not aligned.
What I want us to do, if there's anything that was being highlighted to you in the examples of the message, of you starting to realize, man, I've had some entitlement and expectations. And I've been easily getting angered and frustrated. What we're going to do is we're going to close our eyes. And I want us to just take those things.
And we're going to set them on the table before the Lord in our imagination. So if you could kind of in your imagination, take that area of your life. And you're just going to set it on the table before the Lord. And you can ask him this question, Lord, would you just take this entitlement?
I want to give this to you. Just authentically in your own way, we can turn up the band a little bit just so people can feel authentic and be able to vocalize this. Lord, would you take this? I don't want this anymore.
I don't want this perspective. I don't want this mentality. I don't want this. My kids exist to make me happy and my spouse exists to make me happy and my job exists to make me happy.
I don't want any of that. I don't want the idea that you exist to make me happy. God, you don't exist to make me happy. You're not alive breathing in the throne room of heaven to make me happy.
I exist for my creator. I'm alive as a servant. I'm alive to be a son that is filled with gratitude. Yeah, I see the Lord taking whatever we set on the table.
And the Lord is saying, I'm giving this to you in return. And he's offering us a present. And this present is a present of gratitude. It's titled gratitude.
That's what's on the name tag of the present. It's called gratitude. So Lord, we receive the gift of gratitude. We receive the gift of thanksgiving.
We receive the gift of selfless love. Here we are. Lord, we give you all of our entitlements, all of what we've thought to be true about our lives. And Lord, we give it to you.
And we say, give us gratitude instead. Give us thanksgiving instead. We want to be thankful in every circumstance. We want to be thankful in every circumstance.