The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 8: Flirt or Follow?

Episode Date: June 11, 2017

Have you been flirting with Jesus on your own terms? Are you ready to follow Jesus on His terms?

Amen, amen. How are we doing, church? Doing all right? Are we excited about today? Today is the big, big day in life of our church. Beach baptism. If you didn't know that, just know right after this service, we're all going to hand a part together and celebrating about 300 people getting baptized. Before that, we're going to do a little church here. Grab your Bibles, if you got them, Matthew chapter 21 and 22. That's where we're going to spend the majority of our time. And as you're looking up, Matthew 21 and 22, I've just got to let you know. for all the right reasons last week was maybe like my proudest moment to be a part of this thing called 1122, what God is doing in us and through us and to us. As you know, if you were here last week, the goal last week is that we would rescue children from poverty in Jesus' name.

And by the time we got to our 1122 service at all of our locations, we had run out of compassion packets. We ordered about a thousand packets. and the year before we sponsored about 600. Last weekend, you rescued over 1,500 children from poverty in Jesus' name. Way to go. So a couple things. If you fill out an actual packet, that's good. In the next few weeks, you'll get information about your kid from compassion.

If you filled out one of the commitment forms that we had mostly for 1122 and 130 and 522, in the next couple of weeks, you will get information from compassion. they'll actually send you your kid in a packet, not the actual kid, the packet of your kid, and you'll fill all that out and send it back to them, so just be on the lookout for that. And if you weren't here last week, but you want to sponsor a kid through Compassion International, rescue a child from poverty in Jesus' name, there's a table in our lobbies at all of our locations and just go there, and you can get more information on how to do that. And so last thing about compassion, on behalf of over 1,500 children's parents from around the world,

I want to say thank you. Thank you for partnering with God Almighty to change the trajectory of that child's life. Way to go. Amen. So, last week from the very beginning of the sermon, I said my goal was for you to rescue a child from poverty in Jesus' name. And you did that a bunch of times. So it weren't so good last week. I just thought I would try it again this week.

Here's my goal for you, all right? My goal is that if you don't know Jesus, if you've never surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, My goal for you this week is that in the next 52 minutes and 35 seconds, you would surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And then right after this service is over, you go to the beach and get baptized. So if that's you, no matter how long you've been coming to church, if you would say, I don't know if I've ever surrendered in my life to Jesus or I know that I haven't.

I'm coming after you right now, okay? That's just so you know. And really, the Holy Spirit's coming after you, and you really can't even do anything about it. That's what we believe, all right? And so that's the goal. And if you were to say, well, listen, I've been a follower or a believer for a long time, so maybe he's not talking to me. For the rest of us, I want to just encourage us and remind us of the gospel in our place as believers in the expanding kingdom of God.

And so in order to do that, we're going to walk through these three parables that Jesus gives back to back to back. But in order to really understand what the parables mean, I think you've got to understand the context in which we find them. So in Matthew chapter 21, Jesus is having a rough few days to say the least. You ever have a rough week? This is the roughest week of Jesus' life. Because it starts out with the triumphal entry, but it's going to the cross that Friday. And so the beginning of Matthew chapter 21 starts with the triumphal entry, or if you grew up in church, you know what is Palm Sunday.

And the reason I think Jesus is bombed about Palm Sunday is because Jesus, the sovereign saviour of the universe, knows the heart of every man, woman, and child. And even though the whole city gathered up to sing, Hosanna, Blessed as he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna means save us. Lord save us. And what the crowd was most interested in is not the Lord part, but the us part. They were not looking for a Savior to save their souls for eternity.

They were looking for a king that would kick Rome out of Israel and put them in their rightful place. And here's how I know this, because in 21 verse 10, It says the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? So, yeah, they're saying good things, and they're waving, and they're like, it looks like they're worshipping Jesus. But really, in their heart of hearts, they don't even know who he is. And so Jesus, I think he's pretty bummed as he's riding in on the donkey, because he also knows that same crowd that's seeing Hosanna, blessed as he who comes in the name of the Lord on that Sunday, Friday they're going to gather together,

and they're going to say, crucify him, kill him, may his blood be on our head. His week's not starting off super great. When he gets off the donkey, he walks into the temple. The place is supposed to be a house of prayer for his father. And what he sees is religious people leveraging this system to abuse the poor for the sake of themselves. And essentially, Jesus walks into the temple and says, What in the name of me is going on here? And the Bible says he gets angry and he fashions a whip to kick the people out of the temple.

Now, I'm not sure exactly how long it takes to fashion a whip. I've never fashioned a whip. I've been on the other end of one. My dad fashioned a whip. He doubled as a pant holder upper, okay, and it would take him that long to fashion his whip. But he sees this. He sees people in the name of religion abusing people in need. And then Jesus goes and makes a whip, and I imagine the disciples are like, Jesus, what are you doing?

And Jesus is like, I'm about to show you what I'm doing, and comes in with a whip, turns over the tables and kicks out the money changers. So the whole city's going crazy now. Then he goes to bed. He gets up the next morning. This is all in the Bible. We should read it. The next morning, he's trying to get a fig Newton for breakfast, and he goes up to this fig tree, and it doesn't have figs.

