Series: NOT A FAN Whenever. What About Now? What is your excuse for not following Jesus today?

10/13/2013 FCC Pastor Jeff Williams

Well, as Rocky said this morning, we’re talking the excuses. Why we sometimes don’t do what God has called us to do. Why put it off. I thought about maybe talking about procrastination this week. But we’ll put that off for another time. God would know that we would do that. I want to talk about excuses. And Luke 14 verse 15 is what we’re gonna read. Before we turn to that, I want to say to you a statement that the Bible is a book of denial. The Bible is a book of denial. You know, there’s a lot of folks who wouldn’t understand that and wouldn’t agree with that. They would say, how can the oldest book that’s around be a book of denial? If there was ever a book that was a book of denial, it’s the Bible. You know, it doesn’t matter how old something is, as long as it’s alive. There’s a tree that was called a senator. This tree lived to be as old. This tree was 3500 years old when it was struck by lightning on the side of the street. It was as old as the Scripture. While it was alive, it was a tree of denial. Right? It didn’t matter if it was 3500 years old. It was alive. God’s word’s alive. It’s living and active. It still brings people to repentance. It is still correcting us. It is still guiding us. It is still comforting us and encouraging us. It is still a vehicle through which God gives us the invitation and a call. It’s still a means by which we receive revelation from God. The Bible is alive. Because it is alive, it’s a book of denial. And there is verse in Hebrew chapter 3 verse 15. It says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” God is still speaking today. He’s still speaking through his words to us. When he speaks, when he invites, answer the call, the author says. Respond to what he’s saying. Sometimes we don’t. We’re gonna talk about why we don’t, the reasons why we don’t today.

We’re gonna look at one of the parables Jesus taught, called the parable of the great banquet. Jesus is at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisee, whose home he’s at, is not a fan or a follower. He would probably consider himself as somebody who’s curious as to who Jesus was and what he was about. So he invites Jesus to come. And Jesus comes. And Jesus gives a lesson about when you invite a banquet, when you have a banquet, don’t just invite those who can pay you back, but invite the poor, invite those who can’t pay you back. And while he says, in verse 15 he says , “When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, ‘Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.’” This is spontaneous outburst. He’s excited. He’s motivated by what Jesus says. And he just blurts it out. This statement, Jesus takes that and he runs with it. And he began to tell the story. He says, “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.” So we know who this person is, a VIP. Number one they’re giving a banquet. A banquet has the connotation of being something colossal, grand. It’s a lot of people. It’s a lot of food. It’s a lot of good food. It’s a banquet. Right? But this is not just a banquet. It’s a great banquet. So this is even larger than the normal banquet would be. And he’s invited many guests. It’s just assumed that at the banquet you have a lot of guests. This banquet is so big that we call it a great banquet. And there’s so many guests that we even have to give it an adjective. It has just all kinds of people that are there. And then he says, “At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’” So we understand that the invitations were already given out. This is not going be a surprise to anybody who’s on the invitation list. In the days of the Bible, when you hold a banquet or party, you give the place and the date, but you wouldn’t give the time. That’s because it was kind of time when it was ready. And so when it was ready, you send the word out, hey, it’s ready, come and eat. So these people had the date. They knew the place. They knew it was VIP giving it. And they’re declining it at the last moment. And that’s rude. They’re declining it with weak excuses. And that’s rude. Imagine if you had invited somebody to dinner. They knew they would come. And you gave the invitation. They did not decline the invitation. They’re supposed to come to your house at 7 o’clock. At 7:05 you call and you say, “Where are you?” And they just give you some weak excuses. How do you feel about that? You’ve already prepared the food, their setting. And at the last minute you think they’re coming. At the last minute they’re not coming. And the reason they give you is just really weak. How do you feel about that? You know. We got extending invitation to come to church every Sunday. To everybody in our community, you come to Faith Community Church. You’re invited. I ran into people that I haven’t seen for a long time. They have all kinds of excuses. They’ll see me. They kind of look down and say, they haven’t been to the church, they’re cleaning their garage. Like for 5 years? How big is your garage? Can’t you come up with something better than that? Right? So that’s gonna be the pattern. They are all invited. They all know the time. They know the place and the day. They are all expected to be there. And one by one they’re gonna drop out. Verse 18, “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have 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.’” My wife was at the 8 o’clock service. So at the 8 o’clock the service, she said, “That’s a good one, well.” This is the 8 o’clock. Now the rest of the service, I’m saying that’s not a good excuse. When she was here,… That one, I can buy. You know, you’re married. You got to be with your wife. That’s a good one, honey. But now she’s not here, that’s not a good excuse, either. “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 is still room.’ Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” Not even a bite, not even a taste. Let’s talk about the meaning of this parable. Number one, who is inviting? Who is this one giving a banquet? Is it a VIP? Who is it? Well, in the parable, the one giving a banquet is God. He’s giving a banquet. He’s inviting us to come. He is the VIP. It’s an honor when the VIP invites you to dinner. That’s an honor. Right? My son’s favorite athlete is Mohammad Ali. He doesn’t make many public appearances because of his health. But in October, in Louisville, his home town, he gave a banquet to award humanitarian efforts of young people around our world. And we almost went. It was open to the public. Everybody can buy a ticket. Invitation was an open ticket. My son had a conflict. He couldn’t go. But, you know, we could have maybe an opportunity to meet and chat. That’s an honor, a privilege to meet this famous person, Mohammad Ali. Well, someone infinitely great as Mohammad Ali is issued you an invitation. It says to whom I issued the invitation. Who are these 3 groups of people? There were the people who are invited. Then there were the poor, the crippled, the outcasts. Then he went into the highways and byways. Most scholars believe that he talks about going first to the rulers, the Pharisees, the scribes and teachers of the law and they rejected his invitation. They talked the Messiah was coming. And when the Messiah finally came, they said, no, thank you. You don’t look and act like we thought the Messiah would look and act. And they declined the invitation. Jesus reached out to the poor, the crippled, the outcasts, the tax collectors, the sinners, and they came. They responded to the invitation and they came. There is still more room. Right? In the story. Then he goes far away to the faraway places, the countryside. And he invites them to come in. That’s the Gentiles. We’ve been invited, too. We’ve been invited to what? We’ve been invited to this feast, to participate in the kingdom. To participate in the kingdom. A feast is a time of celebration. In this case, a feast is a homecoming. He said about one day we gather in God’s kingdom, in God’s presence. All eras of time, all ethnic groups, all of peoples, all believers celebrate our homecoming, celebrate our union with Christ in this banquet. So he says a banquet, but more than that, it is the kingdom that God called us to do, to live with him, to serve him, to be a part of what he is doing. To be a part of the kingdom, that’s the invitation. With all kinds of awkward excuses, that’s why we can’t participate. Do all those excuses sound boring to you for the most part? You don’t go, you know, I doubt. I mean, you’ve gone out and bought a pair of those oxen this week. When you really look at the root of it, it’s the same. OK? The first excuse. In verse 18, he said, I just bought a field. I must go and see it. If he’s already seen it, he wouldn’t but it. Right? And the field is not really gonna change that much, is it? It’s a field. What’s that gonna do? It looks the same as it did yesterday. It’s gonna look the same tomorrow as it does today. The chances are this is an investment, or part of his business, his vocation. Maybe he’s a farmer. He’s gonna, he’s in agriculture. And so this is a weak excuse. Someone invites you to dinner. And you say, no, I can’t come, I have to look at my portfolio. I’m gonna take a look at my stocks and see how much. You can do that later on. OK? They won’t go anywhere. Sometimes you and I. This is profession, he’s an investor, or he’s a farmer. A profession. Sometimes you and I put our profession first. I can’t do what God’s called me to do, because things are busy at work. I can’t do what God’s called me to do. So, you know, I’m new to this new job. Or until I leave this job. I’m looking for a job. I’m so busy looking for another job. I don’t have time to respond to the will of God. Or responding to the will of God causes me to leave the job I already like. We’re sitting where we really like. See, the point is that it’s not the profession that’s bad. Everybody should have a profession, a job. But it should not take precedence over matters of the kingdom. Second gentleman buys five oxen. He wants to see them. The possessions. Right? Hey, it’s 7 o’clock. You’re invited to dinner. Where are you? I just bought a new car. I wanna give it a test drive. The car isn’t going anywhere. It’s gonna be there after the dinner. It’s gonna be there tomorrow. That invitation, that banquet that he was giving, was only gonna be there for a time. Then it’s gone. You need to respond in this light to that invitation. It’s OK to have possessions. Possessions should not serve what God is doing in your life. Possession. Sometimes we hold on to our possessions to the point where we will not let go of them to pursue the things of God. The possessions take precedence. To follow the will of God will mean now we have to give up this possession. I couldn’t buy this possession. So I choose the possession over responding to the invitation. So the profession is possession of its people. Let’s look at the last one. The third person just got married. I can’t go. I need to be