"Snubbing the Great Invitation" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

good morning church family want to welcome any who might be visiting here with us at grand debate today we're thankful you're here welcome our uh viewing audience and friends watching on the internet and maybe by satellite around the world we're glad that you joe chosen to join us as well our message today is titled snubbing the great invitation have you ever been snubbed before maybe you've gone out to eat and you've seen this picture where um either a young man or young woman they're going to a nice restaurant they're sitting there at a table by themselves and one of them is like on the phone texting are checking their mail or their facebook digital gossip and the other one kind of feels uh hello and nobody appreciates being ignored or disdained or insulted and the bible tells a story and jesus shares a parable that helps to illustrate that this is to some extent what the human race has done to god as we've said we're really too busy for you it's based upon a parable about a great wedding feast that takes place but i thought it might give you an amazing fact as far as i've seen the most expensive wedding invitation that has been given out was given out by a former nfl wide receiver kashan johnson and his fiancee jennifer conrad when they decided to invite everybody to their wedding feast instead of getting the typical beautiful card in the mail they sent all of the people a free ipad 400 ipad 400 per invitation the ipad was pre-loaded with the information regarding the wedding and conveniently how they could register to buy them their wedding gifts now if someone went so far as to give you a new ipad as a wedding invitation would you feel a little bit obligated to go to the wedding or send back the ipad that's a pretty expensive i don't know how many they sent out i tried to find out but i think hundreds of ipads for a wedding expensive invitation i hope everyone here knows that we have received a very costly invitation to a great feast the parable i'd like to take apart with you today is found in luke now you're going to find it a couple places but first i'd like you to go with me to the book of luke 14 the gospel of luke chapter 14 and we'll be starting with verse 16. now this whole parable is given while jesus is at a wedding feast and he makes some comments about how he observed that they were seeking out the chief seats and then he talks about how you have a feast for your rich friends and then they feel like they're going to reciprocate and have a feast for you and so the whole chapter is really talking about feasts but at some point there's a long awkward silence because jesus is giving them all the straight truth and some of them are a little convicted and one of them says in a pious tone well blessed is he that will eat bread and drink in the kingdom of god and jesus then goes on to illustrate a parable he says really you plan on being in the kingdom of god luke 14 16. then he said a certain man gave a great supper and invited many don't miss the phrase great supper if a man can afford a great supper and invite many it's a great man's you got a great man having a great supper inviting many a great number and he sent his servants at supper time saying to those who were invited come for all things are now ready but they all with one accord began to make excuses now just so you understand in bible times i guess it's not that uncommon today that when you know they didn't have telephones back then and when you were going to have a great feast first you would rsvp if you're going to have a great supper you want to know how many are there because you they didn't have refrigeration and you're going to be they'd slaughter animals and they'd prepare this great provision and they did cook food on the coals and and so the servants went around they said there's a feast a great feast great wedding feast you're invited you're gonna come i'm gonna come okay we'll let you know when it's ready and you know they gave them an approximate time they didn't worry about time as much as we do now i know one story in the bible when king saul was going to deliver a city he said about tomorrow when the sun starts to wax warm i didn't say 10 o'clock they were a little bit vague about their times i know when we were in fiji earlier this year they've got something there called fiji time where everybody sort of shows up you've got hawaii time too and in in mexico they call it manana time so but in bible times they said well we'll be a feast in about a week are you gonna come i'll come he said okay we'll let you know when everything is ready you know they had to go collect the animals and do all this cooking very labor intensive to prepare so this king is inviting many whole communities being invited and finally everything's ready all the servants are in in place he says okay now go send out tell all the people to come now but they all all with one accord began to make excuses the first said to him i've bought a piece of ground and i must go and see it i ask you have me excused and another said i bought five yoke of oxen and i'm going to test them i ask have me excused still another said i've married a wife therefore i cannot come so that servant came and reported these things to his master then the master of the house being angry said to a servant go out quickly in the streets and in the lanes of the city and bring here the poor and the maimed in the lame and the blind the servants did this and they came back and they report master it is done as you have commanded and still there's room then the master said to the servant go out into the highway in the hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled for i say to you that none of those men who were invited will taste my supper the ones