And he's a little ticked off, and I don't know exactly what he does. And he curses the tree so that it can't have figs anymore. And I think the disciples are like, Jesus, you okay? And then, to make it all worse, the chief priests and the elders, they try to trap him. They kind of corner him, and they say, hey, we've got a question for you. By what authority are you doing all this stuff?

whipping people and cursing fig trees. By what authority do you do that? Who do you think you are? And Jesus basically says, I tell you what, I'll ask you a question, you answer my question, I'll answer yours. They're like, all right, shoot. So we asked a question about John the Baptist. They said, we don't know.

And he goes, I ain't answering your question. And then that leads us to these three parables that he is going to share. Now, remember, he's sharing these three parables to a group of religious people that think they have the market or the corner on God and how to be right for God. They think their activity, their obedience has earned their right standing with God. And with that in mind, Jesus shares three parables back to back to back. Harley even takes a breath. Now here's why I need to point that out to you.

This is like a Jesus thing to do all throughout the scriptures. You see, just to let you know my hand, okay, and we'll just put my hand on the table. I'm a Bible guy. I am. That's why we kind of get into this all the time, all right? And I mean, I'm really, I believe the whole thing is inspired by God. I don't think there's one error or one mistake. I think even the little random verses that we don't even know what they mean that God inspired those to be in there.

So, with all that being said, you really want to pay attention when the almighty sovereign saver of the universe repeats himself three times in a row. That's like, hello, dummy, you want to write this one down. And so this is what he's going to do. And Jesus made a practice of this. Luke chapter 15 when he's talking about salvation. Jesus gives three parables back to back to back, the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost sheep, and the parable of the lost son. We call it the prodigal son. It's a bad name. It's really the parable of the lost son. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus gives three parables back to back to back to back to answer one question.

What's the end of the world going to be like? They ask him that in 24-1. And then he quotes Daniel and talks about the abomination of desolation and the day and hour is not known. Everybody's like, what? And he goes, let me tell you about three stories. And he gives the parable of the virgins. It does not mean what you think it means. The parable of the talents. We're going to talk about that next week. And then the parable of the sheep and goats. He does this on the sermon on the mount when he talks about who we as followers are to be. that we're supposed to be a light on a stand, salt of the earth, and a city on a hill.

He does it when he talks about prayer that you ask, seek, not. This whole like, I'm going to repeat myself three times, is a big, big deal, and so Jesus does this with three parables that all essentially have the same theme. And I'm going to give away the punchline at the end. Here's the theme of all three parables. Remember, he's talking to religious people. People, like in our day, it would be those of you that grew up in church that had been around this for a long, long, long, long time that had people reading Bible stories to you before you can ever remember.

Here is what Jesus is essentially saying in these three parables. What is wrong with you? That's what he's saying to him. Religious leaders, what is wrong with you? You had a head start on everybody else. Do you not understand God's grace in your life because you would raise, understanding God, knowing who God was, reading the Bible? I mean, there's people that never had access to it, and you've had access to it your entire life. What is wrong with?

Had a head start on everybody because of your arrogance. You got hung up in your religious rules and you missed a relationship with your Heavenly Father. That's the point of all of these. And you know what this means? That means, listen, if you grew up in church, honestly, I want my kids to have your testimony, not mine. I mean, it is God's grace that you grew up in church. your parents loved Jesus and prayed over you and read you Bible verses this stuff honestly. And I hope my children have your testimony, not their dads.

I hope my kids are saved from sex drug and rock and roll when they're seven. Got it? And saved from it in that they avoided it always so they don't have the scars. But for whatever reason, people that grow up in and around the gospel can sometimes be inoculated with the gospel, get just enough truth to think they don't need any of it. And somehow there's some people that grow up around. at their whole lives with a list of dues and don'ts and somehow you missed the Savior. And then some of you at our San Pablo campus, the only reason you're here today, you tried to go to Hobby Lobby.

They were closed and here you are. You're like, what is this? I'm just here, all right? And some of you still think that the sports bar is the sports bar at Bay Meadows. Okay. The crazy thing is that some of you somehow see the Messiah before the people that grew up in church. And this is what Jesus is talking about. So he's talking to religious leaders when they say, by what authority do you do these things?

He's going to tell three stories. Story number one, verse 28. He goes, so what do you think? A man had two sons, and he went to the first son, and he said, son, go and work in the vineyard today. And the son answered, I will not. Sound familiar? Some of you are like, my son's in the Bible. Look right there, okay?

So this kid goes, no. Afterwards, he changed his mind and went. Underline this in your Bible. Change his mind and went. That is what repentance is. the Bible word for repent, it just means this. It means to change your mind and to change direction. In other words, so this kid represents the rebellious kid, the non-religious person,

the kid that didn't grow up in church or grew up around the synagogue here. And he says initially to the father, uh-uh, I'm going to do what I want, when I want, with who I want, you're and the boss of me, I do what I want. And he was going in this direction, and then he repented. He changed his mind, and now he doesn't just see the world the way he sees it, but now he sees it the way God sees it. And not only does he change his mind, he changes his direction. He was going his way, and now he's going to change direction, and he's going to go the way of the father.

That's what repentance is. And so the dad goes to the other son and says the same thing. And the other son answers, I go, sir, but he didn't go. This guy represents the religious guy. He says the right thing in one crowd, but he does whatever he wants. That his actions in his heart, they're just not aligned. That he says the right thing, but he is not in right relationship with his father because he does not do the will of his father. So that's the whole parable.

And then Jesus asked this question. So which of the two did the will of his father? And they said the first. And Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. Now, let me just give you a warning. If you've got your kids here, you should earmuff them right now. And if you bring your kids to when I preach, that is a mistake. You should always put them in our kids' ministry because the Bible is not a safe book for children.