with my wife. Sometimes we don’t respond to the will of God because we put people first. I can’t come to the church now because my husband isn’t a believer. I can’t do the work of the Lord because my wife isn’t a believer. I can’t do the work of God because my kids are so busy and I am busy with my kids. And we make excuses. Is it wrong to have a family? Absolutely not. Not at all. But Jesus is saying that the kingdom trumps even family for a fault. I’ll give you an example from my life. Some of you have said good things and praise me for coming to Janesville, taking a step of faith. But you don’t know the whole story. You don’t know before the fact that I was a follower. I was rebellious non-follower. Almost 2 years I fought God tooth and nail. I came to Janesville kicking and screaming. I remember I was in my mid to late 20s. There was a church in Janesville that wanted a pastor. The senior pastor, the founding pastor was leaving and he handpicked me to be his successor. He told the search committee, “I want Jeff Williams to succeed me as pastor in this church.” When he retired, he left. The search committee interviewed me. I was thinking this is a slam dunk. You know, I went to the church, looked at the building and I was getting excited because I thought in my spirit it was time for me to move on. I just knew that it was. I just wasn’t sure where. Maybe this is where God has called me. They said, well, we think we like you, but we just think you are too young. They wouldn’t say that any more that I am too young. But they did then. We’re just looking for somebody with more experience. So my boss says to me, you know, we have got a lot of people driving from Janesville to Rockford. He says, why don’t we go to Janesville and start a church. All you do is just move away. It might as Rockford, Edgerton. We have others, too. Let’s go to Janesville to start a church. I began to think about what that would mean. I just bought a house like 2 years prior to that. A nice house in a nice suburb. I’ve grown up poor. My wife hadn’t. But I had. I lived in a four-family apartment flat, kind of a rough area in Rockford. Then from there I moved to a dormitory. No big deal. From there we moved to a farm house when we first got married. Now I had a house, a real house. It was a brick ranch. I loved it. And now if I move to Janesville, that means I’ve got to sell my house. I don’t want to sell my house. I said, well, maybe I am too young. Maybe they’re right. Maybe I needed to stay here and grow a little bit more. So I said no to my boss. And he brought it up again. He thought about Janesville. I’d like to get a church going there. I thought about Janesville. We bought 2 new cars, relatively new cars. That was like a junky car. Now the church was growing. The salary was better. My wife got a job at a hospital. She really liked it. So we bought a couple of nice cars. You know, if I go to work for a church that doesn’t exist, I think the paycheck stops. I might have to sell my cars. I don’t want to sell my cars. And I would find another excuse. I would say, no, it’s too hard to start anything from scratch. I don’t mind going where there’s people and where there’s a building. But I just don’t want to go and work for a church that doesn’t exist. No, I am not interested. I felt inside of me a tug is pulled away. I needed to make a change. But I was so comfortable. I liked my job. That was my hometown. Everybody in the church knew me. I grew up in that church. My boss, he was my pastor since I was 9 years old. I was comfortable with him. Our church was really growing and making an impact in our city. So I got to be on the staff at the church where church is making a difference. I liked being there. I was comfortable there. My job became a stumbling block. It was familiar, the people were familiar. So I would make an excuse to stay. For almost 2 years this went on and on. I thought about Janesville. Why don’t you just drive to Janesville? Just pray about it. Just seek the Lord. I thought about my family. My parents lived in Rockford. My wife’s parents lived in Rockford. My sisters lived in Rockford. Her sister lived in Rockford. My best buds lived in Rockford. We had friends in the church that lived in Rockford. And I didn’t know any of you. I knew her. But I didn’t know any of you. I didn’t want to go. There’s all three. My job I liked. I didn’t want to leave. My family was there. My mom didn’t help. You’re gonna move away? You’re gonna leave us? We had a babysitter there, two of them. Right? People. It’s a good thing. That became a stumbling block for me. And possessions. I didn’t want to sell my car. I didn’t want to leave the house. It had been a goal of mine since I was a boy. Finally I had it. Do you know what happened? When we responded to the invitation and said yes, God began to change my heart. Fear began to turn to faith. Anxiety began to turn to excitement. And when we said yes, everything began to change to begin to feel like we are part of an adventure. We’re going off to the unknown. It’s a step of faith. But it’s God provided, we got more and more excited. We thought yea, yea, we’re working and moving. And we began, yes, we’ll sell the house and put it on the market. It’s OK. It’s OK. Someday we’ll get another one. You’ll find, you love your job at the hospital. You’ll find another job in Wisconsin that you’ll like as much. We love the good school. We’ll find another good school in Wisconsin. We love our church family here. I bet you someday we’ll love our church family there. So we took