The Kingdom Way: An Invitation That Rearranges Our Lives

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God is so good. Yeah. Let’s see if I can get this set up.

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God is good.

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And that, that moment there.

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And he was singing that point, you know. Lord, where were you? Where were you when this. Where were you when that? But he’s always been there. He’s always been faithful. He’s always been good. Something I say a lot. He doesn’t promise us that we aren’t going to have struggles. There’s nowhere in the Bible that says that we’re not going to go through stuff.

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What he does promise is that he walks with us through it all.

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It’s one of the most known and quoted scriptures in the Bible, Psalm 23. And it says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that is not an easy place. That is not a place any of us want to be, but it is a place that every single one of us comes to at some point in our lives, for one reason or another.

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For what does he say? I will not fear because you are with me. Yeah, you are with me. You are so good. You are so good. God, I’m just going to pray to Lord.

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We thank you for your presence here today. Lord, we thank you for your heart of love and of mercy and of grace that has been expressed in this service.

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Of your goodness and your greatness. The one who runs after us puts our feet on solid ground. We thank you today.

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Lord, I pray that you would be with me as I speak, that I would speak your words and not my own. That you would open our hearts to hear what you are saying today. That we would understand what you are doing in this hour, and how your Kingdom and the purposes of you are established today, here and now, not just some far off distant future.

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So Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your salvation. We thank you for all of the things God, the overwhelming joy, the overwhelming peace, the love that you have given us access to in your Kingdom. So we come today to give you praise. Open our hearts. Open our ears. In Jesus name, Amen.

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Amen. Well, today we are continuing in our series about the Kingdom Way, and we are going to be in Luke 14. And the title of our message is The Open Table. The open table. So today in Luke 14, it’s one of those moments where Jesus takes an ordinary setting and uses it to say something that reaches much deeper and speaks to deep things in our lives.

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And it all happens around a table. It’s surrounded. The whole concept is a table. And what Jesus is saying about the seats at the table, the guests at the table, the invitation to be part of the table. And I will say when I when I got started to get into this, I thought I knew where I was going to go, and then I didn’t know where I was going to go.

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And we went somewhere totally different because I believe God is speaking to us here in this hour. Something specific, something I wasn’t expecting maybe to hear for me, challenging me.

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And my understanding of the Kingdom way. So let’s just dive in. I’m going to read the passage. It’s Luke 14 seven through 24. We can do this. It says, when Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner we’re trying to seat sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table. He gave them this advice and most other translations.

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It says he gave them this parable. When you were invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who was more distinguished than you has been invited, and the host will come and say, give this person your seat. Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table.

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Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, friend, you have a better place. I have a better place for you, and you will be honored in front of all the guests. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

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Then he turned to his host and says, when you put on a luncheon or a banquet, he said, don’t invite just your friends and brothers and relatives and rich neighbors, for they will because they will invite you back.

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And that they will be your the only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Then, at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you.

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For inviting those who could not repay you.

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Hearing this and man sitting at the table with Jesus and other translations, it says, reclining at the table with Jesus, says, what a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the kingdom of heaven.

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And Jesus replied with a story. A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. And when the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to tell the guest, come the banquet is ready. But they all began making excuses, and one said, I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me. And another said, I have just bought five pair of ox and I want to try them out.

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So please excuse me. And another said oh I just got married so I can’t come. And the servant returned and told his master what they had said, and his master was furious and said, go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And after the servant had done this, he reported, there is still room for more.

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So his master said, go out to the country lanes and behind the hedges, and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will even get the smallest taste of my banquet.

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Yeah, there’s a few moments in this parable. Isn’t this?

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You see, we live in a world that quietly teaches us how to belong.

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Teaches us where to sit, who to know how to look successful. How to appear put together. Most of us don’t wake up thinking I want to be impressive today, but we do wake up thinking about where we will fit, how we’re seen. Weather will measure up. Even as adults, we feel it. There are still tables. There’s kids tables and adults tables, places where you feel like you belong and places where you’re not really sure where you’re supposed to be.

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In this Kingdom Way series, we’ve been talking about how Jesus doesn’t just give us beliefs, but he gives us a way of living, a way of relating, a way of belonging, a way of responding to God. And in Luke 14, Jesus steps right into that, not in a classroom or a teaching in a synagogue, but right at the table at dinner time.

