The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 10: The Parable of the Great Banquet

Episode Date: June 25, 2017

Well, good morning, 1122. How's everybody doing? Good? That's what I like to hear. All right. Hey, when I was in high school, I had an English professor. His name was Mr. Harold. One day, he took us outside, and anything to get out of a class was great.

And so he took us outside and told us all, lay down in the grass, and I want you to stare up at the sky. And so we did that. And then he said, what's beyond what's beyond? Right? To my little 16-year-old brain, I thought, whoa, I don't know what's beyond, what's beyond. Like, beyond is what's beyond, what's beyond.

I don't know. It was one of those questions, those ideas that just was a little mind-boggling. Like, it made smoke come out of your ears. It was just hard to even comprehend or even to think about. And I don't know about you, but do you ever come to the scripture? Do you ever come to an idea and you think, this is hard to understand? Like smoke is going to come out of my ears if I ponder this thing for a little too long. And one of those ideas Jesus taught about all the time was the kingdom of God.

111 times Jesus would say something like, the kingdom of God is like, or the kingdom of heaven is like, or my kingdom is like. And then he would tell a parable, or he would tell a story. Parable just means to throw alongside of it. So he'd take this big idea and he'd throw alongside of it a common everyday, ordinary story. But the kingdom of God was such a centerpiece to Jesus' life and to his teaching. He would say things like, seek first the kingdom of God. Before you seek anything else, where you do anything else,

seek first the kingdom of God. Or just like we just saying, when you pray, pray our Father who's in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Like, God, I'm going to praise you. And then the very next thing he says to pray is to say, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus said, I have to go to other towns, talking to his friends, to proclaim the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of God.

For that is why I came. Jesus said the reason that I came was to demonstrate and to proclaim the kingdom of God. He would tell you and I, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go out and proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God. In Acts chapter 1, after Jesus had died on the cross and he had been raised to new life, he came back and it says for 40 days to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, he walked around. And do you know what he talked about?

Luke says he talked about the kingdom of God. Think about it. If you died and then you came back to life and you had a chance to take. tell people one thing. Right? What would you do? It's like Jesus goes, hey, oh, right, all right, hey, listen up. Do I have your attention now? I was dead. I'm sort of back. All right? Big deal. You want to listen? And then he talks about anything he could. He talks about the kingdom of God. Jesus would say in John chapter 3, verse 3, unless one is born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. That he would, he would say, in order, the kingdom of God is such a

a big deal that the spirit is going to have to move in your life and breathe new life into you and awaken your heart and awaken your soul and bring you to faith in Jesus in order for you to ever be able to see the kingdom of God. It was a centerpiece of Jesus' teaching. And it wasn't just the centerpiece of Jesus' teaching. It's the entire Bible. That one of the ways you can read the Bible and kind of make sense of this 66 books that somehow got all bound up to together is that they all tell the storyline of the kingdom of God. The red thread that runs through the entire thing is the kingdom of God. But for it being the centerpiece of scripture and for it being the centerpiece of Jesus's life and Jesus' teaching, it really is one of the most confusing things,

isn't it? Like when you think about the kingdom of God, what comes to mind for you? I mean, when I say kingdom of God, do you instantly think heaven? Like, that's not wrong. That's just not all the kingdom of God is. That's just a fraction, a space and time for a little bit. Or do you think of a really religious service, right? Eternity of just sitting down, standing up, sitting down, standing up, kneeling down, getting up, saying words in Latin, you don't even know what it means, getting down, sitting up, eating little wafers crackers, going down, sitting up. And you think, I'm going to do this forever? Is that what the kingdom?

Is this Jesus' big idea? Or maybe when you think of the kingdom of God, you think, I'm going to play golf forever. And I think, really? Was that Jesus's big idea that you and I get to do our hobby forever and ever and ever and ever? Jesus came and died and was raised from new life so that we could hit a little. little white ball around, throw a hook in the water. Was that Jesus' big idea? Maybe when you picture the kingdom of God, you picture a bunch of white clouds and a little angel. He's like a little pudgy man in diapers floating around with little wings playing a harp. Is that what the kingdom of God is?

