Party Attire

Well, we've been in a series for the last month or so called Party.

And so we've got like Party on Sunday t-shirts out there.

We've got a party on Sunday banner.

And all of that is because we are celebrating our 20, our 20th year anniversary this year, 20 years here in this building, 20 years as a church.

And the very first time anyone ever pulled into this church 20 years ago, there was a banner on the building that said party on Sunday.

That was what Stephen Susan, who started our church, chose to put on the building to announce that we existed, party on Sunday, and it made a bunch of people mad.

I joked about this last week, but I really do mean this.

As a Jesus follower, you should be one of the hardest people on the planet to offend.

If you believe that every sin you have ever committed has been forgiven completely and totally by God, you should take him really seriously, but you shouldn't take yourself super seriously.

But some people do.

And so a lot of people got really, really offended at the party on Sunday banner, but that wasn't the intention of it.

That wasn't at all.

Like I joked the first week, we weren't trying to make a statement, we weren't trying to ruffle feathers.

Months later, when we had a happy hour, Sundays at 10 a.m.

banner on 575.

Maybe that was different.

Maybe we shouldn't have done that.

But you live and learn.

By the way, not my call.

I was just the youth pastor.

I didn't have a say in that.

But party on Sunday, that wasn't meant to be some shock statement.

It shouldn't be.

It was a declaration.

It was a declaration from the get-go that we were going to be a church where you could enjoy the love that God has for you.

We're here on Sundays, no matter how hard or how heavy life is, we're not going to ignore that stuff.

We don't skip the hard parts of life.

No, we go through that stuff together, but we're going to enjoy our relationship with God.

And I grew up in church and I love church and I love the church that I grew up in, and I'm grateful for it.

But I will tell you that I was not taught how to enjoy God as a child growing up in church.

I was taught how to honor God, I was taught how to fear God, I was taught how to obey God, and those are very important things.

All of those.

But I was not trained on enjoying God.

And having a relationship with my Father in heaven that I could just be with him, know him, experience what it's like to be known by him, to be loved by him, and feel that joy that comes from knowing God, from loving God, being loved by God.

This is the church that taught me how to enjoy my relationship with God.

And we've talked about this as we've kind of gone through this.

Joy is spiritual.

I mentioned it a few minutes ago.

Right?

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

And we have a tendency in religion to overvalue the more serious sounding of those.

And self-control, which is vital for life, it's a fruit of the spirit.

But we we place that sometimes at a much higher level than joy or love.

So much so that if you meet someone who claims to be a mature follower of Jesus and they're very self-controlled and they're very disciplined and they're faithful, and you meet someone else who claims to be a mature follower of the Lord, and maybe they're a little less disciplined, a little less self-controlled, but they have a ton of love and a ton of joy, it's easy for us to look at the first person as the more spiritual one.

Even if they're lacking in love, they're lacking in joy.

But the reality is, as the Holy Spirit prompted Paul to list those in the book of Galatians, the first thing that came to Paul's mind was love.

And then it was joy and peace.

I'm not saying it's a list in terms of order of importance, but I'm saying that there's something significant about joy.

So here we are 20 years in, and we are celebrating our relationship with God, and we are partying on Sunday.

And we've had a lot of different conversations in this theme, but today, today we're gonna finish this series with a conversation about party attire.

Party attire.

We talked originally about surprise parties and the story of the prodigal son, and how there's no way that that son in the story was expecting a party to be thrown in his honor that day.

And we challenged all of us, each of us, are we capable of receiving the love that God has for us?

And can we grow in our ability to receive his love?

We've talked about party invitations, and we've talked about how Jesus is the life of the party.

The very first miracle he ever did was not at a funeral, it was at a wedding, it was at a party, it was at a celebration.

And he kept that going.

Last week we talked about party favors and how we've all been given gifts by God and how we're supposed to use those gifts to benefit one another in his kingdom.

But today we're gonna talk about something that might seem innocuous, but it's it's actually a really big deal in this moment in scripture we're gonna look at here in just a minute.

Party attire.

If you're like me and someone invites you to a party, the first question you think in your mind is, do I have to go?

Can I get out of this?