It's not. We tone it down and sell it in their life way. You know, they're just growing up, there were certain books of the Bible that children were not allowed to read until they reach certain ages. Okay, that's just the way it is. So when Jesus says this, the prostitutes and tax collectors are going before you. It's a very toned-down version of what he said. You see, Jesus looks at these religious men and he goes, okay, there's two sons and one does and one done. Okay, which one?

And they were like that one. They're like, yeah, right, okay. So listen, listen. You guys had a head start and you missed the whole thing. What is wrong with you? Hookers and terrorists are getting into heaven and you're not. And they went, he said hooker. I know.

It's more shocking than that. The shocking part is, is how did you miss me? How did you miss me? You lived your whole life in this religious system that was supposed to point you to the Messiah. The reason you've been obeying law, the reason you've been doing sacrifices, is to point to the one that would perfectly keep the law.

and is the ultimate sacrifice and you missed the whole thing. And this poor girl who's been doing atrocious things with her life and had atrocious things done to her, somehow she can see God and you don't. What is wrong with you? And when we read Tax Collector, we think like IRS, okay? But in Tax Collector in the first century, was its own set of sinners.

In fact, there were like sinners, and then there were tax collectors under there. So if you work for the IRS, listen, man, I mean, I wouldn't really tell anybody that. I'd tell somebody else. But it's not the same thing here. You see, this was state-sponsored terrorism. That's what it was. The problem with the tax collectors in the first century is not that you weighed $30, but they took 40

so they could get their kids some new Nikes. That's not how it worked at all. You see, you could buy into a system where, as a Jewish person, you could extract taxes from your brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles, and then you would take that money, gobs of money, and then you would get it to Rome. And when you gave it to Rome, guess what Rome did with it? Rome used it to pressure and press down the nation of Israel,

to crucify them and kill them. Who do you think paid for the crucifixions? That's what tax collectors were. That's why they were hated so bad. And so Jesus is saying, listen, I mean, the lowest of low people did you get ever imagined, Pharisees, religious people. You had such a head start on them and you missed the whole point. And these people that you would think would be the farthest from God when they see it,

they get it. And they're going in first. You see, I mean, you want to talk about missing the point. You know what the word Pharisee means? The word Pharisee is a word that just in Hebrew, it just means separated. And so these were a group of people, probably with the right intentions in the beginning. And they said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to study the Word of God so much. We're going to know the Word of God so well that we're never going to break a law. We're going to be ceremonially clean, so we're going to have rules about the rules, about the rules, about the rules. So when the Bible says, honor the Sabbath, keep it holy, and don't work, well, what does work mean? And they would define like how many steps you could take on a Sunday or on a Saturday for them.

And they would say, you see, this way, we will be so ceremonially clean that when the coming Messiah shows up, we will be the first ones to recognize him. because we won't be polluted by this world. And then what happened? They got so bogged down in their religiosity that they are eyeball to eyeball with the incarnate son of God. They could smell his breath. And they did not know they were in the presence of the Almighty.

And then he bumps into a prostitute and a terrorist, and they get it. See, that's the end of the first parable. This would have been shocking. He goes on to give commentary to someone what he's saying, He says, for John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe it. And when he's talking about John, he's not talking about his disciple. He's talking about his first cousin, John the Baptist.

Now, this is not his denomination. It's not like Pete the Presbyterian and Mike the Methodist and John the Baptist. That's not what he's saying. John was a baptizer. It's what he did. It's what we're going to do this afternoon. And when it says that John came in righteousness, he didn't come in his own righteousness. He came declaring that righteousness was in the person and work of Jesus.

Jesus. That John declared the gospel when Jesus showed up to get baptized. John said, behold, which means everybody pay attention, the Lamb of God. He's pointing at Jesus. The Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the entire world. Now the system they grew up in was every year they would sacrifice a lamb on the day of atonement. And what he's saying is this is not another Lamb of God that's going to cover over the sin of one group of people for one year. But Jesus is the Lamb. of God who's come to take away the sin of the entire world. And the whole Old Testament was pointing to that one thing. One day the Lamb's going to show up.

And so Jesus says, listen, that's what John declared. In Pharisees, religious leaders, you were supposed to understand that and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes, they believed him. They trusted him. They actually believe that I am who I say I am and I'll do what I say I'm going to do. and even when you saw it, you did not afterwards change your mind and believe him. In other words, you did not repent, change direction, and put your trust in me. But you have been putting your trust in your own righteousness, in your own good deeds.

Now, he's going to tell a second parable. Again, same theme. Here he goes. A little more intense. Verse 33, he says, here another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went to another country. Now, when he's talking to Bible scholars, that's what these guys he's talking

to are, the moment he says this, they all go to Isaiah chapter 5 because it's almost word-for-word description of this winery in Isaiah chapter 5. And in Isaiah 5, 7, the Lord is just abundantly clear where he says, this vineyard is Israel. Okay? And so this is where their mind goes. Verse 34. And when the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. So in God's sovereign plan to save the whole world unto himself, here's how he did it. He decided to pick Abraham because he just decided to pick Abraham, not because Abraham was awesome, but because God is awesome. And Abraham had faith in God, and he counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. And he said, Abraham, I'm going to bless you to be a blessing to the whole world. And

Abraham's like, how in the world? I'm a hundred. I don't even have a kid yet. How am I going to be a father of many nations? He says, no, no, no, you're going to have a promised son, a beloved son, an only begotten son. And this son is going to be the seed of an entire nation called the nation of Israel. And Israel is supposed to be a city on a hill, a light, the salt of the earth, to declare to the whole world that God is holy and we should be holy. And this is what it looks like to know him as your heavenly father. And all of that was just that whole nation was to point to one single person. the Messiah, Jesus Christ himself. And God was saying to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12,

and you, through the lineage of faith to Jesus, are going to be a blessing to the entire world. That's how the whole world is going to come unto me. And by the time you get through the first century, the problem is that the religious leaders thought those promises of prophecy were all personal. And they drew dividing lines and says, hey, we're in, we're chosen, you're out, tough to be you.