who spurn the invitation they draw near with their mouths but their hearts are actually far away they do not eat the supper now before we delve into the particulars of this parable i want you to notice that i've been telling you it's a wedding feast you notice luke never says a wedding feast but turn in your bibles to matthew 22 jesus is sharing the same parable in a different town let me just stop there and explain something if you sometimes notice a difference between a parable in matthew mark luke or john or the way certain things these stories and illustrations jesus told that's because jesus went from town to town i think you all know that jesus did not have entirely new material from town to town he would often repeat his parables that's why the disciples repeated them but as he'd look at the people in the village or the town he'd emphasize different parts of it based on what he felt their needs were and so when you read luke's account that's because maybe it was heard one way in one town and matthews was hurt another way in another town now i relate to that because i have preached certain sermons hundreds of times as i travel around i said hey this new church they haven't heard this array of sermons and so i'm going to preach them but they're a little different every time especially if you're preaching extemporaneously and so that's why you're going to see a little difference between matthew and mark it doesn't mean the bible is inconsistent it means he preached it in one village one way and he shared a little different aspect in another go to matthew 22 and jesus answered verse 1 and spoke to them again by parables and said the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king that's that great man who arranged a marriage for his son this is the feast and he sent out his servants to those who were invited they accepted the rsvp to the wedding and they were not willing to come again he sent out other servants saying tell those who are invited see i've prepared my dinner my oxen and fatted cattle are killed all things are ready these things are perishable you got to come now come to the wedding but they made light of it and they went their own way one to his own farm another to his business and the rest seized his servants and treated them spitefully and killed them and when the king heard about it he was furious and he sent out his armies and destroyed those murderers and burnt up their city and he said to his servants the wedding is ready but those who are invited are not worthy therefore go into the highways and as many as you find invite to the wedding so the servants went out into the highways and gathered together all who they found both bad and good and the wedding hall was filled with guests but when the king came in to see the guests he saw there a man who did not have on a wedding garment so he said to him friend how did you come in without a garment because he would provide the garments for all who came and he was speechless and the king said to the servants bind him hand and foot take him away and cast him into the outer darkness and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but few are chosen okay you see the parallels between the two parables jesus expands a little more and talks about the wedding garment in the one that he related in the gospel or is related in the gospel of matthew so you'll notice that all these people how many are invited many many are called many are invited what kind of feast great feast people originally said do you want to be at the wedding feast and they said yes put my name down of course but they either didn't mean it or they changed their mind because finally when the message comes it's now ready they all begin to make excuses with one accord i heard about this a little boy named tommy he gets to school late one day teacher says you're going to need a note written an excuse for being late by your parents the next day his mother gave him a note and the note read you'll remember yesterday we had 16 inches of snow tommy's legs are only 15 inches that's a pretty good excuse but some of the excuses that are given in the story are not very good excuses let's take a look at them i want you to notice you know what a noun is what's a noun person place or thing i want you to notice think now the excuses are people places and things that keep them from going to the wedding feast who is the one getting married it's the wedding supper of the lamb who is the king god has invited all he's made this provision god so loved the world he gave his son that we might have this feast now there's two parts to the feast you've got the ultimate wedding feast where we sit down in the kingdom with abraham isaac and jacob and jesus but then there's of course the wedding feast jesus had a supper with his disciples it's the gospel jesus is the bread of life his blood is the wine he is the living water so all these things that are talking about in the bible that nourish us that feed our souls it represents the gospel and people say oh yeah sign me up i want that feast but when it really comes down to participating they're not that interested take a look at some of the excuses that are given i want you to notice that they're kept away from the feast by places by possessions and by persons first in luke 14 18 i've bought a piece of ground that i need to see i can't come because you know i bought this land well how many by land sight unseen hadn't he already seen it he's saying there's somewhere else i'd rather be that's what he's really saying in this story what kind of fool buys a piece of land sight unseen what's going to happen to the land is its value going to change if he doesn't go look at it is the land going anywhere i mean that really is a pretty feeble excuse when you think about it and yet he says oh i've got this piece