Do I have a legitimate excuse?

Should I lie to them?

And then obviously you don't do that, because you know, pastors never lie.

I've you know, never heard of that.

Uh no.

No, like you look, I I am I'm definitely extroverted, but as I get older, I don't know if this will relate to anyone.

I feel like I'm I'm extroverted in small doses, and then like the introversion is growing, but it's alright, I'm fighting through that, I'm making sure I stay a people person, but sometimes it's just nice to say no to things.

And uh, and if you can't get out of the party, or let's be honest, if you really want to go, if you're like, oh my gosh, that sounds amazing, I love that, I love those people, I want to be there, I want to celebrate that.

One of the next things that I think of is what do I wear?

All right, because I don't know how to do that kind of thing.

Like, here is hands.

I'll just be honest with you guys.

I own this t-shirt in 14 colors.

I own this hat, I own this hat, also 14 colors.

Same company makes both.

I own the light sweatshirt version of this shirt, made by the same company in all 14 colors.

And I own the winterized heavy sweatshirt version of this shirt, same company, 14 colors.

I bought all of them in all of the colors.

My wife says I dress like an adult version of Granimals.

And so I just go like, shoes, shirt, they match.

She even tells me, like, it doesn't have to match, and I'm like, I just this is what I know.

And so when we get invited to a party, I'm like, can I wear a hat?

That's my first question.

Can I wear a hat?

And if she's like, no, it's not that kind of party.

I'm mad.

I'm like, I wanna go.

I want to wear a hat, you know?

And it's like, if it has to involve a collar and buttons, if it's a shirt with buttons, I'm like, ah, do I have to tuck it in?

That's an that's a deal breaker.

I'm not tucking in a shirt, right?

I don't want to go.

And we have that challenge as a husband and wife, because sometimes I'll come out of the closet ready to go to the party or the event, and she's dressed, and it's clear that we don't match at all.

And I'm like, hey, why don't you just, you know, I lead our household.

Let me lead this.

Like, let's go, you know?

Let's go hat and t-shirt.

And she's like, no, but I have to go back and change.

It's just the way it goes.

Party attire.

Weddings are our weddings, I think, are the hardest for me.

Um if I'm not doing if I'm doing the wedding, that's easy.

Just suit.

There we go.

But if I have to go to a wedding and I'm not doing a wedding, it's like, is it a suit wedding?

Is it a suit and tie?

Are we going dress pants?

Are we going cat?

I hate that stuff.

I hate figuring out what to wear, which is why instead of figuring out what to wear, I just own a solid colored t-shirt in 14 colors and the sweatshirt and the heavy sweatshirt and the hat.

Easy.

I don't want to think about it.

I'm bad, I'm bad at this kind of stuff.

And I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you definitely wore the wrong thing.

Like you showed up and you're like, oh, I am not.

This is, and you have to sort of just walk that out and play that up.

That's tough.

That's tough.

I've been in that situation many times.

I want to read a story that Jesus taught.

We're gonna see someone in this story.

It's very similar to a story we actually talked about a few weeks ago.

Um, almost the exact same story, but with a slightly different ending.

And this is a story of someone who wore the wrong thing to a party, and it cost them greatly.

So here we go.

Matthew chapter 21.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

Jesus told them other parables.

And he said, The kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son.

And when the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited, but they all refused to come.

So he sent other servants to tell them the feast has been prepared, the bulls and fattened calves have been killed, and everything is ready.

Come to the banquet.

But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business.

Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.

The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn down their town.

And then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren't worthy of the honor.

Now go out to the street and corners and invite everyone you see.

So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn't wearing the proper clothes for a wedding.

Friend, he asked, How is it you are here without wedding clothes?

But the man had no reply.

And then the king said to his aides, Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So this is a very intense party story.

And we talked about another version of this story a few weeks ago as we did our party invitations talk about the fact that all of us have been invited to the party.

You know, in that story, the previous version, the king invites the people that he expects to come and they don't come.

And so he goes out and invites more, and even then there's not enough people, so he says, you know what, go out, throw out all the standards.

Just go find anyone.

Anyone, if they're breathing, invite them to the party.

