You're Invited

Thank you. My name is Mark, one of the pastors. I want to welcome all of you, not only in this room, but those of you that are joining us over in venue, online, community access TV. Welcome. We are so glad that you are in church today. We're in this message series Meals with Jesus from Luke's Gospel.

And before we dive into today's text, I want to ask you for a quick show of hands. How many of you have a dog or a cat or some combination thereof? Let me see your hands. There are lots of us, a lot of pet owners here, that you can attest to what I'm about to say. Because I never cease to be amazed. We have two dogs and I'm amazed at their ability to tell time. You know where I'm going with this? Meal time. It's amazing.

We feed them twice a day, first thing in the morning and whether it's myself or Laura. As soon as they hear that first foot hit the floor, I mean it's just on. And they get so excited because they know breakfast is about to be served. One of our dogs is this big chocolate lab and he goes through the same, yeah, he's a pretty boy, but he starts, he hears me getting up and I hear, he sounds like Chewbacca from Star Wars, like "Oooooooh!" like that.

And then I'm walking down the hall and he's bucking like a little calf. He's jumping off the ground and by the time we get to the kitchen, now he's spinning circles. He's so happy and sometimes, much to my amusement, that big head, it just goes whack right into a kitchen cupboard or refrigerator door. But he's totally unfazed. He's completely delirious.

And then in the evening we feed them almost every day at 5:30, which means that right around 5 o'clock the lobbying begins. You've experienced this? And they're just staring at you like, "Okay, come on, T-minus 30 minutes here. Don't forget. Come on!" And if I happen to walk into the part of the house that we feed them and it's about 4 or 5:30, but it's still kind of in that lobbying, you know, period, then they get all the more excited, their hootin' and howling and stuff because they think I'm actually gonna serve them early.

Which I cannot do because I know that if I do that then, tomorrow they're gonna be grinding on me at like 4:30, right? That's gonna, "Hey, would you consider 4? Maybe 3:30? 3? Come on!" Because after all, they live for food. That's pretty much what they live for, which came in handy, especially with this guy, about a year ago.

This was before he was perfectly obedient like he is now, as if. But someone left a gate open and by the time we discovered this, it's dark, he's gone. We don't know how long he's been gone. He's out on some journey out in the nether regions of our neighborhood. I don't know how far away he is, so it's kind of alarming.

And so I go out into the middle of our street and I yell, "Boon! Boon!" That's his name. That's why I yelled it. "Boon!" No response at all. Then I whistle. I have a pretty loud whistle. I won't demonstrate now, but it carries much further than my voice and I whistle for him. Again, no response.

Then I have this idea and I go into our house and I grab the Rubbermaid bin that his kibble is in and I go out in the middle of the street. I'm just shaking it. Like this. Two seconds. I hear, way at the top of our street, it's like 300 yards, paws, patting furiously on the pavement. Running down and then out of the darkness, I see the starfish. Just rocketing towards me. You know, the Prodigal Lab returned. It was a happy ending.

But that's pretty much the way pets roll, right? They live for food. In fact, when it comes to pets, you do not have to ring the dinner bell twice. You just, you have them right there at the first time. Wouldn't it be great if human beings, with our response to God, wouldn't be great if we responded just that quickly with that much enthusiasm?

We're like, "Yes! God's calling us. Let's go!" Because after all, among the things that Jesus said, he said, "I'm ushering in God's kingdom here on earth and when that kingdom comes in its fullness, God is going to put on the greatest, most spectacular dinner party in the universe and guess what? You're invited! Wouldn't it be cool if we just went, "Yes!" Just like that. Just like, you know, a hungry dog at mealtime.

Now, some of you are that way. You're probably in the minority. But God, He's just giving you a special gift. He kindled a fire in your heart and it just continues to consume you and that's just such a blessing. I think most of us, most of us church people especially, and I include myself in this, experiencing that joy, that passion, that enthusiasm, much like you felt last night when the Warriors beat!

Okay, see, see, there it is right there, see? Comes easy for the Warriors. But we can become inured to all this church stuff. We can become so familiar, especially again, if you're around it a lot. You know, my wife when she was a teenager, she worked at a local establishment. They make world-class chocolates. I mean, they ship them all over the world, cost a lot of money. Everyone thinks very highly of this chocolate except for about three, four weeks into this job. Laura's not too excited about the chocolate anymore. It's like, eh, it's okay.