of land there's somewhere else i need to be now is not a good time uh please excuse me i can't come really didn't you know there was going to be a wedding and weren't you invited i've spent a great deal to make it possible for you to come he doesn't care now you know in in bible times when a king invited you to the wedding of royalty that was a great honor and when you accept the invitation and then you snub the king sometimes there are there are accounts in history where that was grounds for a declaration of war when you would show that kind of an insult i mean i think we all even know in our culture if you accept an rsvp and people have been paid at the hotel for a meal that's often very expensive and a seat for you and sometimes your family to be there and then you just kind of blow it off and you don't come and you say we really missed you at the wedding oh well you know there's this piece of land i wanted to look at what message does that telegraph you're just not really very important and i don't appreciate the sacrifice you made for me to be there that's what they're saying now before i go any farther who are the ones who are initially invited that start making excuses who does that represent two things first of all it's the jewish nation they said we are abraham's seed blessed is the one who's going to eat bread and drink in the kingdom of god with abraham isaac and jacob this is what initiated the whole parable and they said yes we are waiting for the messiah we're looking forward to the kingdom and when the messiah came do they really want them no as a nation they spurned the great invitation but it goes beyond that this is not just written for jews back then are these excuses still given by christians today are there a lot of people who say sign me up i want to be a christian i'm going to go to church but when it comes to really coming to jesus they've got other things they want to do things keep them away from making a complete surrender there's somewhere else they want to be there's someone else they want to be with there's something else that they want that keeps them away the second one says verse 19 i bought five yoke of oxen and i'm going to test them i i ask you have me excused now it took a lot of wealth to buy a yoke of oxen i mean you know that's what they used for farming back then a pair of oxen was a pretty expensive farm implement it was the equivalent of having you know a great big john deere tractor to farm your land this man says look i'm a very busy businessman i've got lands and i've got fields and i've got all these oxen and i just bought five more and i've got to go test them again was he not there when they were bought he's just trying out his new tractors he's basically saying i've got other stuff that keeps me from going it's interesting that jesus chose oxen these people wouldn't go because their oxen were more important well you read in matthew it says the king sacrificed oxen too so that they could be there this man's keeping his oxen alive the king lost his ox and there was a death of oxen so that they could go to the feast do you remember we just read that in matthew the oxen slain come now they used to wait to the last minute to kill the fatted calf you know the story of the prodigal son you know the story when these visitors came to abraham one of them was the lord and he went and he slew the fatted calf that was what you say for special occasions in america it's a fatted turkey back then it was a fatted calf and they're invited this is an important dinner it's a great feast it's something that is a you know it's like a state event it's a gala it's not lunch at taco bell we're talking about and says no i've got these oxen i'd like to go check out he can't wait today it's interesting because when elijah calls elijah no no when elijah calls elisha to prophetic ministry he finds elisha elijah is coming back from mount sinai where god has said look i want you to anoint elisha the prophet to be prophet in your place and elijah sees him after this three and a half years of famine it's been lots of rain and all the fresh grasses sprouted and the soil is finally soft so they got to plow it up and plant it's right after this famine and so elijah is out in the field and everybody's working like crazy and he is with his family servants out working and there are 12 yoke of oxen that's 24 oxen right and elisha is with the 12th and elijah walks up to elisha and he throws his coat his mantle on his shoulders and he understood this meant you are being called to be servant in my place and what does elisha say he says you know i've got a lot going on i can't do it i've got other places i need to be other people other things the bible says that elisha says let me kiss my mother and father goodbye he kisses them goodbye and then he goes and he takes the oxen that he had been plowing with he takes the the plow uses the wood from it makes a fire he sacrifices the oxen he gives it to the people basically saying i'm not turning back i've destroyed the plow and i've destroyed the yoke i was plowing with and that's what jesus is talking about when he said if any man puts his hand to the plow and looks back he's not worthy of the kingdom so in the minds of the hearers is the story of elisha who walked away from his oxen so that he could follow elijah kind of like peter and james and john walked away from their fishing nets and matthew walked away from his tax booth and some of the apostles probably walked away from their flocks in their herds so they could follow jesus and these people are saying i've got these oxen i need to test the things are more important and they're not going to taste of the feast there's something else i'd rather do something else with something else and then luke 14 20 still another said i have married a wife and