And to that group of people, Jesus says, right, here's the parable. You know that thing in Isaiah chapter 5? He's talking about you. And when the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get its fruit. Verse 35, and the tenants took his servants, and they beat one and they killed another, and they stoned another. And again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did the same. Finally, he sent his son to them saying, they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. This is what religion does. Religion says, I will do whatever I have to do to take from God whatever I think

he owes me. In other words, he is going to accept me because of what I do. And they do this at the expense of his son. And they took the son, they threw him out of the vineyard, and they killed him. Now think about this. Jesus has not died on the cross yet. he is being graphically prophetic about his own death. Verse 40. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? Jesus is asking that question. And they said to him,

he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits of their seasons. You see, when they hear the story, here's what's crazy. They're the bad guys in the story. And they damn themselves. They condemn themselves. They say, well, if somebody treated me that way, I would kill them. So Jesus answers this way.

And Jesus says to them, have you never read the scriptures? Do you know what an insult that is? They are professional Bible readers. That's all they do every day. They got up and they would check their calendar, right? They would pull up their iPhone every day and they'd be like, read your Bible. Read your Bible. That's what they did.

They were very, very proud of it too. They would make up rules about the things they read in their Bible. And Jesus was like, have you ever read your Bible? and then he quotes Psalm 11822, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Jesus is talking about himself. You are rejecting me, and this stone that has been rejected is now the foundation, the most important stone.

Everything else has built on this one thing, and Jesus is talking about his life, death, and resurrection. He goes on and says, this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Verse 43, he's going to give commentary to the Psalm 118.22. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

He's talking about two things here. One, he's talking about the destruction of the temple system. 70 AD, the temple's going to be torn down. Why? Because the lamb has been slain. We don't need a bunch of little goats and lamb slain anymore. It's irrelevant. It's gone.

And if you ever go to Israel with me, I can take you to literally where the stones were thrown on. off the top, and when they hit the sidewalk, they crushed everything under them. They're still there. The other thing he's talking about is this, is that the truth of the gospel cannot be broken. You can only break yourself against it. And so he just lays it out there. Verse 45 makes me laugh. And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parable, they perceived that he was speaking about them. They're like, hey, wait a minute, I think we're the bad guys in these story. You think? And so, verse 46, although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet. And he's going to go into the third parable.

Now, here's what I love about the third parable. So far, he's basically just been talking to the religious people with kind of an occasional comment to the tax collector and prostitute. But in the third parable, he is going to explain how every single one of us are invited into the kingdom of God. And this is really, really good news because I know with the amount of people, to come to our church. We have people all over the spectrum and all over the board here. So here's what this means. Some of you, some of you are like super saint. I mean, you are. You got up this morning and you intended to come to 9 o'clock service, but actually your prayer time went so long that you came to 1122. God bless your ministry. We love you. And you were in a

legitimate pursuit of holiness. You desire the Lord. Sin just makes you want to throw up. You're evangelistic. In fact, you walk so closely with Jesus now. You don't even have to set up. an alarm. God sends a cherubim, an angel to just shake your foot in the morning. Good morning. Opens your Bible to the reading plan where it's supposed to be and lays it on your lap for you to do your quiet time. Praise God for you, man. You're just abiding with him and he's abiding with you. We love you, man. I'm glad you're here. Then there's some of us. This is my category. And you love Jesus. You really do. You surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And if you would describe that person as like a super saint, you're at best kind of a stumbler.

And you look at your life and you're like, God, I believe, help my unbelief. And I don't know why I continue to struggle with the same things I've been struggling with since I was 13. It seems like I would graduate from one of these sins eventually, right? And you had these rogue ideas and these rogue actions and you feel like you apologize more than anything. And the good news, though, is that every time you stumble and fall down, you fall upon his grace and he's a good dad. And he props you back up and he goes, come on, just one step at a time. Because for those of you like me, one day at a time is way too long. You just kind of go step by step by step.

and that's some of us just sort of struggling through but we know it's just by God's grace that we've been saved and there's some of you and you're not a Christian at all and you're not sure what you believe but you're here and you're not sure why you're here and you've been this like your third week in a row

and the crazy thing about it I just got to tell you the end of your story okay he's coming after you and you can't outrun him I know man because I used to be one of you and what happens is you show up and you're like I don't believe any of that stuff there's narrow-minded Christians

and somebody's like hey you'd be here next week Oh, yeah, yeah, save me a seat. Okay, that's you. And he's just, that's like a tractor beam. It's crazy, man. And, you know, I used to be there and be like a back row person. Now, look, I'm more than front row. I'm facing this way, okay?