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And he teaches here and he touches some very deep pressures that we all carry. He speaks about where we look for honor, about who we choose to give, to and what we do with God’s invitation. You see, this is not just a collection of random teachings. It’s one conversation and one moment of time at one dinner table. So today I want to begin to dive into all of these scriptures, and we’re going to do a little bit of an expository teaching.

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We’re going to go through through this. But there are still these three points. If you want to put them back up that really speak to each section here. That is where we look for honor, who we choose to give to, and what we will do with God’s invitation.

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So let’s dive into the passage and break it down. Luke 14 verse seven. When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them this advice and the message translation that verse says. He went on telling a story to the guests around the table, noticing how each of them tried to elbow into a place of honor.

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I love that. Verse eight says, when you’re invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit at the seat of honor. When someone who is more distinguished than you has been also invited, the host will come, say, give us this person, this seat. So you are not embarrassed, so you are not embarrassed. You see, Jesus here is not teaching etiquette.

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He is forming hearts that will trust the father with honor. Hear me? Yes, this is a table setting and I am a mom, so I am very well aware that the table time was a very good place for lessons, right? Yes. It was a really good place to teach etiquette, but it was also a really good place to teach principles.

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And Jesus is sitting here at a table and he is forming the hearts of the people around him so they can trust the father with honor. You see, Jesus noticed how people were choosing the seats of honor in Jesus’s world. Where you sat meant something.

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It told everyone something. It told them who mattered, who was important, who belonged near the center. This was a cultural thing. So when Jesus speaks, he’s not just giving etiquette. He’s exposing something deeper. He’s exposing what he says in verse 11. It says, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted.

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You see, this is not about self-hatred. This is not about thinking less of yourself, but this is about who you trust to define your worth.

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You see, he was in a room and they entered in. They all thought that they deserved the seat of honor. They were all the favorites. They were vying for position. Because in that culture, like I said, where you sat mattered. It was important to keep that up. Where you sat was important. It told you your worth. You see, our culture today wants to secure your honor.

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Our culture today wants to you to position yourself. Our culture today wants you to be seen. And you must do what it takes to be seen. You must do what it takes to be in a position of honor, to position yourself well.

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But the kingdom says, let your father place you in a seat of honor. Do we trust him to define our worth, or do we have to define it on our own? Well, we let God lift us up when we let honor be received, not seized.

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James says in verse chapter four, verse six, God opposes the proud and gives a grace to the humble.

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You see, in context to our chapter in Luke. Pride isn’t just a feeling, it’s a way of trying to rule your own worth.

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And God actively resists that because. Not because he’s harsh, hear me, but because his kingdom works on trust and grace, not self-examination.

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Sometimes we hear a scripture like this God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. And we wonder how that works with the message of grace and love. Yes.

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God does not contradict himself.

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What we’re talking about here is that pride puts us in a posture of self worth first, and that will naturally put us opposed to God. This is not God punishing.

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This is us putting ourselves in opposition.

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It’s the same pattern we see in Jesus. Philippians two six. Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Jesus didn’t grasp for honor even though he deserved it.

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But he trusted the father that the father would exalt him, that the father would exalt him in due time. Amen. John Chrysostom, a bishop from the fourth century, in his preaching on humility, said that Jesus was not telling people to pretend to be small. This is really important, you guys. But to trust God with their lifting? Well, this is really good because we’ve had millennia of Christians that believe they’re supposed to be small because they do not understand what humility truly is.

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He taught that humility is not self contempt, but confidence that God will exalt in his time. This is the kingdom way. This is the kingdom way.

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Today we might not be fighting over banquet seats, maybe church seats.

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The shoe fits.

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But we absolutely feel the pressure to appear successful.

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The pressure to be seen as important.

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To protect our image.

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To make sure we’re valued.

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And Jesus isn’t condemning that desire. You guys, he’s healing it, and he’s restoring it.

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He’s inviting us to stop carrying the weight of self-promotion and start resting in the father’s ability to place us.

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He’s inviting us to stop carrying the weight of self-promotion. You guys, it is heavy. It is unattainable. That weight of self-promotion will always make you feel like you are never enough. No. And nothing you will do will get you there. You may even have these ideas of what are in front of you. But when you carry the weight of self-promotion that I have to do this on my own, that I have an image to protect.

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I need to be successful. I have to be important. It will crush us because we were never designed to carry weight like that. God wants to promote us. God wants to honor us. God wants to yoke with us and carry the burdens of life with us. He doesn’t want you to carry him on your own. He doesn’t want you to to be buried under these expectations that the enemy puts on you, that our culture puts on you.