therefore i cannot come now of all the excuses you can sort of imagine that that could happen you could picture a scenario where you've got this new wife and and she says your old girlfriend's going to be at that wedding you're not going to that way and there was a provision in the law you can read it deuteronomy 24 when a man verse 5 deuteronomy 24 5 when a man has taken a new wife he will not go out to war or be charged with any business he'll be free at home for a year and bring happiness to his wife who he has taken now that's in the event of war this is a wedding feast that law did not cover that matter of fact how many of you agree that the king since he's invited many and it's a great feast if this man showed up and said you know i realize i accepted the invitation but now i've got a wife can i can she come he said sure all through the story that we read the problem is never that there are too many people at the feast don't miss that the problem is there are not enough people at the feast the king wants to invite many jesus has made a provision for many the sacrifice of christ all the world the sins of all the world could be covered by his sacrifice and so there's never a shortage of seats at the feast i actually have people from time to time when we do the presentation on heaven and i give them the dimensions of the new jerusalem they think you know maybe there's just not going to be enough room in the city for me they literally are concerned that physically there's not going to be enough room for them in the city that it'll be like you know housing in hong kong and there's just not enough space any of you ever been in an apartment in hong kong hotel in hong kong man you just gotta back in when you open the door it's just really small and someone figured you know there's gonna be billions of people in the new jerusalem there just won't be room karen and i once got a room in hong kong for she and i and the two boys japan oh yeah i didn't mean that about hong kong i'm in japan japan's worse that was really small and we were quite literally on top of each other's but i had a room the smallest room i had was in hong kong i could put my arms out and touch both walls absolutely serious so people are worried there's not going to be room enough you know it's going to be overcrowded that's you know do you realize that the the city dimensions are as big as the state of oregon it's like 375 miles on each side you start thinking about if you then put people in a city and you start going up here's an amazing fact there are more people that live above the 20th floor in new york city than live in the whole state of montana so there's plenty of room in the city you'll never find that's a problem so this guy says i want to bring my wife king would say fine but no he says i can't i can't go because i got married and she put her foot down and put her sandal down and she said we're not going i've got other plans does that sound a little bit like an excuse that adam made lord i would have obeyed you genesis 3 12 but the woman you gave me she told me to eat from that forbidden tree and i ate lord it's your fault so they're blaming other places they're blaming other things they're blaming other people the excuses for not coming to the feast what does jesus say should anybody keep us from the feast luke 14 in the same chapter christ says if anyone comes to me and he doesn't hate his father and his mother and his wife and his children and his brothers and his sister yes his own life he cannot be my disciple in matthew he puts it this way he that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he who loves his son or daughter more than me so when it says hate it doesn't mean you hate them it means if you've got to love them less than you love me you've got to be willing to turn from them in order to follow me and so this man says i can't come because i've married a wife he's putting somebody ahead you know you think in the bible about uriah uriah the hittite do you remember the story he came back from the battle david had been sleeping with his wife and she discovered she was pregnant and david thought well uh it's going to be obvious that something went was going on because uriah has been out of town fighting a battle and so david summons uriah offers him a feast pretends he wants a report on the war and he says look you live next door i know right where your house is so i saw your wife bathing and he said you go on home he said here i'm going to cater a nice meal you go relax enjoy yourself to and he's figuring that when uriah finds out that bathsheba is pregnant that nobody will suspect because he did come home on an r r leave even though that first one did come early still with me but it doesn't work your eye doesn't go and david can't figure it out and he gets tries to get him drunk the next day and says here you know just relax and he doesn't go he sleeps with the servants finally david just amazed he says and this guy's married to bathsheba this is this was this a very pretty woman and david is wondering your eye are you well what's going on you came from the battle you didn't go home and uriah says the ark of god and the army of god are out in the open fields fighting the enemies of god how can i go back to my men and say i went home and i ate and drank and slept with my wife says i am not going to relax until the war is won now you got to admire something about that guy i know i always get looks like lasers from the ladies when i say this but i think uriah did the right thing i think that he did something unusually heroic with self-control he put the interest of god above his own interests and since uriah was one of david's mighty men he had men under his authority and he didn't want to demoralize them and he said look i my heart is with you in the battle it's in the