Randy Alcorn wrote a book on heaven and on the kingdom of God. And he said most Christians are like astronauts on a shuttle to Mars. And after the shuttle takes off, the astronauts turn and look at each other, and they go, anybody here know what Mars is like? I mean, if you're here today and you are checking out this whole Jesus thing,

you're sort of kicking the tires of faith, you owe it to yourself to know where this shuttle is going. And if you're a Christian, if you would say, no, I'm a five, follower of Jesus. Jesus is my king. I'm in the kingdom of God. Then you owe it to yourself to know what you're a part of. That the kingdom of God is a really, really big deal. But thank God. Jesus just didn't leave us to have smoke come out of our ears and wonder what the kingdom of God is like. If you turn to Luke 14 or you look in your bulletin, Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom of God. And before

we get to the parable, I just want to back up and kind of give you the context of where this parable is told, because it's really important. The setting of the whole thing is really important. So in Luke chapter 14, Matthew, Mark, Luke, one of the accounts, one of the four accounts of Jesus's life. Luke chapter 14, verse one, it says, one Sabbath, when he, Jesus, went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. So the Pharisees were the religious, political, social, moral leaders of the nation of Israel. And Jesus is having dinner at one of the rulers of the social, political, religious, moral gatekeepers. Israel. It says, so he's at the house of the ruler of the Pharisees, and they were watching him carefully. Right? This is not, they didn't throw this party for a nice

little social get-together. This was a trap. These guys had set a trap. They were watching him. They were watching. They were just waiting for the right moment. And then in verse two, and behold, there was a man before him who had drops. It was like, hey, surprise, surprise, Jesus. Look who we just happened to have here. We just happened to have a man with the disease that all of the religious leaders of Israel would have considered to be socially and physically and spiritually and morally unclean. Surprise, surprise. We just happened to have. We just happened to have somebody who would never have stepped foot in the Pharisees' house. We just happened to have them here. They were waiting and they were watching and this was a trap. They were laying. And then

they get into this huge debate. And do you know what the debate was about? The debate was literally about, can you heal somebody on a Saturday? Right? I mean, does that not sound like, what? This is what we're laying and wait for. This is the trap we're setting. for Jesus is can he make somebody better on Saturday night at a dinner party? And they're debating all about it. And Jesus is just like, you know what? You're healed. I'm done.

And he heals the guy. In the middle of all the trap, in the middle of all the debate, he just heals him. And then he tells two stories. And a few weeks ago, Pastor Stone talked about the first parable, the first story that Jesus told coming out of this situation. But if you jump down to verse 12, we're going to pick up. up on the second one. So he, Jesus, also said to the man who'd invited him to the Pharisee, when you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives

or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. Like, what? Okay, so Jesus, to get this straight, I'm supposed to throw a party and not invite anybody I like? Seriously, when was the last time you threw a party and willingly, not your boss, not your in-laws, willingly threw a party and didn't invite people that you didn't like? Nobody does that. You don't do that. I don't do that. This is not the common practice in Jesus' day. And Jesus says, hey, when you throw a party, here's what I want you to do. And everybody's just looking at them like, huh? I don't get it. And then verse 13, but when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

And you will be blessed? You will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. To which everybody just had to stop and scratch their head and go, what in the world is he talking about. He's saying, he somehow says, okay, there's this party and there are people that you wouldn't choose to be at this party, blind, crippled, lame, poor. And then that somehow is tied over here to the resurrection of the dead, this thing that is occurring, this great thing that God is doing. And everybody's like, I don't get it. I don't understand. And so the tension kind of builds.

Everybody's scratching their head and looking around. And when one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, it's like the silence got to be too much. They just didn't know what was going to happen, how it was all going to go down. And so somebody's just got to blurt something out in the middle of it to cut the tension out of it. And so this guy just blurts out, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. Jesus looked at him and was like, hold on, when you picture the kingdom of God, now listen, I like bread as much as anybody, right?