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He doesn’t want you in this mode of striving, in this this flywheel effect, that nothing. It’s just over and over again. I get a little bit ahead and then I get pulled back down. Come on, who knows what I’m talking about? Anybody felt that?

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He wants to release us from the weight of self-promotion. I know it may not feel like that’s what it is, but this is what it is.

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He wants to be the one to carry us, to lift us up, to honor us.

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After speaking to the the Guest. Jesus turned to the host.

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This is important. Jesus doesn’t correct how people chose their seats. Did you notice that? He didn’t hidden correct them. He didn’t say, stop it. You sit over there. Knock it off over there. Stop vying for this. Stop pushing your way in. Because what? Can I just say something to. I think there’s an element of. Maybe just wanting to be close.

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But in our own way.

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Sometimes self-promotion. Isn’t coming from a place of wanting to see myself. But it really is still self-promotion because it is something I am doing on my own.

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Jesus doesn’t correct how people chose their seats. He corrects how they build relationship.

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Going on in verse 12, it says. Then he turned to his host. And when he put, he says, when you put on a luncheon or a banquet, don’t invite your friends and brothers and relatives and rich neighbors, for they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

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And then at the resurrection, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.

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You see who we choose to give to.

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It’s so important here. So Jesus isn’t just teaching kindness. He’s reshaping generosity from something that manages return to something that reflects grace.

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Jesus is not saying, don’t ever invite your friends over. Let’s just be clear about this, okay? But he’s exposing a pattern. He’s exposing something on the inside of us. He’s exposing the culture that hospitality was often transactional and self gratifying.

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We invite people who can invite us back. I made you a nice meal. I expect to go to your house and eat a nice meal. Right? Come on. We do this today. We elevate. We invite people who can elevate our status, who make us feel important, to affirm us, to secure us. We invite people who strengthen our social circle.

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Who we want to be seen with.

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We invite people who we want to be around, maybe who enjoy their company, who make us laugh. We have a good time. We invite people who make us feel good about ourselves. I know they are going to compliment my cooking, so I’m definitely going to invite them every. We invite people who reinforce the version of ourselves that we want.

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To.

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Jesus isn’t shaming that again. He wants to free us from it. In verse 13 it says, but when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. These are people who can’t repay you, who don’t help your status, who, who you maybe you won’t even enjoy. Maybe you will. By the way. Maybe you just don’t even know them.

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Maybe they make you uncomfortable. They’re in a social circle that I’m not comfortable with. Maybe like the tax collectors were in Jesus’s day.

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They’re not going to financially boost you emotionally, boost you socially, boost you.

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Ambrose of Milan, a theologian from the fourth century, saw it this way. He wrote that Jesus names these guests to show that those whom society excludes are not excluded from the kingdom of heaven. So Jesus is revealing heart here, right?

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God doesn’t give to get. God gives because he is gracious.

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And if God doesn’t give to get and gives because he is gracious, how should we be? Do we give because we get? Or do we give because he is gracious.

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Paul says it this way Romans five verse eight. But God shows his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Grace is always first.

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So in the kingdom way, generosity flows from grace, not from return, not from self-gratification. Not who will strengthen my image? Who will benefits me? Who affirms me, but who reflects God’s heart and who cannot repay? Who needs grace? Jesus. End this section with a promise. In verse 14 it says, you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid in the resurrection of the just.

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This is trust. Jesus is saying, you can give freely because your father holds your future.

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Kingdom. Generosity grows out of grace, not out of what we expect to get back, not out of anything else, but what he does. It’s not about what we can get as about what we can give.

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Jesus. Okay. He’s sitting here with this group of people that have been following him, and all of a sudden he took a scene where they’re shoving their way through to get into seats. And all of a sudden, instead of just having dinner, he’s making this thing, like, really personal, right? He’s talking about humility and generosity and who really belongs.

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Man, I bet they’re sitting there pretty uncomfortable being like, who are there? Do we have a lot of poor and sick in here? And so did the right people, right? He’s making this really personal. He’s challenging their day to day lives. He’s describing how to live in the kingdom way. And then this is my favorite verse 15. Hearing this, a man reclining at the table with Jesus exclaims, what a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!

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This just makes me laugh. Yeah. That’s true. That’s cool. It’s great theology.

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It’s kind of churchy. Come on. We get challenged on something really personal, and we pop off with some theological churchy answer.