field and so this man said i am going to put the wedding feast ahead of even my own wife david couldn't figure that out that takes unusual so when you've accepted the invitation to the feast jesus says seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things will be added but a lot of times we blame other people for not going to the feast it's my wife's fault and if it's not my wife do you remember king saul his excuse saul samuel the prophet said to saul go destroy the amalekites and destroy all of their cattle and their animals do not spare anything they have been your enemies for years they're to be annihilated and saul comes back from the battle he's got this parade with sheep and oxen and goats and all these critters and samuel says what what's with this god told you to destroy everything oh we did we destroyed the worst of them so it's the sound of lowing i hear he says well the people you know the people people people complained and they made me take the best of the animals because we're going to offer them a sacrifice that's what you call an excuse and you blame everybody else excuses lame excuses i was tempted to call the message lame excuses they really had no interest in the king's food or the king that was the truth the reason they came up with all the excuses they didn't want to feast with the king do we sometimes make excuses what's an excuse an excuse is an attempt to release or to free you from an obligation or duty by mitigating mitigating circumstances an excuse is an apology used to gain an exemption for service it's to seek to remove the blame from or to serve as a justification for a reason to put forward to justify an offense an excuse is usually some reason to find a way out of an obligation a responsibility a duty someone said an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie d.l moody said excuses are the cradle that satan uses to rock men to sleep when god says turn from the places turn from the possessions and turn from the people that are keeping you from the feast do you make excuses i would but not now do you realize that virtually all of their excuses were based on this is just not a convenient time i would have come to that feast if it had been you know i wasn't for the oxen but right now i've got to check the oxen i would have come but i've got that piece of land and right now i've got something else i've got its timing's not good i would have come if it was before i married my wife or after our one year honeymoon but right now is not a good time and i think if we're all honest we'd admit that in varying forms we often say now is not a good time to make a complete surrender or we're telling ourselves i know i've got to get really serious about being committed to the lord and being a genuine christian and coming to the feast one of these days do you realize one of these days is an excuse whatever the excuses you just say i don't feel like it now or i'm afraid to do it now or i got too much stress right now or it'll be harder now but we're doing the same thing we're saying i want to be a christian but i don't want to go all the way i'll accept the rsvp but when you ask me to really leave behind and come to feast with you no and we don't do it and we miss out on eternal life someone else wrote excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure just not in spiritual things an excuse is a thin slice of falsehood stretched tightly over a bold-faced lie that's similar to that other one a person who really wants to get something done finds a way the other will find an excuse romans paul says romans 1 20 for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly being seen and understood by the things that are made even even his eternal power in godhead so they are without excuse you remember when he came into the wedding feast and he said how come you don't have the wedding garment on and suddenly he had no excuse he had no answer why because christ has purchased a garment of his righteousness for everybody that's why jesus said whosoever will everybody can now you notice he wants everybody to be there the lord doesn't want anyone to be lost all are invited now in this story keep in mind it's not saying that the king made a great feast and three people didn't show those three people represent all of the people in this community that said we want to go that didn't really want to go the first group there sort of represents the jewish nation of course many of the jews were saved the whole early church was jewish and that brings us to the next part of what happens when the king finds out those people said they were going to come and they didn't come what's his response well he said bring in the lame in the blind master of the house being angry said to his servants go out quickly why quickly because everything's ready there's a time constraint when jesus called lazarus he said come down quickly when the lord calls us to come to him does he ever say when it's convenient no come now today go out quickly into the streets and the lanes go what is the message of the great commission go tell all people you notice what he said to the first group come now for all things are ready go tell all these poor and these lame and the blind come into the streets and the lanes of the city tell the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind and they did now when it says go into the streets and the lanes tell them all to come in this is first talking now when it says the lame and the blind this is talking about the jews who the pharisees and the scribes did not feel were worthy the poor in spirit the shepherds the tax collectors the fishermen they were jews but they were crippled jews these were people in the neighborhood that were the the riff raff they were the the motley crew they were the un unworthy remember what peter said