A Party That Nobody Came To

The master’s will is sought. Come with you, Lord, love. Most Christian, most Christian, most. To show us your way is best.

Good morning. Come on in. Happy Mother’s Day to all those who celebrate and are a part in one way or another. We appreciate everybody being here. We’re going to kick off by singing number 505 in your bulletin, or in your book, excuse me, your words are up on your screen. All four verses today because it’s a little bit of a shorter song. So if you stand, we’ll sing.

Everybody’s here today. Let me go over a few quick announcements. First of all, next Saturday, 6 o’clock, you won’t be here. It’s going to be a fish fry. Can’t imagine anybody here not liking fish. And so I think it’s going to be a great day. And you bring in, bring some folks with you, and we’re going to have a great time.

Next Sunday morning, we’re going to have Gideon’s. Got one caveat, though, is I got a text yesterday. General Grinnells will not be able to, emergencies happen. He will not be able to be here. However, we’ve got Jim Roberts, and I’ve heard Jim, too. Jim’s a former Air Force fighter pilot. So he’s going to be here and give his testimony, which is awesome. So be here next week. We’ll take a, this is for the Gideons. These are the folks that hand out Bibles on street corners, prisons, schools. Incredible organization. And we’ll be taking up a love offering for them at the end of the service. So I tell you, and the thing is, every dollar that’s taken up will go, I mean, there’s no administrative fees. It goes directly to buying Bibles to be handed out. So it’s going to be a great day next week. Don’t miss that. Bring somebody also with you.

But we’re glad you’re here. If you’re one of our guests this morning, and we’ve got a few of those, on the edge of your bulletin is a little tear-off sheet. If you wouldn’t mind filling that out and putting the offering plate later in the service, or just leave it at your seat, we’ll get it. We’d love to pray for you. Maybe you want to know a little bit more about our church. We’d love to share that with you. But we’re glad you’re here. And the big deal is we want you to feel like family at Sauldam. Because Sauldam’s got a great, great family here.

So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to welcome each other. Not a long thing, but what we want to do is we just want to let you know that we’re glad that you’re here. And so I want you to stand up, look around. If you’ve seen an unfamiliar face, get on over to them. And just look at them and just say this. Man, I am glad you’re here today. Singing, so say your last hellos and then come on back to your seat.

Let’s sing number 595, Send the Light. Ready? Come on back and have a sit. Have a stand. Hold on. Children who come up now for the children’s sermon. Y’all don’t sit down quite yet. Something for y’all to do. Come on up. Okay.

Now what we’re going to do now is come on up, Lily Fran. We’re going to honor our mamas and the ladies of our church. So we just want to say, number one, thank you for being who you are. Number one, being here this morning. Many of you have your family being here with you. So if you’re a lady in this church this morning, would you just stand up for a moment? We just want to say thank you. That’s all ladies. Because you’re a mama to somebody. So all our ladies, stand up.

Okay. Now I want you to remain standing. Okay, ladies, remain standing. Okay, guys, since those are our mamas out there, I’m going to let y’all hand them a flower just to say thank you for being here today. So y’all come over here. And we’ve got some baskets here. We’ve got more flowers. And I want y’all to go around and just kind of gals. And I want you to just. So ladies, when you get one, you can sit down so we’ll know who to get. Don’t forget, we’ve got some in the choir too. So you need somebody to go up in the choir. Somebody. Okay. You got them? So who can go up in the choir? There we go. Okay. Thank you, Rhett. Make sure every lady gets one. Hey, thank you. Thank you. Grab some more. We want every lady to get One. Okay. Michelle, you get one? Michelle got one? Okay. Oh, Mary Lou, did you get one? Mary Lou, did you get one? Okay. I want to make sure every lady gets one. Like I said, you’ve been a mom to somebody. And they’re like, Mary Lou, I mean, I think I look at her classes. I’m going to all them ladies. We got them? Okay. Good job, guys.

Now, y’all come on back down for the children’s sermon. We’ll get on with it. Let’s give our ladies a hand of applause just for just who they are. Thank you. Ladies, you can clap for yourselves. That works. Okay. Y’all come over here by me. Everybody knows what this is. Don’t sit down. Not quite. It flies. What? It’s a helicopter. You know, this helicopter is actually probably my dad’s probably flying this one. And he was an Army, you know, chopper pilot and flew this. It’s called an old Chinook. And it’s the one with two engines there. You’ll probably see some of those. They look a little bit more modern than this old thing.