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Oh, deflection a little bit. Oh, I don’t I don’t know how that’s going to fit. Isn’t it going to be great to sit at the kingdom of the table of the kingdom of God? I don’t know. Like what are we talking about here? Man, does he miss it. Oh, Jesus was so gracious. He didn’t correct him. He didn’t come hard at him.

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And like, oh my gosh, again, you still don’t get this. How many times do I have to tell you it is here and now. It’s the Kingdom of God. Now it’s righteousness, peace and joy. The Kingdom of God is in you. We’re not talking about this far distant off place when you get to heaven. No, he doesn’t do that.

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And really, there’s nothing wrong with the statement there. It was a true statement. It’ll be wonderful and blessed to attend a banquet in the kingdom of God. Yes, yes.

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But it really put the kingdom safely in the future instead of right here in the present. So it was a way of saying, yeah, Jesus, that’s cool. But someday.

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Someday. That sounds like a great idea. Someday.

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And Jesus, as gracious as he was, like I said, didn’t reprimand him. I went right back into another parable, tells us, and he tells his parable to bring the kingdom out of that someday realm into a right now word. Because all of this only matters if it actually changes how we live.

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The only way it matters is if it changes things. Because. Hear this. It is possible to agree with God’s future and still miss his present invitation.

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Well, it is possible to agree with God’s future and still miss his present invitation.

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When I agree with all of those things you just said. Jesus, that is beautiful. And I see that in the future and the kingdom of God and man. That is something I can look forward to. Yes. Let’s celebrate it. Let’s give a clap for that.

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But Jesus tells a parable to answer this question. What does it look like when God’s kingdom actually interrupts real life?

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So he goes into verse 16 and he says, Jesus replies with a story. What the parable. A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. And when the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to tell the guests. Come. The banquet is ready.

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Now we come to our question.

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What do you do with God’s invitation?

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What do we do with God’s invitation?

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This passage challenges response. It challenges our obedience because the invitation went out first. Grace always goes first before there was any response. The meal is ready. The table is set. He has prepared everything we need. And the invitation goes out.

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It’s not to earn our way. Everything is ready. The invitation sometimes collides with real life. Verse 18.

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But they all began making excuses.

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And one said. I just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me. And another. I’ve bought five oxen. Five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. So please excuse me. And another said, I just got married so I can’t come. Now just that one didn’t actually even say please excuse me, just said I wasn’t coming.

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You know, at first. Look, all of these things are ordinary life, right? Not sinful, just normal. And this is why it hit at home. Nothing here sounds rebellious. Just everyday life, right? I’m trading. I’m doing business. I got land to buy, an oxen to work with. This is. This is how I make my money. This is how I provide for my family.

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These are all really normal, everyday good things. Yes. At first glance, yes. But ordinary life becomes the place where God’s invitation can be negotiated.

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Ordinary life gets in the way of God’s invitation, and we try to negotiate our way around out a different path, a different time. Maybe if you reschedule it for next week, I could totally make next week.

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This is a fun one. Kenneth Bailey, in the book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, explains that culturally, actually, once a guest accepts the first invitation, the host prepares a meal based on their response and to refuse that second invitation. Tation is not neutral. It would be considered a deliberate insult.

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So what we could see, or what we might look at as busyness in everyday life really sounds like disregard in Jesus’s world.

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A deliberate public insult is not accidental. It’s a real rejection of the host’s honor.

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Now, it’s not necessarily open hostility or hatred. Or even conscious rebellion. But it’s relational rejection disguised as normal life. Charles Spurgeon said it this way an excuse is often only a polite way of saying no.

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This one hit me, guys, because Jesus here is showing that people can reject God sincerely. He can. They can reject God politely.

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They can reject God while still sounding spiritual.

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If you actually dive into some of those things, some of those were these cultural and spiritual things like, oh, I just got married. And there were these and it was, I’m telling you guys. We can reject God and still sound spiritual. We can reject God while believing the kingdom is someday.

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That’s kind of terrifying to me.

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So the question that I believe God asked me in this is, Will you trust the father enough to let his kingdom rearrange you?

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Will we trust God enough to let his kingdom and his purposes and his ways rearrange my every day? Man, I don’t like this message.

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Because what? What’s happening here is deeper than busyness. Busyness, man. It can be a front for rejection because we can keep ourselves so busy intentionally. I was that I was having this conversation with Mike at work a couple weeks ago. God challenged me actually to change my language a bit ago to stop saying that I was busy and that my life was busy because busyness is a facade.