Bread's great. Bring on the gluten, whatever. And so Jesus looks at the guy and goes, I get it. Bread, wonderful, awesome. But your big idea about the kingdom of God is getting a piece of bread? That's when you think of blessing and kingdom of God, you think, piece of bread. he goes man your view of the kingdom of god is just way too small we got to blow that thing up you need a way bigger view of the kingdom of god and so then he tells this story in order to

illustrate the kingdom of god he says but he said to him a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. Now, if you've got a Bible or your bullet, circle that one verse, that one sentence. We're going to hang out on that because I think it is the key to understanding in this story what the kingdom of God is all about. He says, a man once gave a great banquet.

You have to think, party to end all parties. Think of your greatest surprise birthday party. Think of a graduation party. party. Think of engagement. Think of a wedding. Think of retirement. Think of the promotion. Think of the gators winning the World Series of college baseball. Like roll all of that up into one and think, this is a party. And Jesus goes, the kingdom of heaven is like a never-ending, unadulterated, pure, joyful party. That's what the kingdom of God is like. But it was a wasn't just Jesus's idea about the kingdom of God being like this unending, pure, joyful celebration.

It was something that all of Scripture talked about and all of the people of God had looked forward to. The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 25, verse 6, he says, on this mountain, meaning that's kind of Isaiah's image for what the kingdom of God will be like. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich. food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine, of aged wine, well-refined. Listen, I don't know what my wife, with her vegan tendencies, is going to do with this about the kingdom of God. I don't know what our Baptist brothers and sisters are going to do with well-aged wine mentioned twice about the kingdom of God. I mean, when you think kingdom of God, you can't think hamburger helper.

You got to think filet mignon seared 1,800 degrees with that big pat of butter just melting over top of it. You can't think Red Solo Cup and Boone's Farm and like you got to think well-aged wine, rich, narrow, not jello molds. I love my grandmother, but every party, oh, jello mold. Every party. And then John has this vision, he gets kind of catch a glimpse of the kingdom of God in Revelation. In Revelation 21, it says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And he, meaning God, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. That the kingdom of God is such unadulterated, pure joy, that there will be no more sickness

in the kingdom of God. There will be no more death in the kingdom of God. There will be no more mourning in the kingdom of God. There will be no more tears in the kingdom of God because God himself is going to wipe those things away. Those are old former, old order things. And God says the kingdom of God is pure, unadulterated, unending, joy and celebration. I love Zefaniah. Do you even know Zefaniah is a book in the Bible, right?

You will today. Zefaniah, chapter three. You might even want to read it. Zefaniah, chapter three, verse. Verse 17, the Lord your God is in your midst. This is the kingdom. The Lord your God is in your midst. A mighty one who will save.

He, he, God will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. Listen, in the kingdom of God, God is so overcome with joy. It is so full inside of him that it overflows out of him and God is just going to sing over you. God will rejoice over you who are in the kingdom of God. That is how your heavenly father feels about you.

He will sing over you and exalt over you and rejoice over you and love over you. Because the kingdom of God is unadulterated, pure, never-ending joy. in celebration. In Revelation 196, then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult. Do you see what's happening?

God exalts over his people in the kingdom, and then the people in the kingdom just get to echo back this never-ending, pure, unadulterated joy. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb, that is Jesus, has come. And as bride, the church, has made herself ready. And it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. There's nothing like the kingdom of God. it is pure unadulterated joy and never-ending celebration and it isn't that it's just a banquet that would be great but it's a great banquet and it's not just a great banquet but verse 16 says a man once gave this banquet and it's not just any man it's not just a man it is the sovereign king of the universe

that makes a kingdom, a kingdom, is that there is a king at the center of it. The kingdom is anywhere the king rules and reigns in your life. And it is hard, I think, for us, especially us as Americans, because we sort of kicked out the last king we had. We're not real big on kings in America. But when you think of king at the center of the kingdom of God, what you have to think is not a tyrannical dictator, but you have to think heavenly father. You can't think ruthless royalty.

What you have to actually think about is the suffering servant. Right? When Jesus was on his way to the cross, they found these vines along the side of the road. And they went over and they ripped these vines off and they have huge thorns on them. And they take this and they wrap it up and then they shove it down on his head. they make a crown out of it. And they don't even know that they know that what they are doing is they are crowning the suffering servant. King. And when Jesus goes to the cross and he's hanging up on the cross, they make a sign.