What’s good about it? What does a helicopter do? It flies. But what’s different about it flying? It doesn’t have wings. It kind of hovers, though, doesn’t it? It kind of hovers and looks over everything, right? Let me ask you something. Y’all ever heard of a helicopter mom? Okay. What’s a helicopter mom? Like what? Okay. A different of a helicopter mom is kind of a mom that kind of hovers over you all the time and checks things out. And, you know, some people say, well, I don’t like my mom being a helicopter mom. I want to tell you something. You want your mom to be a helicopter mom. Okay? My mama was a helicopter mom. My mom checked on everything I did. And my wife, Miss Beth, is a helicopter mom. And my daughter’s 35. Okay? So we’re just, I mean, and the reason is because they care about you. I mean, if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t check that. They wouldn’t care about where you went. They wouldn’t care what you ate. They wouldn’t care about who you played with. They wouldn’t care about any of those kind of things. If they didn’t care, right?

You know, in the Bible, in Psalms 139, it talks about our helicopter God. And it talks about how God is everywhere. And the Psalms was when they would sing songs. So it’s like Psalm 139 in the Bible. And they’re singing about, well, God, He’s up there. When I’m down here, He’s here. When I’m over there, He’s there. When I sleep, He’s there. When I wake up, He’s there. Because God cares about us. Like helicopter moms. And I want you to know that you’re very lucky if you’ve got a helicopter mom. And I want you one day when you go home or today sometimes to say, you know, thanks for being my mom. And I love You. And sometimes I want you to get with God and say, God, I’m glad You’re a helicopter dad and a helicopter God. Because I want You to be a, because we always want God to be around us, don’t we? Yeah. We want Him wherever we go because we feel safe with God. And just like we feel safe with our moms. Okay? That make sense? Okay. So don’t forget to tell your parents, you know, thanks for loving me. And thanks for always looking out and maybe like a helicopter hovering over me. That’s a good thing.

Let’s pray. Father, I thank You for moms. I thank You for them being in church today. My stars. What a great example. But I thank You for helicopter moms that always hover and take care of us and watch out over us and protect us and even worry about us sometimes. And it’s all because they care. And I thank You for being a helicopter God who’s always looking out and watching out over us. Thanks for doing that for us. Now be with these children today, especially with Children’s Church. Let it be awesome. Let Miss Becky just do a great job. Speak through her. In Your son’s name we pray. Amen.

Thanks, guys. So we’re going to continue to sing. Sing about that love we were just talking about. Love Lifted Me, number 4546, excuse me, is our next hymn. So if you stand, we’ll sing. This is our offertory. Sing. Sing within, sing your eyes no more. But the master of the sea, her understanding cried. From the waters lifted me, now safe am I. When nothing fell, loved in Him, Presence lived, where His praises sing. Love so mighty and So true. There’s my soul’s songs. Faithful of eternity to Him. Be all we have to help. Love left in me, where’s the help of God? You choir. I’ve got to admit, every time I hear “Love Lifted Me,” I almost got a chuckle. When I was at my very first church, I was just a minister of education and youth, and had a pastor with me, and he remembers in seminary saying, you know, there’s something, you know, it’s just got such a peppy kind of beat to it. He said, almost like, sounds like they’re having fun, you know, “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore.” Yay! And so every time I hear that, I think of Wilson Davis, my first pastor I ever worked with. Wilson was one of those guys that forgot more about youth ministry than I would ever know, and that’s where, if I picked up anything, it was from him.

As we think about prayer right now, I want us to just kind of remember some folks. You’ve got the list there in your bulletin, but I’ll add some names. Mary Newton, a little over a week ago, had her gallbladder out. Not Mary. Mary didn’t have her gallbladder. Mary’s here. But Mary Ann, Mary Ann had her gallbladder out. That’s why she’s not on the organ. We’ve got so many Marys in this church. Any prayer anyway? But not for gallbladder. Okay, not for gallbladder. Thank you. Jim Lieber, also, I talked to Jim this week. Jim just, he felt good Sunday, got home by Monday. The time Monday hit, his body just ached all over. I mean, he had a fever. His chest was okay, and his sinuses, they checked him for COVID, and both flus, didn’t have that. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but apparently he’s got like a five to six day cycle, and so just keep Jim. He just felt just one of those days, just ached all over, but I think he’s on the back side of that, so keep him in your prayers.