It's kind of like Adrienne when he talks about the beach and the boardwalk on Memorial Day weekend, right? Familiarity can make us somewhat jaded and that is an occupational hazard for those of us who are in and around church all the time. In fact, if you're a professional Christian like me, it can be a particular hazard because again, this may sound surprising for you to hear this from one of your pastors, but again, that joy, that passion, I wish I experienced it more than I actually do.

It shouldn't be surprising to us because as we've been looking in these meals with Jesus and in particular his encounters with the Pharisees, when they have a really hard time responding, they're so steeped in religion, they become resistant to Christ's call. I came across an interesting quote right along these same lines. You might have heard of the 16th century nun. Her name is Teresa of Ávila. She's a nun. She lives in a monastery. All she does every single day, pray, read the Bible, pray, read the Bible. She's devoted her life to Jesus Christ and yet this is what she says about herself.

She says, "Oh God, I don't love you. I don't even want to love you, but I want to want to love you." Now that's an honest confession right there and perhaps on some level you resonate with that. You get that because you've been in that very place. We're gonna see the same dynamic today in Luke 14:15–24. We're gonna be looking at verses 15 through 24, so if you want to find that in your Bible or one of the Bibles in the pew rack in front of you, all the verses are gonna be in the notes today so you can do that as well.

You can follow along on screen, but as you pull open those notes, you're going to notice that they are incredibly simple today. Pretty much a word that says notes there. And for those of you who are distressed that we don't have fill in the blank things for you, it's gonna be okay. Promise there's always there's next week and next week René, right now he's in India and he's going bonkers because he's at the building that U-Twin Lake Church. God enabled this church to fund that building and they're having the dedication this weekend, part of our 2020 vision.

And he's not only been there, so excited to be there, but he's been in Turkey and Greece with a number of folks from our church. He's gonna be so pumped when he comes back next weekend. It's gonna be like a 27-point message and so you just hold on to that for all of you that love to do that. But today we really just have kind of a simple story and I don't want to get in the way of what the Lord might be saying to you this morning.

So I want you to write down the things that God impresses upon your heart from this passage today. Now I need to give you a little bit of context to the passage we're gonna see because if there's a word that sums up what's going on in the beginning of Luke 14 and even back into chapter 13 it's the word privilege. Religious privilege. Social and cultural privilege. These are religious insiders and they're put at the top of the pecking order. They have material privilege. They're doing quite well in fact. They're comfortable and they are also physically privileged.

You know they're not the lepers. They're not the crippled. They're doing quite well and again though they are at risk at this being it's completely resistant to God's call in their life and not only does this happen with religious people it simply happens with comfortable people. We can be so comfortable that we just don't hunger and thirst for the things that God offers us and so Jesus is surrounded by privileged people when he accepts yet again the invitation of a Pharisee to have dinner with him.

And Luke tells us that this is a very prominent Pharisee and so we can assume that the other people there are also somewhat of the elites of these Pharisees and these religious leaders and no sooner does he arrive, Jesus arrives at the house of this prominent Pharisee, Luke tells us that they're watching him and it's kind of this one of the translators says an insidious type of watching where you're looking for him to fail somehow.

You just can't wait for him to do something wrong and no sooner does he arrive but another man arrives who's in need of healing and so it's on because now they're watching to see will Jesus heal because it happens to be the Sabbath and in their rule book not scripture but the rules that had been developed over the years healing amounted to working so will Jesus work on the Sabbath and they all watch well you know of course what Jesus does he heals the guy because I mean whoever came up with this rule obviously hadn't suffered a whole lot because if you need healing do you really care what day that healing comes?

But Jesus heals them and then he turns to these guys and they're all looking at him and he says let me ask you something fellas if you had a son or an ox and it fell into a well and it happened to be on the Sabbath would you wait until the next day to pull him out? I mean would you would you really do that and you know you know what they say to him nothing they won't even bite they're just like looking at me so now since they're not gonna talk he decides to prolong the conversation.

He says you know I couldn't help noticing guys when I arrived you were all vying for the best seat at the table you wanted the place of highest honor and I gotta tell you you know that's probably not the smartest move because someday you're gonna go to like a wedding banquet or some big to-do and you're gonna sit in the best seat you can find and the host is gonna come along and say hey pal you're in the wrong seat I gotta move you down the table because after all everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled and the humbled will be exalted so you might want to try practicing some of that humility you know ahead of that might serve you well.