And on the sign it says, here's the king. Here's the king. The king who rules and reigns over his kingdom is the one who died on a cross for you and for me to save us from our sins. and he isn't just the suffering service he isn't just a kind of a frail old crown he's also the one who after dying on the cross was raised to new and everlasting life that he is the sovereign everlasting ruling and reigning god of the universe and if you die and then you are raised to new and everlasting life, guess what you get to do? Be king of everything. That's what qualifies you. And the good news of this kingdom really is that anywhere there's the king, anywhere the king

rules and reigns over his kingdom, there is absolute peace. There's peace beyond anything you and I could ever hope or dream or imagine. Because when you and I, here's the thing, when you and I are trying to build our kingdoms, all that does that creates in us is, anxiety and worry and fear and restlessness. But when we know that we are a part of a kingdom that is ruled and reigned by a sovereign, good, and gracious king, there's peace. So the question for you and for me is, does the king rule and reign in you? Does the king rule and reign in your family. Does the king rule and reign in your finances? Does king rule and reign when you're out having fun, when you're out doing your hobbies? Who sits on the throne of your heart?

Does the king who rules and reigns his never-ending, unadulterated, pure, joyful celebration of a kingdom? Does he rule and reign on your heart and your life? And your life? And your life? life. And so he says a man, and this may be my favorite part, a man wants what a banquet? What did the man do? Come on. He gave it. He gave the banquet. This is so great. This word, the word gave right here literally means to appoint, accomplish, bear, and pay for. Now when you hear in a story about God, where God appoints, accomplishes, bears, finishes, pays for something. Do you know what you call that? That's grace.

That is grace. When God bears something for you, when God accomplishes something for you, when God works for something for you, that is grace and that is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. It's not something you can earn. It's not something that you can work for. it's not something that you can pay for. A couple weeks ago, we were, Kristen and I were at a graduation party for some of our,

one of our friends' daughter was graduating from high school. An old buddy named Dave shows up. Dave comes over and Dave's like, hey, listen, you two is coming to Tampa. Do you want to go to you too with us? And I thought, I was like, Dave, I don't know. I've seen how much tickets cost. I don't think I can afford a thousand dollars a ticket. I don't think I can do that.

And Dave's like, no, no, no, no, no. I bought 40 tickets for my friends. want two of them? Yeah. Yeah, I'll take two. That'd be great. When do you want me to come by? No, I'll drop them off. So he gets the tickets, drove some by, it's in a little envelope, it's got my name on it and everything, super nice. We go down to Tampa, we show up at the hotel, walk into the hotel, and the hotel lobby is filled with all of Dave's friends. Not only did Dave buy all of his friends tickets for this concert, Dave throws a party for all of his friends before the concert. Now, it takes us a long time to get down there, and so I go over and I order dinner, we get a drink,

all that sort of stuff. We're sitting down, well-aged wine, right, kingdom of God. And I'm eating well, marrow, meat, drinking well. And all of a sudden, so the dinner gets done. I'm feeling like the concert's coming. So I call the waitress over and I said, hey, can I get the bill? I need to pay. And she goes, oh, no, Dave paid for everything already.

He paid for dinner for everybody. I was like, I'll have another one. Like, what's on the dessert menu? So then we're talking. A little bit of time goes by and some friends were talking. And I'm like, listen, you guys, I've been watching Uber. It's like tripling, quadrupling in price. I don't know how we're going to get down to the stadium.

And about that time, Dave walks over and he goes, hey, listen, I got a bus right outside. Everybody, if you want to hop on the bus, I made arrangements for you. I'm like, sweet tickets, dinner, bus ride. He takes us over. The bus goes around the back of the stadium. Bus drops us off at a back entrance. to the stadium. We walk through this little back entrance down underneath the stadium, and when we pop out, I'm like 50 feet from Bono. Like I can see the little beads of sweat on his head. I can hear him.