Little Jace West, you know him on here. Jace is a newborn, just had some lung issues, but I think he’s on the man and knew him much better, and was up at the hospital with mom and daddy, and they appreciate your prayers, but I think he’s doing, and then Arthur Leister, Andrew Leister, Andrew had appendectomy this morning while we were having breakfast, I think, and, but I think he’s out, and I think everything’s okay, so just keep them in your prayers, and I’m sure there’s folks on your personal list. Maybe it’s you that just need some prayer this morning, so we’re just going to have time. We’re just going to go to God. I’ve got these needs. I’m going to thank you in advance for what you’re going to do, because I know who you are, so I want you to bow your heads. I want you to close your eyes, and in just the silence of the moment, just take your needs before the Lord. It’s not like He doesn’t know them, kind of keeps them in front of us, but also just acknowledging that He is the great physician, and we just want His will in all things, so just take them to the Lord right now. Let’s do that.

Father, thank you for just being you. Thanks for being our great physician. I thank you for the doctors you give us, and how they work and take care of us, and watch out. I thank you for moms. We like doctors, especially when we’re little. Just take good care of us. I thank you for my mom, and I thank you for you. Lord, we got so many needs, whether it’s physical and it’s aches and pains and other stuff, to just finances, to relational needs, even within our own families and homes, or just friends, or just maybe it’s at work, ever. Lord, we just turn things over to you. It’s like life is above our pay grade sometimes. It’s never above yours. So, Lord, we give this time to you. Give our needs to you. Blessed Lord, let my words be your words. Penetrate our hearts. Penetrate our minds. Make us different, so that we’ll look at you different, and we’ll draw close. When we draw close, you change us. That’s what we want this morning, in your son’s most holy name, and all God’s people said. Thank you, folks.

Got your Bibles. Like you to turn with me to the book of Luke chapter 14. This is kind of a different Mother’s Day sermon. I’m a work mom in there. It’s what I call a little Series I’m doing called “Let Me Tell You a Story.” Jesus loved stories. He was, and everybody knew He had stories, and He would do it to be. I had a seminary professor say stories and illustrations are like windows to the passage, and that’s true. Kind of give us a different perspective and a different look, except when Jesus told stories, people got uncomfortable. Especially if you were part of the religious leaders, you got uncomfortable, because usually He was talking about you, and He’s going to do that today.

Probably, you know, everybody’s influenced. One of the biggest influences in my life was my mom. Her last two years of her life, we moved her up here to Charleston, and Beth and I got to take care of her, and just a precious lady. Tough. She could be tough. Greek. I don’t know if you’ve ever been around a Greek mama, but they’re unique. We used to joke around that, you know, the Jewish mamas always looked at their kids before they went to school and said, “Hey, don’t forget your books.” Greek and Italian moms, it was always, “Don’t forget your lunch.” Okay, that’s how Greek and Italian moms. My mom, you were never happy unless you had food in your mouth. I mean, she was always cooking and always doing those kind of things.

I can’t even imagine what it would be like for my mom, and we all, and my mom was the matriarch. She was at Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, everybody gathered at my mama’s house. That’s just, and she lived at that, usually at the end of her life, she was, you know, when she was, well, just growing up too, lived down in Brunswick, Georgia, and everybody, we just traveled where you were, you just went down to Brunswick for Thanksgiving, and mom, mom would start cooking three weeks before you got there, and she, I’m serious, I’m serious, and she would sit there, and I mean, and the Greek stuff, I mean, I grew up on baklava, kudambieras, and all the Greek pastries, I mean, yeah, I was spoiled, and sugar, you know, sugar in Greeks, it runs through your veins. It just kind of does, and my mom would just start, and if it’s Easter, she’d have her lamb out, and Thanksgiving, I mean, her, her giblet dressing was to die for. I forget the meat. Just give me the dressing. I mean, that’s how it was, but I want you just to think for a moment. If my mom goes to all that work, and then we just decide, make her phone call and say, “Mom, can’t come,” and just not just me, but it’s my brother, my two sisters, and their families, and we just decide, “Mom, I know you went to all that work. You did all those things, but we’re not going to be there.” How do you think she’d feel? How would you feel?

That’s the story that Jesus tells this morning. It’s Luke chapter 14, called the parable of the great supper. Now, let me kind of give you the context of this story. Jesus is in a Pharisee’s home. He’s the new upcoming rabbi. They want to know a little bit more about Him. They want to kind of feel Him out. Sometimes, some of them even want to trap Him. They want to see if He’ll say something He ain’t supposed to say, and get Him in it, or kind of make Him look bad. It’s almost like the CNN, you know, little thing they did with Trump this week. You know, everybody’s trying to make everybody look bad politically. Well, they wanted to do the same thing for Jesus, except He kind of turns them on their ear.