00:38:27:01 – 00:39:03:19
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Busyness is intentional. I am not too busy. I cannot be too busy that God cannot rearrange my life for his kingdom. So he started challenging me to say that my life was full because it is full of the goodness of God. It is full with blessings of job and yes, all these things, but it is a fullness of life, not busyness.

00:39:03:21 – 00:39:09:05
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Because when it’s full of his kingdom, he is in charge.

00:39:09:07 – 00:39:43:16
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And he gets to rearrange and then he will provide when he rearranges and he will promote and he will honor. And I don’t have to vie for promotion, and I don’t have to get stuck in the wheel that keeps turning and turning because I’m striving and striving and striving. When I posture my life in the kingdom way, he will make a way.

00:39:43:19 – 00:39:50:27
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Will we let him rearrange you?

00:39:51:00 – 00:40:03:10
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You see, in this story, it’s not that these people didn’t get the invitation, didn’t get lost in the mail. Her loss in your spam folder.

00:40:03:12 – 00:40:10:00
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It’s not that they didn’t believe that the host was real.

00:40:10:02 – 00:40:18:14
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It’s that when the invitation showed up in real life, something else mattered more.

00:40:18:17 – 00:40:29:14
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They didn’t hate the host. They weren’t mad at him. But because something else carried more weight in that moment.

00:40:29:16 – 00:40:35:14
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This is where it gets uncomfortable.

00:40:35:17 – 00:40:55:11
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Because what we are willing to interrupt and what we are not, what we make time for, speaks the truth about what matters most in our lives.

00:40:55:14 – 00:41:02:00
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This is the tension that Jesus is exposing in this parable.

00:41:02:02 – 00:41:12:16
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Disregard versus response. Not loud angry. Rejection and rebellion.

00:41:12:18 – 00:41:23:14
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But rejection through misplaced priority. Treating something important as though it can wait.

00:41:23:16 – 00:41:30:29
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Disregard says I believe, but not enough to rearrange.

00:41:31:01 – 00:41:43:13
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But Jesus is challenging that we come with a response that says this matters, and I’m going to let it interrupt me.

00:41:43:16 – 00:41:59:10
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Because the Kingdom way is not just agreeing with God’s future, it’s allowing God’s kingdom to interrupt your present. So that he can direct your path.

00:41:59:12 – 00:42:29:14
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You know, we might have plans for future, and those are good and those are fine. But we will. We let God establish our steps. We let him interrupt. Say, I’m going to have goals and I’m going to have future plans. That’s good. But if God shows up and shifts things, I’m right on it.

00:42:29:17 – 00:42:39:04
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I’m going to allow him to uproot, to rearrange.

00:42:39:06 – 00:42:59:28
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Charles Spurgeon, in his exposition on Luke 14, says this. Who if you who are the regular hearers of the word, will not have Jesus, then others shall.

00:43:00:00 – 00:43:12:12
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The kingdom way is not inherited by proximity. It’s entered into by response.

00:43:12:14 – 00:43:15:18
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Verse 21.

00:43:15:21 – 00:43:41:19
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And the servant turned to his master and told his master what they had said. And his master was furious. Which in that culture, like we talked about, this was like a very deliberate insult, right? So, of course, he was furious. And he said, go quickly to the streets and alleys and towns and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.

00:43:41:21 – 00:44:03:06
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I love how even though the master in this story was angry, he did not turn to wrath. He turned to Grace and he redirected. And he said, that’s okay, but I got all this food, so who’s going to eat it? They don’t want what I have prepared for them. That’s okay.

00:44:03:08 – 00:44:38:03
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Go and invite those. Like Jesus said, we’re unlovely. We’re maybe the outcasts of society. Go to the alleys in the towns and fight the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame and the servants did this, and they said, there’s still room for more. And the master said, good. Go further. Go into the country lanes and behind the hedges, and urge anyone you find to come means to compel them to come so that the house will be full.

00:44:38:08 – 00:44:49:16
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You see, the Kingdom way is not for the most impressive. It is for the most willing.

00:44:49:18 – 00:44:54:22
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It’s not just for the ones that owns land and oxen.

00:44:54:24 – 00:45:00:05
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Someone’s that live behind the hedges.

00:45:00:08 – 00:45:05:25
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That live in the shadows.

00:45:05:27 – 00:45:22:02
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First Corinthians 127 says, God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the wise, the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

00:45:22:04 – 00:45:44:14
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Isaiah 61 says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. The guest list was rewritten.