When off microphone, between songs, I can hear Bono yell to edge what the next song is going to be. How incredible is that? I never could have gotten that close. I never could have. You couldn't even buy the tickets. They weren't even for sale. It was all grace. It was just grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. And that's the kingdom of God. It's nothing you can earn. It's nothing you can work for. It's nothing you can do. It was blood bought by Jesus Christ himself with his life on the cross. And then it's given. It's grace. It's a kingdom of grace. And once a man gave a great banquet. And he invited many. this kingdom of grace is a kingdom that comes by divine invitation and never by self-qualification. The kingdom of God is by invitation. And if you hear my voice today, you are invited to the kingdom of God. All you have to do is accept the invitation. All you have to do is say yes that Jesus Christ paid

everything for you to come into the kingdom of God. And it's not just an invitation. It's not just an invitation that's a get out of jail free card. It's just not like accept Jesus and you won't burn. That's a terrible invitation. The invitation is that you get to be a citizen of the kingdom of God. You get to be a child of the king who rules and reigns over the kingdom. That's what it is. Yes, don't settle. The kingdom of God is so much better and so much greater. And it's never ending and it's pure, unadulterated joy and celebration bought by the blood of Jesus for you and me. And at the time for the banquet, he, the master, sent his servants to say to those who have been invited, come. For everything is now ready.

there's something, this is the hard part about the kingdom of God. There's something about the kingdom of God that it is already, and it's not quite yet. There is this kingdom of all of creation. Abraham Kuiper, a great pastor, theologian, said, there is nothing in all of creation over which Jesus does not exclaim mine. That Jesus rules and reigns over everything that he created. So the kingdom of God is the kingdom of creation, but then there is this subset. It's not different than the kingdom of creation.

It's just sort of a subset of the kingdom of creation. It's the kingdom of salvation. It's where you and I accept and enjoy the grace of God and love our heavenly Father, enjoy all of the grace of his kingdom. It's already. There's a sense in which Jesus, when he was born, and he lived a perfect life and he died a perfect death and he was raised to new and everlasting life the kingdom of god moved into the kingdom of this world in a way that it could never pull back from

but in the same way as amazing as that is there is still more to the kingdom of god that is to come it says everything is now ready there is more it gets even better there's a sense in which what is what's already still will have more to come like every day we contest and we push back against the kingdom of God don't you do that I do that but there is a time this is such good news there is a time when Jesus will return and he will plant his feet down on the kingdom of the earth and he will raise the dead to life and all of creation will be made new again And there will be a new heaven and there will be a new earth and it will be the kingdom of God ultimately fully and finally realized. And all who claim Jesus is their Lord and Savior will enjoy

the kingdom of God uncontested forever and ever and ever. And then verse 18 comes. But that's a terrible word. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I bought a field. I must go out and see it. Like, what a lame excuse. Who buys property without ever seeing it? I bought a field. I must go out and see it.

Please have me excused. He's super polite. He's really nice about it. But his excuse is, I have some possessions that I think are going to satisfy my soul more than the kingdom. I think I have something better than this. And there's nothing wrong with possessions, but I'm just, do you believe that temporary stuff will satisfy more than the king who created owns and has everything for his kingdom party? Do you have some stuff that you're clinging to? And you're thinking if I can just have this,

then my life will be complete. And I'm just saying, this is probably me. If I'm going to make an excuse, I'm going to think that my house, my little kingdom is going to give me peace. Like I can fall into a trap that thinks the next iPhone is going to be the thing that settles my soul. How ridiculous is that? You too. You too. And another says, I've bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.

Please have me excused. He's super polite, too. He's really nice about it. But here's the thing, five oxen, five yoke of oxen, ten oxen, 20,000 pounds of pure raw pulling power. This guy's excuse isn't his possessions. This guy's excuse is a power thing. He thinks that having this kind of power is going to fulfill him.

and satisfy him. And there's nothing wrong with power. God has given some of you all in this room extraordinary power. Extraordinary power. But when you and I believe that the power that we try to attain in our life will somehow satisfy our soul, do we really believe that the power that we get from a job that lasts 20, 30, 40 years, somehow God? going to compare to the infinite power of the king of the universe that could raise the dead to new and everlasting life. It doesn't compare. And then another said, I've married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. I read that and I go, oh yeah, throw the wife under the bus. Right? Like, because wives, you never liked getting dressed up and going to an awesome