You never know what God may have in store for you. But regardless of where you're like a seeker or a stumbler or a super saint, wherever you are on the spectrum, what we're going to find out in this next parable is everyone is invited. Everyone is invited. And so he's going to give the third and final parable. chapter 22 verse 1 he says this and again Jesus spoke to them in parable saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king now this is important pastor britt pointed it out two weeks ago he does not say the kingdom of heaven is like this one time when a king did this thing he says the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king so the kingdom of heaven is when the rule and reign of the king is going on

and because the tomb is empty and jesus is our king then the kingdom of heaven has already begun and that we know him as king. And he says, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they didn't come. Now he's talking to the religious leaders.

You get this? He's like, listen, you have been invited to the feast. And he sent his service, that would have been the prophets of the Old Testament, to say, come on, why don't you come to the feast? but they don't. The next verse again, he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner and my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready.

Come to the wedding feast. Man, there's a whole bunch going on here. This is what's overwhelming to me. How patient is the king that he would give multiple invitations to the feast. Like he sends servants to him and he says, hey, listen, we've got this part. party going on for you. Once you come, it's like, nah. And then he sends more servants and he gets another invitation. Another invitation. Hey, listen, it's never too late to come to the Lord. Can you know that? It's never too late, not as long as you're alive and Jesus hasn't returned. And God

patiently continues to invite people to the feast. And here's why this is a shocker to me, okay? God has still got to do a lot of sanctifying work in my life for me to be categorized as a patient person. I am very impatient. I am very impatient. If you've ever seen me on the baseball field with little children making an error, you will see the impatience. How are you doing this? You're 11. You should know about her.

And I'm like, what am I doing? But I can't stop, all right? When I'm driving down the road, if somebody is in front of me, I feel like I'm losing. I just do. I have to pass them. Why are we pass them? Because they're in front of me. That's why.

Why do you ask some dumb questions? I just am. I'm a very impatient person. And yet, look at this. God just continuously invites, because I'll tell you when I get really impatient, when I think I've done something really good for somebody and they are not very appreciative. Like Gretchen's been out of town all week this week, visiting her grandma in Virginia. And so I've been in charge of the kids. My baby, that's no problem. I just need you to make. You just make a decision. When you get home, we can ever have a clean house or your children alive. I'll do either one you want, but you just have to decide, okay? I'm not gifted in both. And so I've also had to cook for,

our children, which I do several times a year, so I'm highly proficient at it. So I just grill. Everything's a grill. If you can't grill it, you shouldn't eat it. I don't know if that's in the Bible it should be, okay? And so that's what I do. So our kids have had hot dogs three times a week, three times a day, every meal. I just grill hot dogs. I grill a hot dog and then a bag of chips and a caprisone, boom. And then I call out them, the feast is here, children. And if they don't come running in with glad hearts, oh, father, thank you for your grace and the hot dog. We appreciate that. Then I, there's not patience. There's not. I'm like, I keep pictures of compassion children eating in the dump on my phone. And I'm like,

what is wrong with you, you little selfish demon child? This little starving girl here would love to have hot dogs three times a day. You know, that's what I do. Or I just throw it away. And they're like, where's my food? It's in the trash. So you weren't here. It's in the trash. You won't starve to death. I promise. Okay. So anyway, they're praying that mom gets home quick. And so that's how I act. And yet, the king, the king, so patient. And he invites them over and over and over. Which means this.

Maybe you've heard the invitation a hundred million times. It don't matter. If you've heard it today, you should come to the feast. Even if you've rejected it over and over and over, you hadn't rejected it today. So why don't you just come to the feast? Because there is coming a day where the invitation's over. There is. either when you breathe your last,

invitation's over, or there is coming a day when the trumpet blasts, the heavens crack open, and Jesus returns, and he's not returning with a save-the-date. He's returning with, like, fire in his eyes, a sword coming out of his mouth, and tattoos on his quads. Sorry, Southern Baptist, it's in the Bible, all right?

And he's coming back on a horse to judge the quick in the dead. And the Bible says, when he returns, every single person will bow. In heaven, on earth, and under the earth, everyone will bow. So here you're two options. You'll bow or you'll bow? That's what we got. And if you humbly bow to His gracious invitation now, you will be exalted on that day. But if you don't,

you will bow. Because he is before all things. Jesus is first. And he is first in your life. And he will either be first as your judge or he will be first as your Savior. So won't you come? Won't you receive the invitation to the wedding feast? And so we ask again and again and again. But then eventually he's going to stop asking. And so verse five it says, but they paid no attention and they went off. One to his farm and another one to his business. You see, some of them are just distracted by the things of this world. And here's what's crazy, man. The feast is better than their farm and the feast is better than their business. It just is. And I know we say around here all the time that we don't follow Jesus because he makes her life better, but we follow Jesus because he is better than life. And it is absolutely true, but following Jesus is better. It's better than anything else this world has to offer.

Do you know what Jesus offers? Here's a list. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's what he offers. That's what he says, come and feast on. That's better in the lakehouse. It's better in a boat. It's better than the beach.

It just is. Following Jesus is better than the beach. And I'm not anti-beach. But when you go to the beach, you know what you're going for? you were going looking for peace. And have you ever found it there? For a minute, then some idiot from Ohio starts feeding the seagulls, and then it's gone. That's a fact, isn't it?