And it's this amazing recognition that all of us, regardless of our past, regardless of where we come from, we have all been invited into the presence of God.

We have all been invited into a relationship with God, all of us.

None of us can look in the mirror and say, I'm not worthy of the invitation, because he's invited everyone.

But then we get to this slightly different version, and it's interesting.

Because the king invites the original people, they say no, he goes out and he invites others.

Some come, others don't.

Some people actually seize and kill the ones who gave the invitations, and this is a callback to the prophets.

This is Jesus really telling the story of Israel at this moment in time, and he said, Hey, listen, you you killed the prophets that told of my coming.

And still the father says, There there will be people at my son's banquet.

We will fill this place up.

He goes out and he invites everybody, regardless of background, nationality, ethnicity, you name it.

He invites everybody.

But then he sees this man, and this man isn't wearing the proper clothing.

And you would think the way that this story is going, that this king is just so grateful that people have come, that he so desperately wants as many people there as possible that that he would clearly just overlook a person who's there who wore the wrong thing.

And it seems extremely harsh.

He gives us an idea of God the Father of, like, oh, I I better I better wear the right clothes to church next week, you know, says the pastor wearing a hat.

Like, what is going on?

Like, and I'll say this: anytime you're reading scripture, especially the teachings of Jesus, and I'll just put this out there, because Jesus, he's amazing.

And he's really clever.

Like, Jesus loves when he teaches to throw something in there that you don't expect, that you don't see coming.

He did this all the time.

It's like when Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan, just that was this shock to the people who first heard it.

They had a very low opinion of the Samaritan people, and the fact that the hero of that story wasn't the priest of God, it was the Samaritan.

That would have thrown his listeners off.

But sometimes Jesus tells a story, and if there's a moment where you're like, whoa, that doesn't make sense, that's confusing, but that's a that's a really, really good indicator that you should stop and pause and think and pray and research.

So, why is the father so upset, so angry, that there's a man wearing the wrong clothes?

Is God is God angry?

Is God hot-tempered?

Many people will try to paint God this way, it's not true.

In fact, if you look at Exodus 34, 6 and 7, this is how God describes himself to Moses.

It says, The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out Yahweh, the Lord, the God of compassion and mercy.

I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.

I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty.

I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren, the entire families affected, even children in the third and fourth generations.

Now, those of you that grew up in church, how many of you heard that the sins of the father passed to the son, even up to a few generations?

Anyone heard that and felt afraid and scared?

Right?

But it's interesting in that exact scripture, before that is said, and I never heard this emphasized as much, but before that is said, he says, I will pour out my love upon a thousand generations.

So his love gets a thousand generations, and justice gets three or four.

This is a pretty amazing indicator by God that his love and mercy and compassion far outweighs what we would probably consider his wrath.

He is a just God and he will make everything right, he will right every wrong.

But his love and his mercy and his compassion are things we couldn't even quantify.

God is not hot-tempered.

Anyone who tries to paint God this way, especially as they read the Old Testament, they're just doing really, really poor scholarship of the Old Testament.

Because when you read the Old Testament, you see God give people warnings, and whole nations get warnings upon warnings upon warnings, and generations go by, and sometimes centuries go by, and they have chance after chance.

All of us would be far less patient with people if we were God than He is.

No, he's not hot-tempered at all.

So then, what gives in this story?

Well, let's explore the way that weddings would have worked in this day and age.

Let's just do a fun, interactive exercise.

How many of you have been to a wedding?

Raise your hand.

All right, great.

Uh, how many of you have been in a wedding?

Let's go with that one.

Hey, there you go.

How many of you have been to like a super fancy wedding, like a top tier, like I've done, okay, I've done a lot of weddings, and uh the fancy ones are great.

And some of y'all have been to many of your weddings.

Um, and if your wedding was fancy, I loved it.

I had so much fun.

Let me just say that.

But fancy weddings aren't like my natural thing.

Like any any type of meal that has multiple forks, I don't know, I just use two forks at once.

This is how we go more efficiently, right?

That's what you do.

I don't know.

Um, fancy weddings are tough, and I will tell you, as a father with four children, I have not trained my children for fancy weddings.