In the beginning of the chapter, they’re talking about, you know, sitting at the table, and who’s going to sit at the front, and all those kind of things. And they got all this great food in front of them, because you know this guy is probably put out for his guests. He’s, I mean, he’s just got, I mean, all the great meats and vegetables, and they’ve probably got ice cream with a little chocolate syrup. And it’s like in the middle of it, Jesus kind of takes a picture of folks from, you know, all those starving people in Sudan, and kind of shows it to them. Can you imagine that awkward moment? I mean, that’s what He did. I mean, He talks about, you know, that they need to invite, you know, folks that, you know, the cripple and the poor and the lame and the blind, and they’re going, “Not on your life. Those people aren’t coming to this house.”

Look what they bring with them. It’s more than disease. It’s just a way of life. We don’t want that here. And so there’s an awkwardness. And then all of a sudden one guy steps up and he says this word in verse 15. Look what he says. When one of those who were reclining at the table with him heard this, he said to him, well, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. It’s almost like he’s pious. It’s almost like it’s code for something. Well, blessed is he who will one day eat bread in the kingdom of God. And it’s almost like Jesus looks at him and goes, hold that thought. Just go over there, send it. I’m going to use it as a launching pad, but you hold that thought. Don’t talk anymore. And let me tell you a story.

So Jesus all of a sudden starts to tell a story. But we’re going to see in this parable four important points that we need to pay attention to if we’re going to walk with the Lord and receive the blessings that He has in store for us. First one is this. There is given a personal invitation. Look at what He says. He says, let me tell you a story. A man was giving, this is verse 16, a big dinner. He invited many. And at the dinner hour, he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, come for everything is ready now.

Okay. Here’s how back in biblical times, they had what they called a double invitation. What they would do is they would do this. They would send out the invitation. Your name would be on the invitation left and they would let you know there’s a party coming up. You need to be at the party. You have been invited. The host wants you to be there. And usually your response would be this. Well, yeah, put my name down. Check that thing off. I’ll be there. Anything I can bring? No, He’s, He’s going to, He’s going to supply everything. You just, the only thing you need is just come and come with an appetite. And you say, yes.

Well, what would happen later, about three days later, when everything was ready, he would send out his servant and he would come to your place. And they would pretty much say, okay, everything’s ready. Come on, let’s go. Kind of like my mama, my, my mama, you knew at Thanksgiving, she, that, you know, the invitation was there. Everybody’s coming. Everybody’s showing up. You don’t be there and don’t be late either. In fact, you got to come now. We got room. We’ll, we’ll put you on the floor. We’ll put you in an extra bedroom. We’ll, we’ll find someplace. You can come home. Except here they come back and they have what they call a double limit. They come back and they remind you now everything’s ready.

So what’s at stake? Well, the, the host honors at stake. God’s mission is, is, is, is made clear. And Jesus is telling this story because He’s talking about Himself. Now, how is He doing that? Well, if you go all the way back to when Jesus was preaching in His hometown of Nazareth, remember He’s preaching in the synagogue and He looks at him, He starts quoting Isaiah. And as He’s quoting Isaiah, He’s sitting there saying, you know, everything that you’ve ever heard, everything that you’ve read from that were the words of the prophets about the Messiah coming and all those kinds of things. He looks at it and He says, I want you to understand this. It’s now true. And it has, not only is it true, it’s been fulfilled. And I am the fulfillment. Remember what happened? They wanted to kill Him because to them that was blasphemy, that He was equating Himself with God and He was the Messiah, the Son of God.

Well, hear what He’s sitting there saying. He said, you know, it’s like that, that first invitation. It’s coming. All these people, all their lives had heard from all the very beginning of Scripture, the entire Old Testament, they have heard this. It’s coming. He’s coming. And all of a sudden now Jesus is saying, and it’s not just coming. I’m sending out the servant to tell you it’s ready. The kingdom is at hand. And that’s what this parable is about.

So whose honor is at stake? Well, God’s honor is at stake. God’s mission is clear. And the banquet He’s talking about is a banquet that will one day culminate when He comes the second time. And so it’s the wedding feast. Who’s going to be at that table? And so all of a sudden, all of a sudden it’s clear that you’ve been invited to that, but there’s a problem. There is given for excuses. Look what it says. Follow with me. Verse 18, but they all alike began to make excuses. Listen to the excuses. The first one said to him, I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. Please consider me excused. Another one said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I’m going to try them out. Please consider me excused. Another one said, I have married a wife. Well, this is a good one, huh? Ladies, how do you feel about that? And for that reason, I cannot come. And the slave came back and reported this to his master. You’ve done all the baking, all the cooking, except now Jesus has said, I’ve prepared everything. I have sent the kingdom, as John the Baptist would say, the kingdom of God is at hand. And all of a sudden it’s excuse after excuse after excuse.