You know you want to know what they say to that nothing I mean it's getting very awkward the silence in this room and so again Jesus now he's kind of you know somewhat on a roll and so he goes over to the host and he says yeah hey thanks for the invite but I notice it guys like you whenever you have these parties you invite just your friend your friends and your family you have got your tight circle and you expect that when they throw a party they're gonna reciprocate they're gonna do the same for you just kind of goes back and forth and and I understand that we have our inner circles but every so often you ought to think about inviting people who can't reciprocate how about people who are like you know poor and crippled and blind and lame?

You know if you do this the great thing is that God is going to reward you in heaven someday and at this point this guy is thinking to himself why in the world did I invite Jesus to this dinner I mean it's a disaster everybody's you know blood pressure is spiking it's it's awkward it's tense and when Jesus says hey you'll be rewarded if you reach out to the less fortunate that prompts a response from another one of the guests and that's where our passage begins this morning picking up at verse 15.

When one of those at the table with him heard this he said to Jesus blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. Now why do you suppose this guy says this? I think he says this because he's trying to break the tension he's trying to redirect the conversation towards something positive because let's face it it's awkward it's tense and so he offers up this this platitude and blessed is the one who we eat at the feast in the kingdom and inside he's got to be thinking to himself Jesus you should join toastmasters or something you are striking out with this this group here you are way too edgy.

Reminds me of when I was in seminary one of my Old Testament professors he said this one time at the beginning of the semester he said, you know I am increasingly concerned with how many of my students want me to present God in a way that they approve of in other words if your God at the God that you believe in if that God if all that God ever does is agree with you and affirm you I've got news for you that is not the God of Scripture that's the God of your imagination that's the God of your mental projection that's you foisting onto God all the things that you agree with.

Well you can't tame Jesus you can't patronize him with you know blessed is the one who will eat the feast in the kingdom and so while this guy he's trying to calm the room inadvertently he just pitches this this slow pitch right over the center of the plate because lo and behold the kingdom of God that's like one of Jesus's favorite subjects.

If you read the Gospels you'll see that Jesus went from town to town village to village what preaching the message of the kingdom of God when he taught his disciples how to pray he said our father who art in heaven how would be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words someday the two are going to come together they are going to there's going to be this healing this reconciliation between heaven and earth and when that happens it's just it's gonna be celebrated in a way that we can even begin to imagine.

In fact with that feast in the kingdom in view it says in Revelation 25 and probably that guy at the table who said this he knew this verse where it says the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples a banquet of aged wine the best meats and finest of wines the sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth.

Revelation 19:9 picks up this thing John when he writes in Revelation 19:9 he calls us the wedding banquet of the lamb and like I said this is incredible dinner celebration you're invited we're invited and that's just spectacularly great news but the sad news is this the tragic news is that some will refuse the invitation.

And so with that feast in the kingdom in view it says in verse 16 Jesus replied a certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited come for everything is now ready but they all alike began to make excuses.

The first said I've just bought a field and I must go and see it please excuse me another said I've just bought five yoke of oxen and I'm on my way to try them out please excuse me still another said I just got married so I can't come.

The servant came back and reported this to his master then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor the crippled the blind and the lame. Sir, the servant said what you ordered has been done but there's still room.

Then the master told his servant go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full. I tell you not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.

Now those are some sobering words but you need to bear in mind who they're addressed to they're addressed to these men who were the recipients of the most incredible revelation God revealed himself personally to their ancestors God made a covenant with their ancestors a special relationship with them but by the time Jesus arrives on the scene he can he spiritually speaking he cannot find a pulse among them.

Bear in mind that these men every single person around that table they were convinced that there would be a seat at that banquet with their name on it and yet Jesus has to it's like he pulls out the defibrillators and he's got to kind of shock them into realizing their need it's like clear boom you know the guys go bless it is the one who will eat at the Kingdom Lord oh yeah not one of those who had been invited will get a taste.

And then he says something that had to shock them the most because he doesn't say a taste of the banquet what's he say taste of my banquet and that's just like because he's trying to shock them into realizing that listen guys if you reject me you're not gonna like that banquet in fact you're you're not gonna like heaven in fact you'll hate heaven because as it turns out I'm really hard to avoid there you know I really hard to get around Jesus in heaven you can't love the kingdom and hate the king they say and not only that but there's gonna be a lot of people there they're the kind of people you don't like.