some party, did you? No. Listen, he's going, for this guy, it's not his possessions, it's not his power, it's relationships for him, it's people for him. He thinks somehow he's got these relationships, this one relationship that will satisfy his soul. People make great friends. They just make terrible little gods. Don't pull a Jerry Maguire. Right. Don't go searching for the one that's going to complete me. You complete me. No. No. Because here's what's going to happen. If you go looking for somebody to complete your soul and satisfy your heart and fulfill your deepest longings, one of two things is going to happen. Either you're going to find somebody and then on this broken,

unwhole, unsatisfied person, you are going to lay the expectations of being fulfilled. fulfilled and satisfied and whole. And it's just a matter of time before they disappoint you. They disappoint you. And for some of us, we've hit the eject button on relationships in our life because we've laid our satisfaction of our life on somebody else. And then they just disappointed us. And we thought, you know what? You couldn't do it? I'll go find somebody else. Or if they don't disappoint us, we take the weight of the satisfaction of the deepest longings of our soul and we lay them on another broken person and the weight of that will just crush them. It will just crush them.

Some of you got out of a relationship because you thought I can't bear the weight. I can't complete you. I can't save you. I'm busted and broken up myself. I can't do anything. And the weight of looking to another person, they will either disappoint you or you will crush them. And so have you made someone your ultimate satisfaction?

Do you believe that a broken person can satisfy you more than the king who created you and bore the weight of your sin on the cross? Jesus Christ is the only one who can bear up under the unbearable weight of our brokenness and make us whole. He's the only one that can do it. And so what is your excuse? Is it power? Is it possessions?

Is it people? What is it that you think I've got this? I'm all right. I've got enough of this thing. I can handle it. I'm satisfied if I have all of this. And then in verse 21, Jesus says, so the servant came and reported these things to his master.

And the master of the house became angry. You know, when we reject the invitation of God, it pains the king of the kingdom to the core of who he is. And said to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in, here it is, here it comes all the way back around, bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. For some of you in this room, your excuse is not that you've got enough possessions to say. satisfied or that you've got enough power, that you've got enough people. For some of us in this room, the reason, like, we don't feel like we can step into the kingdom of God is that we feel spiritually poor, and then we feel spiritually crippled, and we feel spiritually blind, and we feel spiritually lame. Like, we feel like we could never have enough to earn our way into the

kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God is that great and that wonderful and that magnificent, I could never be in there, because I have never good enough. I'm never strong enough to make my way there. I can't even see my way there. Can I tell you the good news? You're not good enough. You're not, I'm not good enough. Here's the good news.

You and I are spiritually poor. We really are. We have a debt created by our sin that is infinitely too great for us to ever repay. We could never. pay the debt of our sin. And yet Jesus came and died on the cross to pay the sin for our debt. When Jesus taught in the beatitudes, he said, blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are too poor to pay your own sin debt. And the king of the universe comes and

pays it for you and ushers you into the kingdom of God. You and I are not only too spiritually poor. you and I are spiritually crippled and spiritually lame. You and I do not have in ourselves enough spiritual power to work our way up into the kingdom of God. When a good shepherd finds a crippled, lame, broken sheep, a little lamb that is injured, that shepherd would pick it up and put it on its shoulders and carry it home. And like a good shepherd, Jesus came down, found us but. and broken, unable to move towards God and picks us up and puts us on his shoulders, his outstretched arms and shoulders on the cross, and he carries us back to our Heavenly Father.

And you and I are spiritually blind. We can't even see our way, let alone be able to make our own way. And Jesus said, I'm coming to make the blind see. And then he actually healed the blind to see so that we would know that his promises are true and his promises are good. And so God says, I have everything, I can do everything, I see everything, I know everything, I have accomplished everything for you and for me to be a part of the kingdom of God. And then there's verse 22. And the whole thing sort of takes a turn. And he says, and the servant said,

sir, what you commanded has been done. And still there is room. The kingdom of God is so much bigger than we could ever hope, dream, or imagine. In verse 23, and the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and to the hedges. This was literally, this is not just like the hedges in your neighborhood, at your neighbor who trims up his yard really nice, got that nice straight edge on it. What Jesus is saying is, hey, get beyond the people. that you think should be in the kingdom of God, take the highways, go to the furthest places that you can go and find the poor and the crippled and the lame and the blind. You go find the people

that nobody could imagine they could ever be in the kingdom of God, and you compel them. Look what he says, and compel people to come in. Compel does not mean force, and compel does not mean to repel. Compel means to be compelling. Don't be. repelling. If you are a Christian, don't be that Christian, right? You know what that one is. You're like, oh, no, here they come. Our lives as Christians should be like walking kingdom parties. People should get around us and just go, I don't know what it is. But whatever it is, I want that. like you look like you have way too much joy. What in the world are you celebrating about?