How do you feel when you throw a party and the person on the other line really doesn’t want to come and you know it, but they’re not telling you the real reason they don’t want to come. You ever had that phone call? You ever had someone talk to you like that? It’s almost like you get the phone call and you sit there and go, okay. And then your wife looks at you and she goes, well, who’s on the phone? Levi’s on the phone. Well, what’s he saying? Is he going to be here? He really don’t want to come. He’s not telling me that, but he’s not coming. And maybe you’ve even done this. You’ve practiced how to say you don’t want to come. Maybe you just want to get some sleep. Maybe you’ve just been working hard. The last place you want to go is another party. Or maybe you’re, you know, you just, you just don’t care for the person. Maybe something’s happened and you don’t want to go. Or maybe you just got something else you want to do. And maybe you’re not saying, hey, it’s not like I’m never going to come. I don’t want to come sometime. Maybe it’s down the road or whatever, but, but I don’t want to come. And you practice. And it’s almost like these guys practice these lines.

I mean, think about it. Look at the first one. He said, I bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. Let me ask you this. What Jewish guy would ever buy a piece of land and not go out and look at it? And that’s not an ethnic slur. That’s, that’s, I mean, that’s, I’m just thinking that’s kind of like being a, I guess, a Ravenel farmer. You ain’t buying no land without going to look at it. That’s just smart, isn’t it? I mean, what you’re going to go look at it? What you’re going to do for the next 20 seconds? Look at it again? No, you check out that land. Look at the second excuse. Second excuse. I’ve just bought them oxen. Who buys animals and doesn’t look at them before they buy them? I mean, I can remember when Mike was in the hospital and he’s sitting in bed with a day or two after you, you had your cancer surgery and, and you got, you got Kenneth on the phone and you’re looking to buy a bull. Well, you’re looking at that bull, aren’t you? You’re checking that bull out. You got Kenneth checking that bull out. You’re not saying I’m just going to go buy something and then go out and say, I’m going to try them out. It ain’t good. You don’t do that.

How about the third one? I think the third one’s the best. I just got married. How do you feel about that? And I’m thinking, wait a minute now, you said yes three days ago and in three days you got married and now you’re going on your honeymoon? Really? What is it? Because mama said you can’t come? So you can imagine how these excuses sound to the host. And I wonder if sometimes what it sounds like to God who’s given out the invitation of salvation, which is what this is, who’s going to be at the table at the end? Of growing, if you’re already a Christian, of growing as a Christian and you just go, God, really right now, my job’s pretty important. God, I got all this going on with my family. I can’t come. God, I just, really, I just don’t feel like it. You know, Lord, I’m just tired. Look, I work for six days. The only day I get some rest is Sunday. Or God, I’m just not ready to do that right now. How do you think God feels about that when He says, you know what? I can remember when I came down in human form, I went through all this stuff on the earth. I was actually crucified on the cross, went into the depths of hell, and how physically, emotionally, psychologically, all those things for you, so you could have a second chance in heaven, and you’ll just get to me when you can. I think God feels about that. See, these are insulting excuses. I mean, God is taken for granted here. Not only that, but we’re showing God not our gratitude, but our ingratitude. And here’s the deal. We’re turning down our best for leftovers.

I was reading this week an interesting story. In the mid-1970s, a young engineer named Steve Sasson invented the world’s first digital camera. Do you all remember digital cameras? I mean, before they came out? Remember those little things that used to be like cardboard boxes, and you kept the film in them? Remember those things? I remember you’d send them off to, you know, take them down to the drugstore or whatever, and you’d send them off, and they’d come back like a couple months later, maybe with some pictures. Remember those cameras? Well, once he invented it, he believed the possibilities were endless. So he secured a patent on it on behalf of his company, and he then met with his supervisors and pitched the idea of a new business model based on his invention. They rejected his idea. They turned down the opportunity. They were not impressed. Today, digital cameras are the standard equipment. They just are. See, these folks were convinced that it was not worth their investment. The company that told him no was Kodak. Just a few years ago, they emerged from bankruptcy, and now for the most part, they produce batteries for electric vehicles. Can you imagine where they’d be?

A number of years ago, McDonald’s had a sidebar company, and they said, you know, we really don’t want that. You know, we’ve owned them for about seven years, and they went from about 14 stores to about 500 stores in those seven years. The company was called Chipotle. You know how much money Chipotle made last year? 10 billion. They opened up 236 new stores last year. I wonder how McDonald’s is looking back going, God, I wish we’d kept those things.