And if you're from Ohio, stop feeding the seagulls. You see, Jesus offers a peace that surpasses all understanding. And following him, it's better. You see, when you receive that invitation, what happens internally is that it's when you're just alone with you and you're like, is this it? I mean, is this really it? It's my life. I just get up and eat something and drive something and sell something and come home and watch something and go to sleep and do it again. I mean, the greatest moments of my life right now are a hot pocket and a Netflix original. That's what I got. And Jesus is going, no, no. He says,

come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for your soul. You're not going to find rest for your soul at work. You're not going to find rest for your soul at work. find rest for your soul on a vacation and I am pro both of those things your situation will just never change your soul only your savior will and that's what he that's the invitation the invitation is not come to me quit doing so much bad stuff and you got to attend a lot of events that is not the invitation the invitation is to a wedding feast to glorify his son at a big banquet with the father and so some people are like nah I'm kind of busy I got a I got a business I got a farm others just wholeheartedly reject it.

You see, let me tell you folks, our problem is not that we want too much. I think our problem is we're satisfied with way too little. That we're just on this merry-go-round of normality. And it's just not that merry. And then others just outright rejected. It says some go to their farm and some go to their business. While, verse 6, while the rest seized the servants, treated them shamefully and they killed them. and the king was angry and sent his troops and destroyed those murders and burned their city.

Commentators say this is the second prophecy where Jesus is saying that the sacrificial system will be torn down because he is the full and final sacrifice so we don't need a sacrificial system anymore. Verse 8. And then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. In other words, the king has got this wedding feast and he says, hey listen, go tell the invited guests to come on. This was the people that grew up hearing about God. And they went, nah.

And so he wipes them out and he tells his service, so go tell everybody. Go to the main streets and you tell as many as you can find. Folks, this is why we're a movement for all people. Do you know who God wants to invite as many as we can find? Some people ask me this question sometime. And they usually been a Christian for a real long time, and they're really proud of it. And they'll ask this question. Pastor, why has our church got to be so big?

Why do we have so many people at our church? And my first response is like, who do you want me to un-invite? Because I'm voting you right now, okay? And here's why. We're not trying to have a big church for big church. We're having, we invite as many as we can find because the king said so. This is the king's idea. Who do you want to leave out?

What person do you come eyeball to eyeball with and go, nah, because Jesus didn't. For God's love the world that he sent his only begotten son. And so we, as followers of him, are to go out and invite as many as we can find. That's why, do you know what, if you were invited by somebody here, it's because they love the king and they love you and they would love for you to meet. And they can't convince you of anything, but they can say, hey, you want to come to the feast and meet him yourself? that's what the invitation is all about and so the king says man you go and you invite as many as you can find

verse 10 and those servants they went out into the roads and they gathered all whom they found both bad and good that is really good news some of you here are bad really bad bad bad we've seen your Facebook it's bad isn't it

and then some of you are good praise God and some of you like me are really good at being bad and listen if you're bad You know, you've heard a bunch of people. Mostly you. Mostly you.

I got really good news for you. If you think, hey, listen, I don't think I get an invitation because I'm bad. No, man, the grace of God poured out on the cross of Jesus Christ is infinitely bigger than your badness. Come on. Come on. Come on into the party. You're invited in. Come on.

Please come. And then some of you are good. Some of you are really good. Been in church a long time. Hardly do anything wrong. I mean, you are good. I've got good news for you, too. Even you can be saved.

And it's true. Your goodness will not save you. Only the grace of God can. You see, because the gospel is not about good and bad and bad. We may all come to him good and gooder and bader, but the gospel is not about good and bad people getting better. The gospel is about dead people coming to life. And what God gives us through the love of His son Jesus is a new heart and a new life, a brand new life in him. And so we are a movement for all people. But it doesn't stop there. We're not just a movement for all people, for all kinds of different color people and backgrounds and socioeconomic classes and different religious beliefs when we were growing up and all of that to just gather here for the sake of humanity. A big bouquet of humanity is really whatever. We're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. Because if you miss the relationship with Jesus, then you've missed the whole thing, whether you're good or bad. And so he says They go out and they invite them all

And all whom they found both good and bad came And so the wedding hall was filled With guests Praise God Now if the parable would have just stopped right there This is the feel good hit of the New Testament Here everybody is But Jesus keeps going

And honestly a lot of commentators and preachers Are very very bothered by this next little section But this next section is the heart of the gospel So he goes on to say But when the king came to look At the guest he saw there a man who had no wedding garment This is important, we'll come back to it And he said to him, friend, how'd you get in here

Without a wedding garment? And the man was speechless And then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot And cast him into the outer darkness In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth For many are called but few are chosen He's obviously talking about hell here And just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what just happened?

So the king invited everybody to come. And then when the king shows up to the party, and it's packed out with good people and bad people and all kind of people, praise God. And then the king walks up to this one guy and is like, hey, bro, you don't have the right clothes on. What are you doing here? And the brother speaks us. And he goes, kick him out. Like, what does that mean? Here's what this means.

You see, remember, this guy is talking to a bunch of religious leaders. And in the first century, when you went to a wedding, you would put on wedding garments. It was usually like a clean white robe. And here's what we know. Most people in the first century had their own wedding garment, but we know that the king sent the messengers out into the street to come directly to the party. So nobody had a wedding garment. But when they showed up to the party, what's implied here is that the king provided for them a wedding garment.

And every person showed up working from the streets that they were filthy and dirty, not prepared for a wedding. And the king says to them here, I have something for you to put on. And that they took off their old and they put on. they're new. If you've been around Bible study, you've heard that before. That they took off their filthy rags and they put on the wedding garments provided by the king. And every single person did that except one guy. One guy said, nah, I got this. I don't need you.