You know they're the they're the poor people they're the the crippled people they're the blind and the lame they're the tax collectors and the prostitutes and all the people that you think are way way out on the margins you have to understand that in their day if you were suffering from a disability or misfortune their culture they just assumed that that was evidence that God was judging you for your sin you might not know the sin but you could see the judgment right there and plain as your face it was in their disability or whatever.

And so Jesus heal will correct that by the way be saying you don't think those people deserve to be at the banquet guess what they don't even think they deserve to be at that banquet but that's the advantage they have that's why they understood the gospel because the fact is nobody deserves a place at the banquet no one does it's all by God's grace and his grace alone.

And as Jesus tries to paint this picture of the father's heart it's the masters go out into the into the roads and the country lanes and to the ends of the earth compel them persuade them urge them to come in so that my house will be what for God wants his house to be full he wants every seat to have somebody in it.

Now why would anyone refuse that kind of invitation? Why did those people who had invitations in hand why did they back out when the master said come it's already come enjoy my banquet? One of the reasons and if you're looking for something to write down you might write this down that's so off good things often get in the way of the best thing.

Good things often get in the way of the best thing. I mean the first guy he buys a new field okay so that's his latest possession nothing wrong with that in fact the field's still gonna be there if he goes to the banquet it's not going anywhere and yet he puts the field ahead of the feast.

The second guy he's got the five yoke of oxen he's all you know amped up got to try him out it's his work the kids in the way it's like hey man I got a business to run I got to be on it and yet another good thing gets in the way last guy he's kind of my favorite because he doesn't ask to be excused she's just like hey I just got married I can't come no I can't come and you wonder well what is it it's a relationship obviously that's gotten the way but what is it behind the reason he can't come?

You know perhaps his new wife she just won't let him come right and it's dawning upon him how much freedom he does not have anymore maybe that's what's going on or more likely maybe he said hey it's it's the honeymoon man need I say more and he's gone.

Now again nothing wrong with any of those things possessions work relationships it's the stuff of life the problem is that in each case they chose the gift above the giver and they missed out on the very best thing.

The same basic dynamic is going on ever since right? I mean especially here we live in the land of plenty we are so surrounded with with so many amenities to our lives we can become preoccupied with creating our own little temporary heaven choosing the good and neglecting the best.

I mean when Jesus was on earth you think most people actually rejected him and they crucified him that's a pretty resounding no and yet John says this in his first chapter of his gospel yet to all who received him those who said yes to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become the children of God.

So if you do nothing else if you do nothing else I beg you do not miss the banquet this is eternity we're talking about this is forever you being with God. If you have heard Jesus calling you maybe even recently you sense he's calling you to himself do not miss the banquet because you are invited.

You know one of the guys who was so good at issuing this invitation someone I've been reading about lately a fascinating person DL Moody one of the most effective preachers in American history lived in the 19th century when he was born well when he was four I should say he was the youngest of seven children and his father died at the age of 41 and to make matters worse his mother was pregnant at the time with twins.

So now she's got nine children to care for as a single widow in the middle of the 18th century there's not a whole lot of a social net around her and so when DL is six years old his oldest brother Isaiah decides that the best thing that he can do to ease his mother's burden is to give her one less mouth to feed and so at 15 Isaiah runs away it just tears a hole in his mother's heart she wonders for years what has become of her son her firstborn son Isaiah.

In fact at Thanksgiving she would set an empty chair at the kitchen table hoping that maybe on that day Isaiah would return eventually he would but it would be many years before he would resurface and meanwhile Dwight or DL he grows into this phenomenal preacher.

I mean both in America and England it's not uncommon for him to attract a crowd of 10,000 20,000 people or more and one point he's preaching in Connecticut at a venue it is packed to the rafters so many people want to be that eventually the fire marshal says that's it I will not allow one more person to go into that building it just won't be safe.

That right about that time the governor of Connecticut arrives one at again he gets turned away you know well that's a serious government bureaucrat right there man no sorry governor you can't go in there.

Well among the others that were turned away was another man Isaiah Moody who showed up to hear his younger brother preach they won't let him in and so DL sitting on the the stage waiting to preach and someone brings him a note and says your your brother Isaiah he's outside but they won't let him in there are no seats left.

And then just in a stroke of inspiration and he was particularly good at this he just completely abandoned the sermon that he had planned and he gets up and he begins a sermon like this he says well I want to thank you all for coming out here and for your enthusiastic welcome and unfortunately some people couldn't make it in there's just no more seats left but seeing as how I won't be using my seat anymore it shouldn't concern the fire marshal if I offer it to my brother Isaiah and they bring Isaiah in and there's this wonderful moment where Isaiah is able to sit there on stage and listen to his brother DL preach the gospel.