Or maybe it’s not just a company. Maybe it’s you or a person. Because I read a story about Sean Connery. Sean Connery, I think, is the only actor my wife would have left me for. She just loves Sean Connery. Yeah. The guys who directed and produced Lord of the Rings went to Sean Connery and said, we want you to play the character Gondorf. He read the book and goes, don’t get it. Just don’t get it. Don’t get it. But they wanted him in that part so bad, they offered him $30 million. 30 mil. He said, nah, I’m reading the book. I’m just not getting it. Just not getting it. So they offered him 15% of the gross revenues forever, and he still turned them down. You know what 15% of the gross revenues of Lord of the Rings? About half a billion. $500 million. You think Sean Connery, you know, before he died, went, man, I wish I’d taken that role.

Have you ever looked back at your life and wish I could have done this then, this then, maybe bought on Kiowa in the late 1960s, or Hilton Head, late 1960s, where it was $10,000 an acre? We all have regrets, I think, sometimes, and I’m thinking about these folks that are looking and saying, I wish I had gone to the banquet. We turned down the best. We turned down the meal for the leftovers. And we really don’t get out of life. And I will tell you, not only are they excuses, but they’re insulting excuses.

Look what happens here. And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, get out at once into the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lameness. The very same people he probably showed a photograph of at the beginning before they even started talking on this story. Look, if they don’t want to come, then we’ll let them come. We’ll go out and get these folks. Now, I want you to understand something here that’s kind of important. Just because they didn’t come doesn’t mean that the host canceled the party. Does this host cancel the party? He says, no. We’ll just go get new guests. And of course, part of the picture here is how, you know, and Paul talks about it in the book of Romans, and Jesus is kind of showing that here. I’m coming to the Jew first. And I want to, because these are God’s people, and I’m going to be the Messiah to them, and I’m going to open up the kingdom of God to them, and God is fulfilling everything, and I want them to come to the dance. I want them to come to the party in this incredible banquet. And what happens? They turn Him down.

Now, does God go to the lame, the blind, whatever, because they turned Him down? No, it’s a question of position and priority and authority. It’s not like these folks are not going to be asked, but it’s who God asks first, because He’s going to ask these folks later. Because I can see the picture, too. It’s kind of like, well, wait a minute now. Zacchaeus gets to come to the banquet now. Well, why does Zacchaeus? I mean, Zacchaeus is a tax collector. Cheats his own people. Matthew is now a disciple. He gets to come to the banquet. The woman at the well, the Samaritan, gets to come to the banquet. Really? Three relationships? And I’m thinking, all of a sudden, who God is inviting to the banquet? See, the teenage boy that smokes weed might get invited to the banquet. How about the woman that’s on her third relationship and is looking for some answers and life is just caving in and just seems to be making a mistake. She might get invited to the banquet. Or the guy coming out of the bar the fourth Friday in a row, just knee-shaking, just dragging the streets drunk. And he’s going, I wouldn’t invite them to the banquet. Well, you don’t get to write the invitations. Who writes the invitations? See, I’m thinking about who we would invite to the banquet. I think it’s kind of interesting sometimes who we write to the banquet. Maybe it’s folks that are pretty stiff, more like the Pharisees than those that really need God.

See, God didn’t come for clean people. See, clean people don’t need a bath. Dirty people need a bath. But last time I checked, I think we’re all pretty dirty. Jesus is sitting there saying, He’s telling them, you’ve got to go out there. And here’s how He tells them to go. He says, go out. And the slave said, Master, what you commanded has been done and there’s still room. And He said, He said to the slave, go out into the highways and among the hedges and compel them to come in. You know, I get this picture of Andrew when all of a sudden he finally meets Jesus and he says, he says, the Messiah’s here. So what does he do? He runs and finds his brother Peter. He says, you’ve got to come. I have found Him. And he’s compelling him to come. When was the last time you compelled somebody to come to Jesus? Not just church, but Jesus.

See, God’s will is always going to be accomplished. Why? Because God always has a plan. But I want you to understand this. His will will be accomplished with or without us. And we can also possibly see His wrath. When He’s telling this story, He’s telling, hey, look, this guy, the guy, the host of the banquet, he’s ticked off. He knows these are worthless excuses. He knows that people are sitting there saying, you may be important, but I’ll just do it later if I come at all. He goes, okay, I’ll just take you off the list. I’ll put someone else on the list. And I want you to understand something. The only way you get to go to the banquet is if you’re on the list. The only way you don’t get to go to the banquet is if you reject your name being on the list. How many people are rejecting Him? See, this story will be finished. Look what He says. And the master said, go out into the highways along the hedges, compel them to come in so that my house may be full. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner. So it comes to the point of what are we going to do with the invitation? The great D.L. Moody, Moody Bible Church, Moody Bible Institute, the great evangelist. He died in November of 1899. You know what his last sermon was on? His very last sermon? Done on this passage. About excuses.