Why do you have peace in the midst of that? I want that our lives should be so compelling. And it's a command from God that we go out and that we be compelling. But it's not just a command that we begrudgingly adhere to. It actually is an incredible privilege. It's a great joy to get to do it. It's a great joy to go to the furthest places and share the gospel. A few months ago, we were in Brazil.

A handful of us were in Brazil, and we were training some church planners there. And we had a day where we went to what is called the mall. It's not the mall where you go shopping. It's actually a trash dump. I think we have a picture that I can show you. And we were walking through this mall, and there's actually a road. that goes through this trash dump. And people live alongside in houses they've built in this trash dump.

And I'm walking through it with a bunch of these other pastors. And I meet this guy named Francisco. And that's Francisco. He's about 60 years old. I have a translator with me. And I just asked Francisco why he thinks we're there. And he's like, I don't know. I don't know why you're here.

Maybe you came to help us. I don't know. And I said, I'm here. because Jesus came to a place just like this. At the end of his life, they walked him out to a trash dump, and they took the king of the universe, and they crucified him in a trash dump. And he died in a place like this

so that you would know that there is nowhere that he wouldn't come to save you and to love you and to redeem you and to buy you back and to make you a child. of the king of the universe. And I said, Francisco, do you know that you have a king that loves you? And this is not all there is. That as a child of the king, there is a kingdom that you can't even imagine you've grown up and lived your entire life in a trash dump. There's a kingdom, a great feast that awaits you for all eternity. And I just watched his face light up. And I thought, you know what, God told me to go, but it is the greatest joy of my life to get to say,

can I give you an invitation to the kingdom of God? And then I stood there in the middle of a trash dump and prayed with him as he became a child of God and stepped in to the kingdom of God. And that's what we want to do as a church. That we want to go to the highways and to the hedges. we want to be so compelling. It's why we start campuses all over this city. It's why we start service after service and add more services

because you all keep bringing your friends and inviting your friends and putting your friends in front of invitations to be in the kingdom of God. And we just won't stop. We can't stop. We are compelled to give an invitation to the party of the kingdom of God. And so we're planting campuses here in town and we're planting churches in places like Africa and Brazil and Indian all over the world,

and we're planting churches all over the U.S., and we're planting churches right here in our own city. In fact, one of our very own pastors, Ed Lehman, is starting Anthem Church. And he is going, we're going to send Ed, send his family, send a whole team out so that they can plant Anthem Church right here in Jacksonville, Florida, because we believe more people need to hear the invitation to the kingdom of God.

We want to be faithful to the call to go to the highways and to the hedges. And so as Ed and their team come up here on stage, would you guys take a look at this video about Anthem Church? Hey, my name's Ed Lehman. I'm the lead pastor of Anthem Church, and I'm also a fellow 1122. We have a team of people. People called from 1122, people called from other churches in Jacksonville, that are called to this specific area

to plant a new church called Anthem Church. Originally, when we finally surrendered to this call to plant a church, we just said, God, we'll go anywhere. And then we just began to pray, said God just break our hearts for a city and a people. And it became very evident that God wanted us here in Jacksonville. Anthem Church is not a building.

It's not a destination or a place on the map. But Anthem Church is going to be a moment. movement of people seeking to glorify God by meeting people where they are at to share the love of Jesus Christ. We're called to strategically focus on making disciples in an area of Jacksonville that is the most multicultural, multi-generational region of our city. This area of the city from Southside Boulevard to the St. John's River and then from Beach Boulevard down to Bay Meadows Road is known for its extreme diversity, its non-traditional family structures, and its high density of people. This is an area of tremendous need.