depart from me lord i am a sinful man and he was and you remember when he was tempted to deny christ it didn't take peter long at all to remember his old vocabulary he could swear and curse very quickly and so when jesus left the seminary at jerusalem they said oh we're going to the feast but they really weren't interested who was it that went to hear john the baptist preach he was a lot of the poor and so jesus then found an audience up around galilee it was the fisherman it was the common working folk that the the uh the religious leader says these these people they're sinners they don't know the law they shouldn't they don't know any better they're crippled who did jesus say is worthy blessed are the poor in spirit they're the ones who are going to hear it and so they go and they gather as many as they can but there's still room and he says what now and the master said to him go into the highways and the hedges now some of you in your bibles it'll say into the streets and the lanes hedges is actually word that it meant fences and probably the best translation that would be go into the highways in the yards enter into the private yards of people knock on their doors don't just go up and down and talk to the people that are in the public places on the streets go into their yards and knock on the door and say come to the feast and so it's really a good argument for door-to-door work and bible work and and personal evangelism and home bible studies go tell people where they live go into their hedges their yards people used to have a hedge in their yard keep their animals in they didn't all live in little matchbox houses as they do in the typical american suburbs this is talking about now going beyond out in among the gentiles so the message first it went to the jews the religious leaders the ones who were considered socially respectable they were at the synagogue every week saying lord i thank you i'm not like other men but when they didn't come then the message goes out to the publicans the ones who smite on their breasts and saying lord have mercy on me a sinner and he said continue to go and to bring them in so the message after it went to the the poor the gospel first jesus was born in bethlehem he was brought to jerusalem but the gospel then was preached among the poor and then he told the disciples go first to the lost sheep of the house of israel and whosoever will but then the gospel went out to the world after the stoning of stephen when probation was closed as for the nation and then anybody jew or gentile could be saved the gospel went out into the highways and the hedges everywhere now some people struggle with this part of the parable and you'll notice in matthew and in luke it says the king was angry is it popular today to talk about the anger of god where we only talk about the love of god when we talk about the compassion of god we only talk about the mercy of god well you have to take your marker and mark out a lot of your bible unless you're going to also say the bible does talk about the anger of god let me give you something to think about god only has two faces not that he's two-faced he's got the love the mercy the acceptance for the redeemed wrath for those who have clung to their sins god is merciful and long-suffering but in the bible you'll find there's no switzerland there's no neutral territory you know during world war one new world war two switzerland maintain some kind of neutrality there's no neutral territory jesus said if you're not with me you're what you're against me and he said you're either children of god or you're children of the devil he didn't have the lord didn't have sort of this ambivalent group i mean do you find anywhere in the bible where he said ah they're not with me they're not against me they're just yeah god doesn't like that god said we're either coming to him or we're going away from how many roads are there there's the narrow road that leads to life there's the broad road that leads to destruction you find that third road i don't see it in the bible and so those that refuse the love and compassion of the invitation and especially you know what's really sad is by they're not coming others aren't going that man could have brought his wife and he sacrificed so much to make the dinner available how much did god give to make the dinner available he's so loved the world he gave his son he gave everything and to refuse that and the bible says uh yeah he's angry the master of the house being angry luke 14 21 matthew 22 7 but when the king heard about this he was furious you find that uh you can't really get mad of them being furious and he sent out his armies and destroyed those murders you remember in the matthews parable not only did they spurn the invitation they killed some of the messengers in the process it's the highest form of insult john 3 when you say john 3 what what verse do you think of next john 3 16 now i want you to read john 3 36 he that believes in the son has everlasting life we like that part i like that part and he who does not believe the son shall not see life but the wrath of god abides on him okay so was this pastor doug saying it or is it jesus you got two choices love and mercy of god you do not believe jesus said the wrath of god abides on him why because the wrath of god is going to be revealed from heaven against sin and if you are not saved from your sins and the wrath of god comes against us and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry god revelation 6 16-17 fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the land lamb then it's almost sounds like it's a paradox it's a contradiction of terms any of you ever been killed by a lamb i mean lamb is considered to be one of the meekest most harmless creatures now a ram you better not turn your back somebody on a lamb