Ira Sankey was his great who wrote some of the great hymns in our hymn book. Was his music man. And he actually could barely hold himself up. And they said he was literally leaning on the piano as Ira Sankey sat on it. And all he was going to say, what are you going to do with the invitation? You’re just going to offer excuses? Is that all you’re going to do is just offer excuses? I mean, what about opportunities?

I read this this week. In the last century, an evangelist was offered the opportunity to take over a popular gospel radio program. It was called Songs in the Night. Don’t know if you knew about it. Remember it. Since keeping the cost of the program was rather high, the person who they went to to be on the show didn’t have a big salary. So he actually forgoed his salary from the radio station to pay the cost of the radio time. Didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense financially, but he decided to do it.

The young evangelist then approached a well-known gospel singer and asked him to sing on the program, lead a live on-air choir as well. And initially, this guy goes, you know, I think I’ve got better things to do, and he declined because there were other offers, and he had a busy career in front of him. And it was kind of getting away. Didn’t seem to make significant sense, but he decided to do it. So what he ended up doing, he got choirs from churches in the area, and he put them together. And the guy would preach, and the young singer would sing and lead the choir.

Well, that young preacher was a guy by the name of Billy Graham. And his young, and the young, well, pretty well-known at that time, music guy was George Beverly Shea. Shea, in the book on his life, makes this comment. He says, you know what, it didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense at the time, but it was a great time, and it really honed our skills. God took it from there.

Sometimes you just need to take advantage of the invitation. And that’s what we’re seeing here. See, it is finished with a direct command and a stern warning. At some point, the invitation is no and more. Let me tell you something. When God invites you to come to Him, give you life, or He invites you to get involved in His work, the more times you say no, the harder it’s going to be the next time.

Here’s what I find, and this is 40 years of ministry, here’s what I found out. Every time you say no, it’s like something goes over your heart. It’s like this little shell goes over your heart. Not a real thick shell, just another one. But the next time you say no, there’s another shell that goes over your heart. Then another shell goes over your heart. Until finally, as God starts to make these invitations in your life, your heart is so hardened by these shells, there’s no penetration.

I want to share something with you. God is not in the begging business. God will let you say no. In fact, I have found in life, and as I read scripture, there are times where God just says, you have said no. So many, you’re never going to say yes. That shell is so hard, I’m just going to quit asking. And the invitation is no longer.

And I want to share with you this morning. Everybody in this room is invited. Okay? When the gospel is presented, that’s an invitation going out. You are being invited. If you don’t know Christ, Christ is inviting you to come to Him. So what are you going to do? You’re going to say, yeah, I’m there. Count me in. Or you’re just saying, no, I’ll just do it later. Goes to shell. I’ll just, it’s another time. I got too much going on in the life right now.

Or maybe you’re a Christian, and God’s got something great that He wants to plan for you, like He did with Billy Graham and George Beverly Shea. And He comes to you, and He says, I got this. I want you, because you’re the person to do it. There are people out there in this world that you can reach that I can’t touch, and other people in this church can’t touch, because of the relationship you have built with them. And God says, “I’ve got an opportunity for it.” And you go, “Not now, Lord.” Well, what happens when people keep turning you down? How do you feel about it? How do you react? Quit asking. I mean, how many—and just because you were brought up in church—I mean, how many times we have heard the stories. Look, my parents brought me to church every single time. I grew up in church. Then I went off to college. I mean, I even got baptized. I did all those things. But then I went off to college, and I did all these things, and I made a right turn. Then I made a left turn. Then I made another right turn. Another left turn. And it was never, because it was never real. God is sitting there going, “I’m giving you the invitation. Here’s the invitation. The invitation is to come and die. The invitation is going to be tough. Let me tell you about the banquet at the end for eternity.”

Ten years ago this week, my mama left this earth. She died 55 minutes before Mother’s Day. Five minutes. I don’t know how to say goodbye to my mom about midnight. I had to get up the next morning and preach a Mother’s Day sermon. And then I had to bury her on Wednesday. Ten years ago. You go out to Riverview Cemetery off Isaiah Drive, and you go down, and there’s a headstone down near the water. My mama always thought it would be around the water. The bottom of her tombstone says these words: “Now with my Jesus.” Do you know what I remember my mama saying? “He was always my Jesus. My Jesus. He was personal. My Jesus.” See, what I want to ask you this morning is, “You’re Jesus. He’s yours.”