And then the king walks up and he's like, where's your wedding garment? And the guy's like, well, he doesn't have anything to say. You see, what this guy was trying to do is to stand there in his own righteousness, in his own clothing, which is what all the religious leaders were trying to do. They were saying the reason, the way that we are right with God is because we are so right. When the Bible uses the word righteous, the best way to think about that is just a right standing with God.

And the religious leaders are saying, our righteousness is in our rightness. And Jesus is like, nope, that is not the way it works. You see, the picture of salvation is that you and I are, even our best days and our best deeds are like filthy rags before the Almighty God. and the king comes to you as he invites you to the party just as you are. He loves you so much that he's not going to leave you there. He's like, why don't you take off this mess and want you to put on these clean wedding garments? Why don't you take off the old and why don't you put on the new?

And you go, listen, I don't really deserve it. He goes, I know, I know, I know, but I made the invitation. Oh, that looks expensive. I don't think I can pay for it. He's like, no problem. My son's already paid for it. Here you go, just put it on. And it's a picture of salvation.

It's the same picture really all throughout the New Testament. Galatians 327 says this, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. Now here, when it talks about baptism, it's not talking about dunking you in the water, makes you a Christian. Baptized means to dip dunk and submerge. Any of us who have submerged our life into Christ, then we have been dressed in His righteousness.

In 2 Corinthians, the Bible will say it this way. God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of Christ. In other places in the scripture, it gives these kind of clothing illustrations to help us understand what it's like to dress ourselves up in Christ. In Ephesians chapter 6, the Apostle Paul says, put on then the full armor of God, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation, and the breastplate of righteousness. This picture of a breastplate of righteousness is the best picture I know of in the Bible of what theologians call imputed righteousness,

or in this example would be the wedding garment. You see, you guys have seen Gladiator, right? Have you ever seen a Roman breastplate? Have you ever noticed what it looks like? It looks like the brother's been doing CrossFit for a minute, right? I mean, just perfect pecks and abs. And when you put on a breastplate of righteousness, if I were to put on a breastplate of righteousness,

guess what you see? From your perspective, you would see the breastplate would be perfect pets and abs. You'd be like, has the brother been working out? Even though it does not match necessarily the jiggle and hairiness that's going on up under the breastplate. And when Roman soldiers would stand in line to receive their breastplate, they did not have like custom fit ones. They're not like, can we get the chubby XL for the pastor? Here you go, buddy, but thanks.

That is not how it works. You put this thing on that looks diesel, even if you ain't diesel. And so when you put on the breastplate of righteousness, you're putting on Christ's righteousness. and when God the Father looks at you, you get credit for the righteousness of Christ. Another example is in Luke chapter 15, the prodigal son. This son, this younger son, comes to his dad and is like, Dad, you're dead to me, I want my inheritance now. The dad gives it to him, and he goes off and squanders it in wild living.

And then while he is in the pigsty, which would be the lowest of lows for a Jewish boy. While he's in the pigsty, the Bible says he comes to his senses and repents or changes his mind, and he's coming back home to try to earn his way onto his father's land, at least as a servant. And the Bible says, but the father who saw his son from a long way off, ran to his son, kneeled down before his son, and hugged him and kissed him. By the way, in the first century, Jewish men of distinction did not run. They did not run. This is why I don't run. It is not biblical, okay?

If you see me run and call the police, something that's going horribly work. wrong, either for me or the fellow I'm chasing, so it would do us best to call the police. So this dad, with much shame to himself, he runs to his boy, and he bows that. You would never bow down to your disobedient son, and he wraps his arms around it, and he kisses him, and then if you remember this story, you remember the first thing he does. And then he calls his servants and says, bring me the best robe, which would have been the dad's robe, which would have been a perfect, spotless robe, and he takes that robe, and he wraps it over his boy.

And the boy came straight from the pig style. He smelled like pigs. He looks like he's been slopping pigs. He is a mess. But when anybody sees him, they do not see the mess. They see the righteous robe of the father. This is a picture of salvation. So when the king comes to the brother at the wedding feast, he's like, what are you wearing, man?

To interpret the guy goes, I'm just wearing me. I'm wearing my own deeds. I'm wearing my own acts of righteousness. I'm wearing my efforts. And the king is like, that's not how it works. You surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ. You lay you down, and I will give you the perfect robe of righteousness. So one of the biggest knocks on Christianity is how exclusive it is, right?

Do you mean to tell me Jesus is the only way? I'm like, yeah, that's what I believe. I didn't make it up. I just read it from him. He said it. So I'm going with him. And here's the exclusive claim of Christianity. You ready?

Even in this parable, everybody's invited. Everybody. No matter what nation you're from, no matter what color you want. are, no matter what you grew up believing, everybody's invited. And everybody gets in the same way. There's not like a caste system where some people are further along the road than others. Every single person gets in the same way and the price to the party has already been paid. It's exclusively inclusive of all people can discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, my fear at our church is wrapped up in this question.

So here's the point. Have you been flirting with Jesus on your own terms? And are you ready to follow him on his terms? You see, because there's a difference. And there's some people, and you're just kind of flirting with Jesus on your own terms. You're okay with Jesus? You mean, you believe him, you go to church. You're like, look, it's good for my kids.

I mean, I was raising church. I took a gap off, you know, and did what I wanted. But now I got kids. who's going to tell them by Jesus? I got an expert in every other area of their life. Somebody teach them piano and English, even though that's our own language, and Jesus. This is what I'm doing. I'm bringing my kids here, and they've got friends.