And what's even better is that a DL Moody he's not content with just that he turns it all into a big object lesson and he talks about how Jesus makes a seat for us so that we might be called his brothers and his sisters as well.

And I got news for you Jesus is still doing that Jesus is still making a seat he's still offering CC saying brother come here take my seat at my table at the feast in the kingdom of God sister this one this one's got your name on it come and join us.

And I wonder if for some of you today God is calling you to join him and be part of his family because you know some of us we've been here for years or or long enough to where the familiarity is kind of sunk in and maybe all you really need today is for the Lord to just kind of rekindle that flame and replace that that that the original joy that you had and just use good yes I'm so excited about what Jesus has done for me I'm so looking forward to that banquet someday and it just spills out of you and so you end up inviting others to the banquet not because you feel guilty it's because you are compelled by love.

Others of us though maybe you you're like the folks the broken people in this story the people who were out on the fringes who never expected to be invited and yet God has been calling you God has been say come to me and you're thinking well you know I'm gonna do that but I need to straighten some things out of my life I need to quit some things I need to to change some things and then I will come when when I'm ready and he's saying you don't need to do that come everything is ready right now you come to me you trust your heart with Jesus he will make the changes he wants to do in your life I can assure you that he says come right now as you are come the meal is ready.

Some of you might feel so far out on the periphery you're like the folks that are out on the the roads in the country lanes way out in the hinterland you're like I don't even know if I want to come to something I don't even know who the master is would you perhaps be willing to make a commitment to just get to know him a little better? Would you would you be willing to say okay Jesus I'm hoping I want to know who you are?

We have a class here called starting point the next one will begin again in August and we'll put up the dates for that end of August it's all about just asking questions being willing to take that next step and learn a little bit more because here's the thing Jesus Christ promises us that someday his father is going to put on the most incredible dinner party that's ever the universe has never seen anything like this and you're invited.

Will you come? Will you come? I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads if you will and just close your eyes when I give you a moment to just let this all soak in I want to give you a moment to evaluate what the Lord might be saying to you today through his word through his his spirit and again many of us maybe what you need today is just kind of a spiritual shot in the arm you know you just need God to light a fire you can't light it yourself but you need him and you're willing to admit that able to admit that today.

And if that's you I'm gonna invite you to do something physical I just want you to raise your hand signifying that's what I want Lord and it's not for my benefit it's for yours just so that you know I responded in some way and yeah I see those hands thank you and Lord I pray that you would honor those people I pray that you would just turn them into passionate passionate followers of you and that again that would spill out into the rest of their life and they'd find ways to graciously remind others around them that they're invited as well.

Some of you are here and you've never yet responded to the invitation of Christ what you need to know is that but in order to make a place for you Jesus had to take upon himself it wasn't just politeness Jesus actually stepped out of his seat in heaven and came to this earth and died on a cross so that you and I could live he took our sins upon him the things that would keep us from entering that banquet he took all of that and now we're we're able to step into the the presence of God for Gavin forgiven and restored and whole he did all that for you and and he rose from the dead to demonstrate this was not just some wishful thinking this wasn't some delusional prophet this was God in the flesh.

And now what he's inviting you to do is say I believe that I want that I want to receive the life the forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ and if that's you this morning I want to invite you to raise your hand just again for your benefit so that you know there was a time and a place where you raised your hand you said yes Lord I want that I see those hands and more importantly so does Jesus.

I want to lead you in a very simple prayer just just repeat in the privacy of your heart dear Jesus I admit my need for you I believe you died for me taking all of my sins unto yourself I gladly give you my life and I thank you for the life you give me an eternal life a future that will never end with you.

And lastly just the final step of your life and I'm going to ask you to raise your hand but I'm just going to say ask you to say in your heart one word do you want to move a little bit closer to Jesus do you want him to reveal himself to you then then just in your own heart say yes.

Heavenly father we pray that many hearts would be touched here this morning because Lord none of us have arrived we we we want to thirst for you because Lord you are the ultimate sustenance you are the bread of life you are the meal that we all need the meal that we can't afford to miss and so I pray that you would have your way in us today.

I pray that you would give a soft and responsive hearts to you all because of your goodness and your grace and your love for us and because your father wants his house full we pray this with much gratitude and in the matchless name of Jesus Christ amen.