a step of faith. But it was not easy. Sometimes we receive the invitation. It’s not easy because you got to give up something. How many of you do not like change? Let me see your hands. Yea, me, I didn’t want change. Right? I remember not long, 2 years after we moved to Wisconsin, I said to Branda, I go, would you move back? She said no. We like Janesville better. We enjoy our church. We enjoy our friends. Thumps up. Yea. You know, you say no to God. What you’re turning down is something greater that what you have. You know, they turned down this invitation. They missed out. Notice what’s happening. The fifth question is what happens when you decline the invitation. You miss out. Notice the one who is giving the banquet doesn’t say. The servant came back, says, this one can’t come. This one can’t come. This one can’t come. Oh, forget it then. Call it off. What do we do with all the food? Throw it away. Not having a party. No. All the people got to go and experience the kingdom. The invitation. Had I not come here, God doesn’t say, well, you know, I want to do something in Janesville through Jeff. But I guess whatever I want, it’s not gonna happen. God’ll raise somebody else. I would have missed out. Maybe God called you to a mission’s trip here in church. He said that very clearly, you know, whether it’s Haiti or Mexico or whatever. You should go. You didn’t go. You have an excuse. Too busy at work. Too busy with kids. Whatever the reason is, you didn’t go. You know what. We didn’t say, well, I guess we’re not going to Mexico, no mission’s trip. Joe’s not going. Mary’s not going. Cancel the trip. We still went. All the God’s blessings God has in store for you, You didn’t get them. The people that he was gonna have you meet, the friendships, the relationships that you’re gonna build, that didn’t happen. The mission went forward to work with the poor. When you do not respond to the invitation, you lose. God doesn’t lose. His purposes go forward. Someone else gets your blessing. I don’t know about you. But I want every blessing that God has for me. I don’t want anything better that God has for me. God has something that I want. When you say no to God’s invitation, you lose. God doesn’t. God doesn’t cancel the banquet. He doesn’t cancel the plans because you have an excuse. The word goes on. The purposes are courage. What is it in your life today? What is it the call? What is the invitation? What is the change he’s requiring you to make, he’s inviting you to make, but it’s gonna cost you something? As a matter of fact, the relationship you might have at your job. You might have to give up a possession, or not get a possession. What is it that he is calling you to do? I’m willing to do that. When I was, when we were trying to build the Faith core, there was a lady who, a friend of mine and his wife, childhood friend. They said, how close are you to build a building? I said, well the banks says we have $40,000 short. If we have 40,000, they’ll give us the money. 40,000 at the time would have seemed like 40 million to us. We’re not a big church. And I told them that. Just a few weeks later, she called me. She said, you never guess what just happened. She said, I have an uncle that I barely know. He passed away. He left me $40,000 exactly. The same amount you said you needed. She said, we’ve decided. We’re gonna give the gift to the church. I said, well. I start doing the math. I’m no math major. But I’m thinking $40,000’s tithe is $4000. That really is a nice gift. She said, you don’t understand. You needed $40,000. $40,000 came in from the source we didn’t expect. This is your money. We’re giving you church $40,000. Get your building going. I was like no way. They’re not rich. You know, I bet they could’ve used that $40,000. Right? I bet there’s some trip they could’ve taken. Or something they could’ve done in the house to remodel. Or maybe some nice clothes she could’ve bought. She was obedient. She said, this is your money. It costs something to follow what God tells you to do. She gave that money to us. I immediately got on the phone, called the bank, called the builder. I said, we’re ready. Phase one went up. It costs you something. Are you willing to do what it takes to respond to the invitation that God gives you. Let’s pray.

Lord, this parable tells us something very important. That is we’ve all received the invitation. An invitation to participate in the kingdom. An invitation to participate in the celebration of homecoming. Lord, the truth of the matter is we get more attached to the things on earth. Our possessions or things we can see take precedence over the things that are spiritual and eternal. Lord, we use excuses. Excuses are people, our possessions, our profession, our jobs. We’re no different than people in this parable. We choose what is temporary over what is eternal. We decline an invitation. And others come and take our blessing. Lord, I pray that you help us to seize the moment, to help us not to follow kicking and screaming, but humbling, accept the invitation, and know you have something better in store for us than what we give up, to know that we cannot outgive you. Lord, whatever purposes and callings are here today, we’ve offered our excuses to why we can’t go, why we can’t go now. Lord, expose those excuses as what they are. Disobedience. Lord, give us the courage to respond to your invitation to participate in the kingdom, to give thanks for the privilege that we have in playing a role in part in your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.