And not only that, I'm, you know, I like hanging out at the party here because I learn stuff. I mean, when you did that act like men thing, boy, you cured my husband, so I make him come twice a week, all right? And it's better. I got friends that I didn't used to have, and I got a date. I got a date. I hadn't had a date in a decade, and I prayed, and God gave me a date. So, yeah, I love this place. But when you get to the parts of Scripture where the king says,

do this and you don't want to do this? You're like, I don't think I'm going to do that. What scares me to death is that our church, if we're not careful, man, it'll be like Palm Sunday. There's just a big old crowd saying the right things. Going, who is this? Have you been flirting with Jesus on your own terms? And are you ready to follow him on his? You see, because here's the thing. He's a king. He's a king. And we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. And he's not just your buddy, pal, life.

Coach, he is the king of the universe. And so the way initially you relate to the king is you surrender. You say, I give up. You're the boss. I'm not the boss. You know what it takes to follow Jesus? Total surrender. Not total understanding.

Those are two different things. If there's a bunch that you don't understand about being a follower of Jesus, you could make a really, really great disciple. I'm like, where do you get that, pastor? The Bible. The original followers of Jesus seem to misunderstand more than they understood. You got doubts? Guess who had doubts?

The disciples. You know what? They doubted? The resurrection. It's what our whole faith has built on. And they're like, wow, we don't know about that.

And he says, follow me. So you pick up your fears, you pick up your doubts, you pick up your confusion, and you just follow after Jesus and then you do it long enough. Guess what? You end up in heaven one day?

No fears, no doubts, no questions. Nobody in heaven is going to be like, do you believe in Jesus? He's sitting right there. You want to ask him? I mean, that's what's going to happen. So the question is, Have you kind of been flirting with Jesus?

You're at the party, but you're standing there in your own righteousness, and you're ready to follow him on his own terms, not yours. Now, in the New Testament, there is a symbol for what Jesus is talking about here and like putting on the wedding garments, taking it off the old and putting on the new. And that symbol for us today, for any person who has put their faith in Christ, change their mind and believed in Jesus, that symbol is baptism. That right after this service, all of our locations, that we're going to haul it to Hannah Park, and we're going to see over 300 people declare that they have taken off the old and have put on the new.

And the reason we baptize the way we baptize is because the word baptizo in Greek from the Bible, it just means to dip, dump, submerge. That's just what it means. And in Romans chapter 6, we get a picture of what baptism is. It says this. It says, what shall we say then, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? In other words, are we just going to flirt with Jesus forever on our own terms? Are we going to follow him on His?

He says, how can we, who have died to sin, still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. So if you've never met Jesus before today, I would invite you to surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ. And for every single person who has done that and never been baptized as a believer, according to the Bible, I would say you need to do that. And the reason is because you declare to the world that that thing has already happened, that you have died to yourself and you've been resurrected in Christ.

So when you go to Hannah Park with me in just a minute, you're going to see about 300 people walk out into the water, not all at once. And somebody's going to ask them, so who is Jesus to you? And their answer matters. And they say, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And then we'll say something like, upon your public profession of Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, I baptize you my Christian brother and sister, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then we take that person who's standing there, and we dip them back into the water.

And what it's showing to the whole world is, I am dead to myself. They are burying the old me. And then it's like they are buried in a watery grave. and it's symbolizing their sins being washed away by the grace of God at the cross. Now, their sins aren't actually being washed away at the ocean. The sins got washed away the moment where they said, okay, I'm in. I surrender my life. I've taken off the old, I put on the new.

Their sins are washed away right now when you surrender your life to Christ. But when we dunk them in the water, it's to show to the whole world, I am dead to me. I am buried with Christ. And then when we pull them up out of the water, it's mimicking that we join in the resurrection of Jesus. that when the tomb, if the tomb is empty, anything's possible, even our own resurrection. That when Jesus comes up out of the grave is to conquer sin and death, it's to put death to death and a nail in the coffin of sin and to claim victory over sin and death. And we join in him.

And it says this, raise to a newness of life. And when you come up out of the water, everything changes forever and ever and ever. Again, it's a symbol of what has already changed inside of you. But everything's different. Sometimes it feels different. Praise God. Sometimes it don't feel different. That's fine.

You cannot break the truth of the gospel. You can only break yourself on it. And so my question to you is this. Do you know Jesus? Have you just been kind of flirting with church? Or have you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? I would like to give you the opportunity right now, right now, to die to yourself by the grace of God.

Have your sins washed away. Be forgiven forever. and join him in his resurrection that gives you a new heart, his heart, and everything changes if you would just accept the invitation to the wedding feast. He says, come to me, everybody, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your soul. So should bow your head and close your eyes. And if today, for the very first time, if you were to say,

for whatever reason that makes sense, for the first time in my life. And today, I am ready to accept the invitation to the wedding feast. I am ready to admit it. I'm not just a bad person or a good person. But I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. And I believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, somehow, that counted for me. And right now, I am ready to confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior. If that's you, raise your hand where you are.

Say, Father, here I am. I want to receive the invitation to the wedding feast. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I thank you, and I pray. you that there is salvation in your church. God, we love you because you love us first, because you are first, and you went first. And God, we lay our lives before you. And God, I thank you, Jesus, that the rock that was rejected has become the cornerstone of our faith. And God, I thank you that we can be dressed in your righteousness to stand faultless before

the cosmic king of the universe. God, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.