2819, Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations. He did not tell us to go and to plant churches, but he told us to share the love of Jesus Christ, to share the gospel, and to make disciples. And so we're asking you to join us as we share the love of Jesus Christ in this community and we make disciples. How about that? So Ed and his family and this team and many, many, many more are going out of this place and they are going to plant an outpost for the kingdom of God in our city, another one where people can celebrate the goodness of the king. And so, we got you some presents. One of these is, some of you all know what this is, this is a bag of doorstops. And I know you're looking at me like, what kind of gift is a bag of door stops? But here's the deal.

When you plant a church, the places that you usually end up planting, you're going to, you're rent a facility for a while and they never have door stops and so you got to open the door you got to keep the doors open so people can get in and hear how good the kingdom of god is so we got you a bag of doors stops and when you lose them and run out come on back we'll make you more it's fine and then the other thing that we have for you is we got you a watch and people get watches when they retire but you're not retiring so but we still thought we would get you a watch and one is we want to get you the watch because we wanted you all to remember. Every time you look down at your wrist, you remember that you got a group of people you can count on. You got a group of people that love you, that care for you,

that are praying for you guys, that support you guys, that believe in you that want to encourage you, want to get behind you and cheer you on. And then the other thing is this watch in particular is the watch, it's the official watch of the Navy SEALs, which is pretty cool. But we thought it was significant because you're going behind enemy lines and you're going to take enemy ground for the kingdom of God and you literally are going to establish an outpost for the kingdom of God as you take enemy grounds in enemy territory and that you all really are the elite of the elite the best of the best the greatest of the greatest the bravest of the bravest to go and plant a church and plant a kingdom outpost for God and so you guys as you go you guys you go you

go knowing that Jesus Christ loves you, that he's for you, that there is nothing that you could ever do that would disappoint God because he is fully and completely pleased and satisfied with you all in Jesus Christ. And that should set you free to be bold and brave and courageous and lay it all in the line and push all the chips across the table and just say, what do we have to lose when we've got the king of the kingdom behind us? And so if you would, why don't you guys, layman's, kneel down and Pedy, Dan, our elders, if you would, come up here and we're going to lay hands on this family. And if you would, reach out your hands. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for you, for who you are, that you are a good and gracious king, that you are sovereign,

and ruling and reigning, that your kingdom will be established fully and finally, you have guaranteed that, paid for that, accomplished it, finish the work of that in the life and death and resurrection of your son, Jesus Christ. And so, God, I pray for this team. I pray that they would go in incredible confidence of that assurance that you will accomplish what you have begun. You are the pioneer. You are the perfector.

you are the alpha you are the omega you are the beginning you are the end jesus and we get to enjoy it participate in it herald it party in the midst of your kingdom and celebrate you lord i pray for pastor head god that he would know beyond a shadow of a doubt because of your love in jesus christ that he is your son and that in him you are so pleased not that he would know beyond a shadow of a doubt because of your love in jesus christ that he is your son and that in him you are so pleased, not for anything that he's done, but because of all that you've done in Jesus Christ, because of the faith that you have given him. And God, when there are times when he wonders, when his whole family wonders, what the heck did we get ourselves into? God, that you would remind them that you would never leave them or forsake them, that they are yours, that you've

Godham, that you've written the plans, you know exactly the way the days will unfold. And Lord, when there is anxiety and unrest and fears, God quiet them with your love. Exalt over them with singing. Rejoice over them, God, and set their hearts and minds at peace and at ease. Because you are in full control of it all, Father. and God, when Ed feels like he's just nailing it, knocking it out of the park, oh God, set him free from that pride too. God, give him the humble, peaceful confidence to know that it is all you, God.

So that when the turmoil comes and he thinks, what did we do? We should just pack it up and fold it in that he would know that you have called him. and that you Jesus are the senior pastor of Anthem Church. You are the one that preaches and proclaims the great gospel of the kingdom of God, and you are the one that calls the poor and the broken and the crippled and the lame and the blind, and you are the one that gives sight, and you are the one that restores, and you are the one that heals, and you are the one that pays all the debts that they may celebrate and invite and rejoice.

and God that many disciples would be made in this city would look like nothing we ever could have hoped, dream or imagined because of the church that you are planning. And we pray it in Jesus' strong name. Amen.