Kyle Adelman puts it this way. He says, “Are you a fan?” And we all say, “Yeah, I’m a fan of Jesus.” No. Are you a fan or a follower? There’s a big difference. God’s not looking for fans. These guys were kind of, in some way, fans of Jesus, but they weren’t followers of Jesus. See, it’s one thing to know of Him. It’s a whole different ballgame to knowing. He wants you to know Him. And He’s looking for a follower. And He’s looking to be yours. That’s the question this morning. Are you on the invitation list? If you heard this message this morning, you’re on the invitation list. Now you want to come off the list? You want to stay on the list. And if you’re saved, you’re on the list. But the deal is that God’s got things He wants to do in your life. He’s not going to beg you. He’s not going to beg Christians. Just as well He’s not going to beg lost folks.

Go on to the invitation. If you don’t know Jesus, I’ll be down at the front. I’ll talk with you. We’ll talk afterwards. We’ll set up a time about what it means to come to Christ and what He wants to do in your life and the plan that He has. Or maybe you’re a Christian. You’ve been a Christian for a long time, but you just, “Lord, I know You’ve got stuff for me. I know You’ve been inviting me to be involved in stuff. And I’ve always got more things to do, better things, I think.” And maybe starting today, you go, “Lord, You’re the priority.” The Bible says this world’s going to one day just go away. And last time I checked, when you leave this earth, you leave with nothing. And Lord gave everything for you. How much He loves you. How are you going to respond to the invitation?

Let’s pray. Father, thank You, number one, for giving the great banquet. And it’s coming. Right now, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When You walked, came to this planet, You brought the kingdom with You. And when we come to You, the kingdom comes with You into our lives. That just doesn’t happen when we go to heaven. But what we do with the invitation is important. If we’re a Christian, maybe You’re inviting us to get involved in Your work. And we need workers. We need youth workers. We need VBS workers. We need Sunday school teachers. We need youth and children’s folks. There’s just needs. But what are we doing with the invitation? And maybe if we don’t know You this morning, You’re saying, “I want to invite you into the kingdom. I want you to invite you so I can be a part of your life and give you things that you can’t even imagine. And one day, invite you to sit down at the great wedding banquet feast. Father, help us to respond. Help us not to say no. Help us not to put another shell. Help us to realize when we get things right with You, other things start to fall into place. We’ll just do that. Help us to make the decision this morning that we need to make. In Your Son’s name we pray. Amen.

Donnie, if you’ll lead us. All right. We’re going to close out this morning with number 384, the bond of love. So you’re saying we’ll sing. Hope you have a great week. Moms, I hope the rest of your day is precious and special. And guys, you know how to do that. So just do that. I hope you have a great week.

Don’t forget Wednesday night. Wednesday night’s a fun time around here. Kids just have a great time. We have a meal. Starts at 5:30. And then we have some great, then we have some Bible teaching. And we’re looking at spiritual warfare with Jim Cimbala. Last Wednesday was amazing what he had to say. And then we have some great discussion. Don’t miss that. That’s just a fun time. That’s just a good time. And it’s kind of a time where you can just raise your hand and go, I don’t understand. Or I got a question. Or whatever. Kind of hard to do that in the middle of a service. But you can do that on Wednesday nights. So let me encourage you to be here for that.

Again, always remember, you may be the only Jesus someone ever sees. And you may be that one carrying the invitation. Okay? So you invite someone. Invite someone to know the God that you know. Makes all the difference in the world. Like I said, you can reach folks I can’t touch. And I can reach folks you can’t touch. That’s why God didn’t just take us when we got saved. He left us here to be the example. So just have a great, great opportunity, hopefully this week.

Let’s go, Lord, in prayer as we’re dismissed. Father, thank You. Thank You for inviting us to be part of the list. The only way we come off is if we say, no, I don’t want to do that. We need to be very careful if we do that. Because You may not, You may take us off the list if we don’t know You. Lord, help us to respond. Help us to listen to the pulling and the calling of Your Holy Spirit on our hearts. And Lord, as Christians, may we listen to Your Holy Spirit as it calls us to do Your work. And presents opportunities each and every day. Help us just to get up in the morning and just say, Lord, let me not miss where You’re working. It might be just something little, but let’s help me to just be part of it. Lord, if we’ll just have that attitude. So now, Lord, just bless these folks. Let them have a great week. Thank You for who You are. And we just give You all the honor and glory. And all God’s people said, amen. Thank you, folks.