00:45:44:16 – 00:46:02:04
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Ambrose of Milan says he summoned the poor, the maimed, the blind to show that the weakness of the body does not exclude anyone from the kingdom of heaven. You see, Jesus says that the host sends his servant everywhere.

00:46:02:06 – 00:46:06:20
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People who would assume that this isn’t for me.

00:46:06:23 – 00:46:23:09
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People that would say I don’t belong. Those kinds of tables. That’s why he said you must compel them. Compel anybody that you see to come. Why do you have to talk anybody into a meal?

00:46:23:12 – 00:46:28:26
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Because they don’t feel like they deserve it.

00:46:28:28 – 00:46:37:25
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They don’t feel worthy of the place.

00:46:37:28 – 00:46:55:24
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Commentary and theologian Craig Keener explains that when Jesus says to compel them, it means a strong persuasion because the guest would naturally hesitate to believe that the invitation was really for them. Oh, this is a trick, right?

00:46:55:26 – 00:47:00:12
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There’s some string attached here.

00:47:00:15 – 00:47:06:17
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Why? Why do you want me?

00:47:06:19 – 00:47:14:09
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See, God’s grace has to push past shame to be received.

00:47:14:11 – 00:47:42:09
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And that is something that God is calling us to do. He is calling us to push past shame. To deliver grace and honor. Some people disregard the invitation. Some people doubt they deserve it. But the heart of the story is the same. That the door is open and the table is ready.

00:47:42:12 – 00:48:10:05
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Verse 24 says, for none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet since another one of those harsh moments, right? How does this work with the whole rest of the story? Jesus. And it seems possibly contradictory again to that the previous statements of grace and love and honor that we’ve been talking about over and over again.

00:48:10:08 – 00:48:22:17
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But let’s be clear judgment here is not God slamming a door. It’s people choosing to stay outside the open door.

00:48:22:19 – 00:48:51:11
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He’s not judging them. So, you know, when it comes, you’re not going to taste what I have for you. It’s that simple. Kenneth Bailey puts it this way. Judgment is self-imposed. Those who refuse the invitation cut themselves off from the fellowship of the host and the guests. They choose not to taste the banquet.

00:48:51:13 – 00:49:00:05
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For us today, I don’t think most of us in this room trying to reject God.

00:49:00:08 – 00:49:06:12
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But I think sometimes we we try to manage him.

00:49:06:15 – 00:49:17:29
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Okay. I try to manage him. We feed him in. We negotiate time.

00:49:18:02 – 00:49:28:03
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It’s a time to go. Yup. We protect our space. Whoo! It’s a big one.

00:49:28:06 – 00:49:58:09
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And Jesus is loving enough to say that the Kingdom way is not about fitting God into your life. It’s about letting God rearrange your life. Yeah. The Kingdom way is not about fitting God into your life, but about letting God rearrange your life. That’s what honor is about. That’s what generosity is about. That’s what the invitation is about.

00:49:58:12 – 00:50:13:05
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Where we look for honor and who we give to and how we respond to God’s invitation are all revealing the same thing. What we really trust to shape our lives.

00:50:13:08 – 00:50:19:01
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Do we really trust him to shape our lives?

00:50:19:03 – 00:50:46:03
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And this is why Jesus keeps bringing us back to a table. Because a table makes this all real. It’s where we sit. It’s where we invite. It’s where we come. Because the Kingdom way is an open table. Not because everyone automatically sits down, but because the invitation is real and the door is open. The question is not whether the table is ready, but the question is, will we come?

00:50:46:06 – 00:50:56:15
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Amen.

00:50:56:17 – 00:51:03:00
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Amen. Babe, I am not missing the next meal. You make.

00:51:03:02 – 00:51:26:00
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All right. How many are ready to rearrange their lives a bit? Yes. All right. We have life groups all week long. So bowling is happening Monday night. Bill is doing a great job. If you want to, hang out with Bill and build relationship, that’s an option. Family, parenting classes have been happening along with other Bible studies and those sorts of things.

00:51:26:06 – 00:51:52:03
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Make time for something so that you can build these relationships and build your walk with God into a greater place of fulfillment. Amen. All right. We’re closing this out. We have fellowship across the way for those who have never been here before. That means there’s food over there waiting for you. And we got to connect. Team that is looking forward to meeting you and, helping you get to know us a bit more.

00:51:52:06 – 00:52:03:21
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So, father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this word. God rearrange our lives because it is for your glory that we want to live in Jesus name. Amen.