just the innocent young little lamb the wrath of the lamb see this is not part of god's natural desire but if we are rejecting the invitation and then we're insulting it's the highest insult it's a waste of his sacrifice now when jesus asks us to sacrifice somewhere else something else and someone else for him did he do less how many temptations are there really three temptations everything sort of falls into the lust of the flesh lust of the eyes pride of life jesus in the wilderness he was tempted by the devil those three principle areas in the parable there's three things that keep them from the feast someone else somewhere else something else did jesus set an example for us yeah jesus gave up his somewhere something in someone for us did he give up his somewhere christ said in matthew 8 20 foxes have their holes and birds of the ear have their nests but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head jesus he'd stayed in peter's house he stayed in martha's house in matthew's house for a feast he had nowhere to lay his head he gave up somewhere here on this earth if you're a christian the bible says you are a pilgrim and you are looking for a better inheritance this is not my home we're just passing through that's what jesus said jesus said he does have a place in my father's house or many mansions and i go to prepare what a place for you there but our place is not here so don't let another place i've got a piece of land i got to go look at have me excused something else what did jesus have tell me about his possessions second corinthians 8 9 for you know the grace of our lord jesus christ that though he was rich for your sake he became poor that through his poverty you might be rich when jesus wanted to make an illustration he had to borrow a coin does anyone have a coin i wanted to he would pick in his pocket and get his own coin and there at the cross they took away his robe that was his only earthly possession was the clothes he wore on his back he didn't have somewhere else he didn't have something else and he didn't have someone else matthew 12 48 jesus answered and said to the one who told him jesus got a message your mother and your brothers want to see you he was preaching she said no this is more important than even my own mother and my brothers christ said who is my mother and who are my brothers and he stretched out his hand towards his disciples and he said here are my mothers and my brothers whoever does the will of my father in heaven he is my mother and my brother and my sister and even his own friend peter when peter tried to turn jesus off the mission of the feast jesus turned to peter and said get behind me satan this is his favorite apostle oh him or john get behind me satan nobody would come between jesus and god's will bible says he came unto his own john 1 11 and his own received them not they were not ready for the messiah you know it's hard for us to comprehend uh what's really being said in this parable closest thing i can think of is it's like it's like somebody you know i hear about people who meet through on online somehow and a guy in america finds a girlfriend that speaks english in russia and they begin to talk and they fall in love online and they email a photograph of each other and and they talk and he thinks oh she's so eloquent she's so loving she's so beautiful and who can find words and it melts my heart when i see the way she communicates and and hear about what she does and i think i'd like to marry her so he proposes online and she accepts and he says when can you come to america idea says well i can't come you've got to come here. and he said well but i'll lose my job and i've been working here for 15 years and i'll lose my home and and he said i saw i can't she says well if you love me but i can't leave my family i could never leave my hometown and he loves us so much he quits his job he sells his house flies to russia and she doesn't show up to meet him at the airport he gets a taxi and goes to her house and finds out are you i thought you were kidding you really came you know i've actually got a pretty busy life here i don't really want to get married i thought this was just romance online you you're not you weren't serious were you this guy has just sacrificed everything because she accepted the invitation and to be spurned like that have you ever heard of love that turns to hate well this is what a lot of people have done to jesus god so loved the world he gives his son i mean he sacrifices more than his house and his job he comes from the other end of the universe to this dark planet you'll never know how dark it is until you see the other world and he does it to save us and then his people his church says we love you lord we we're going to follow you but when it really comes down to surrendering everything to follow jesus doesn't happen it's all in name only we draw near with our mouths but our hearts are far away and maybe this is something you're struggling with maybe there's another person maybe there's another place somewhere else you want to be something else that's keeping you from making a complete surrender and really saying i want to be in that wedding feast you know as we close this message i'd like to invite our singers if they'd come forward the whole bible is a wedding story did you know that it is even when jesus say says my father has gone to i go to prepare a place for you in my father's house or many mansions that's the context of a wedding the bible begins with a wedding in the garden of eden the new testament what's jesus first miracle it's a wedding and then finally how does revelation end we are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb revelation 19 9 he said write blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb he said these are the true sayings of god those that refuse the invitation he says none of those men who are invited will taste of my supper and christ said to nicodemus or to um zacchaeus i want to abide in your house he wants to have that feast with us is there something getting between you and the feast revelation 3 20 behold i stand at the door and knock if any man opens the door if you hear my voice and open the door i will come into him and dine with him and he with me you know one of the one of the warmest occasions in human life when you look back over the course of your life and you think what were the rich experiences you're going to often think about times when you got together with family and people you loved and friends and it's often in the context of a meal something intimate about it last week we had pastor kwetsavite and kathy and john and ruth and our kids at the bachelor home we had so much fun you know we just we kind of ate leftovers there wasn't anything that remarkable about the food but uh that was no insult all all the wives were involved in the leftovers if it is an insult i'm being very generous in it but uh what made it so much fun is just the eating together laughing together exchanging experiences and stories can you imagine doing that in the kingdom with jesus how neat that is how wonderful it is he's inviting us to the most beautiful wedding feast that of christ and his bride are you going to let something you can make an excuse what excuse will you offer in that day for not taking the wedding garment that he's provided for not coming when he says come for things are now already you know i thought it'd be appropriate for us to sing 3 22 nothing between my soul and the savior let's stand together as our singers lead us and i'm going to have a special appeal and prayer with you before we close 322 nothing between nothing between my soul and the savior not of this world [Music] jesus [Music] so that is [Music] is [Music] you know jesus tells that story he said there'll be many that will come to me in that day and they'll say lord lord we've taught in your streets we cast out devils we've done many wonderful works and i will declare unto them i never knew you people who they say lord lord he says there's many there's many who take his name they say they're going to the feast but they really don't come on a daily basis and eat the bread of life and spend time with jesus who is the living water if we want to participate in the feast in the future then we need to be feasting now we need to be laying aside the things that keep us from making a complete surrender and as we sing the next verse in this song there may be some here and you realize you're letting other things other people other places keep you from a full surrender to jesus if you'd like to make a complete surrender now and you have one prayer for that come forward as we sing this next verse in the song [Music] pleasure [Music] me keep [Music] praise the lord for these decisions come a little closer to the front i see some that are coming to the aisle we'll be praying together we have one more verse yeah sometimes you may be thinking i'm waiting for just the right time the right feeling the right move of the spirit or occasion to make the complete surrender why not today if you're going to spend the rest of your life totally serving the lord start today what are you waiting for are you waiting for it to be convenient the devil will see to it it is never the perfect time or perfectly convenient to surrender everything today if you hear his voice come now as we sing the last verse and you want special prayer and you're feeling that call maybe you've been making excuses come to the lord just tell him what's on your heart and he'll help you make it to the feast as we sing [Music] breathe [Music] is [Music] is [Music] you know it's wonderful to have the peace of god in your heart and to know that there is nothing in your life that you've surrendered everything you've confessed everything and said lord i'm yours and if you fall remove it so there's nothing between you and jesus and it gives you a peace of his presence the bible says whatsoever things we ask we receive of him because we do those things that are pleasing in his sight say lord i want to live for you i want to be a witness for you i want to come to that feast you want to be in the kingdom friends father in heaven first we want to pray and ask you to forgive us sometimes we've played the part of the hypocrite that draws near with our mouth and we say lord lord yes i'll be there count me in and then we really don't surrender forgive us help us to recognize how much you have paid how much you have sacrificed that we might be in that kingdom and that will fully embrace the invitation and when the call comes now all things are ready we'll jump up and run and then lord also we see ourselves in the story as your servants you've given your servants a message to go out into the highways into the hedges to the lame to the blind and invite as many as possible to compel them to urge them to come into the feast help us to do our part as your servants once we have accepted the good news to invite others to come lord we thank you for this message this morning the whole gospel is really in this story and i pray that as we go from this place that we will be sincerely different fully committed to put you first in our life please bless us now that we may seek first your kingdom be with each person who has come forward lord you know the struggles and burdens in their heart and i pray that you'll help them to experience peace that they've surrendered all to you we thank you and ask this in jesus name amen bless you you may be seated

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Id: _4BhIOgxUXU

Length: 56min 59sec (3419 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021