I know this because I I watch my youngest boys eat spaghetti with their hands, and we've raised them, we've tried.

This is like we attempt this.

I tried to have a conversation with my youngest Anne the other day about not eating grain uh rice grain by grain with his fingers.

I was like, I was looking at like, forget the table manners, it's just inefficient, man.

Like, this is gonna take forever.

You're going one grain at a time.

Like, come on, just scoop it up at least, you know.

No, we try really hard, but we have boys, and our boys are very much boys.

And so fancy weddings, you know, people will always say if they if I'm doing their wedding, they'll say, and bring your family.

And I'm like, no.

Uh I mean they'd love to be here, don't get me wrong, but no, we haven't uh they're not prepared for this.

We got time though.

We got plenty of time.

And then there's there's less formal weddings, right?

There's there's like I've done weddings in barns, I've done weddings in backyards.

One of my favorite weddings ever, I baptized someone in their pool, and then after they were baptized, they hopped out and we did a wedding.

That was like one of my favorite weddings of all time.

That was great.

I feel very comfortable at an informal wedding because I can wear a hat.

No, I'm just joking.

I don't wear hats to weddings.

Um, how many of you have ever seen on television a royal wedding?

Like, you know, the, oh, those are just dumb.

Right?

Like, like who cares that much?

Apparently, a lot of people, actually.

Like it's like, and it's crazy because we don't really have royalty here in America, but when when someone in Britain, who I'm pretty sure we fought to be free of, uh, when they get married, we're like, even over here, being like, are you watching the wedding?

You gotta watch the wedding, and it's all this pomp and circumstance, and it's crazy.

But there is something about us, even if it seems silly, even if we're disconnected from that, that recognizes that, man, when royalty gets married, that is a big deal.

Like, that's that's a king, that's a that's an important person.

Well, the wedding that we're dealing with here, it's not an informal wedding.

Let's just go there.

This is not a backyard barn wedding.

This is a fancy wedding, and in fact, it's a fancy royal wedding.

This is describing a first century fancy Jewish royal wedding, and none of us have been to one of those.

I feel very confident in that.

And there are some customs at these weddings at this particular time in history that are very foreign to us.

Because just imagine a world in which you're a normal person, and almost everyone at this point in history, Jesus' time, was living day by day.

There really wasn't a lot of wealth, and if there was wealth, the king had it, and a very small group of people, and everyone else was just day by day trying to get by, doing their best, and then you get invited to the wedding of the king's son.

What do you wear to that wedding?

Like, let's just call it it.

You don't have those clothes.

Like, if you're living in Jesus' time and you're a normal person and you get invited to the royal wedding, you don't go, oh, I'm gonna put on my nice robes.

You don't have nice robes.

Those don't exist.

That's a luxury you do not have, you cannot afford.

No one, no one is prepared to go to that wedding properly dressed.

So here's what the king would do: the king would spend a fortune purchasing and having made official wedding clothes for all of the guests.

Expensive clothing made of fine linen, sometimes with gold and even jewels put into that.

And every single guest that came in, every single one that walked through the front door, would have been handed their wedding clothes.

They were given these beautiful wedding garments to wear.

It was a gift from the king.

So that you could be in the presence of royalty, you could be in the palace, you could be wherever you were, and you didn't feel out of place, you didn't feel less.

You were provided wedding garments at the expense of the king.

And so here's this king, and he's he's thrown this wedding, he's been insulted so many times, and he's invited everyone.

There's no standards, these are not the VIPs, he's invited everyone, the lowest of the low, they're there, and everyone that's walked through the front door has been handed official wedding garments, beautiful clothes given by the king at his own expense, and there's a man not wearing them.

That's odd.

Well, how in the world could this happen?

There's only really a few options.

We'll discuss two of them today.

I think there's three main options.

One is this man has snuck in.

He didn't come through the front door.

He didn't come in the way that he was supposed to.

He has snuck in and he's bypassed the wedding garments themselves.

And Jesus actually teaches something interesting in John chapter 10, verses 1 through 10.

John 10:1–10

He says, I tell you the truth.

Anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold rather than going through the gate must surely be a thief and a robber.

But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come in.

He calls his own sheep by his name and leads them out.

After he's gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them and they follow him because they know his voice.

They won't follow a stranger, they will run from him because they don't know his voice.

And those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant.

So he explained it to them.

I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.

All who come before me were thieves, all who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the true sheep did not listen to them.

Yes, I am the gate.

Those who come in through me will be saved.

They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.

The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Jesus uses the illustration of a shepherd in a sheep gate.

And he says, I'm the gate.

You come through me.

And you have a relationship and you're good, and you can come and go freely.

But there are those he said that will try to sneak in.

He says they're thieves, and their purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

It's possible that this man at the wedding tried to sneak in, but he was there not to celebrate, but maybe to steal.

He's an imposter.

And look, the reality in our faith is that, and we just have to own it, there are impostors.

There are many impostors that have existed before in our faith, that exist currently, that will exist in the future.

There are people who see our faith as a means to an end.

There are people who see our faith as a means to enrich themselves.

There are many pastors who have used the church to enrich their own lives, or they've used it for fame or for power.

And sometimes it seems like every year there's a story of you know, it's one thing when there's a person who just messes up, who falls short.

We all do.

But then it seems like every year or two there's a story of something far more nefarious.

And sometimes we see that, and as Jesus followers, it breaks our heart as it should.

Sometimes it can even create Doubt, but I want to encourage you, that shouldn't make you doubt the legitimacy of our faith.

Because people don't counterfeit things unless they're valuable.

If someone makes a counterfeit version of something, if someone fakes it, it's because they recognize it's valuable, but they don't want to do what's required of them to be part of it, really.

They don't want to surrender their lives, they don't want to submit to Jesus, they don't want to give themselves to Him, they don't want to change.

They just look at the church and they see a platform, fame, power, money.

And they have a purpose, and that purpose is to steal and destroy for their own gain.

And Jesus says, they didn't come in through me.

And so when you see that happen in the world, when you see a pastor or some person in the church world and something terrible happens and it's clear that this person was an imposter, it should break our heart.

We should pray for those people, pray for their churches.

But but just recognize that they do that because they see how valuable God's kingdom really is.

And they just want to use it for their own gain.

It's possible that this person, this man, he's there with ill intentions.

That he's not a guest that's coming through the front.

He's someone that's tried to sneak in to do something wrong.

And if if that's the case, then the master is the king is absolutely right to have him thrown out.

But that's not the only option.

Right?

It's possible that he was a guest and was invited and came through, but refused to put on the clothes that he was given.

The third option would be that he had them on and took them off, and that's a conversation I don't want to get into today.

That would be that'd be a fun conversation about apostasy and what that is and whether or not it's a thing.

And maybe we'll do that on a podcast soon, but I don't, I'm not, we don't have time for I'm looking at the clock.

It's 11 o'clock.

We don't have time for apostasy today.

Another time, rain check.

Good old apostasy rain check.

But the other option, is it possible that this is a person who was invited who walked through the front door and was handed the clothing and just didn't put them on?

It's an interesting thought.

Jesus in John chapter 13 is preparing to go to the cross, and he's having a Passover meal with his disciples.

John 13 · chapter mention

And right before the meal, he washes their feet, and there's an interesting exchange.

John 13, verse 1 says, Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his father.

John 13:1

He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.

It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

And Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything, and he had come from God and would return to God.

So he got up from the table, he took off his robe, wrapped the towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.

And then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that he had around him.

When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

And Jesus replied, You don't understand now what I'm doing, but someday you will.

No, Peter protested.

You will never ever wash my feet.

And Jesus replied, Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me.

He says to Peter, another translation, say, Unless I wash your feet, you have no part in me.

It's a pretty challenging statement.

Jesus essentially says to Peter, unless you do.

Well, no, not that at all, unless you receive what I'm doing for you.

Unless you receive the gift that I am giving you, you cannot have a relationship with me.

He doesn't tell Peter to wash his own disgusting feet.

He doesn't chastise him for having filthy feet.

He doesn't look at his disciples and say, clean yourselves up.

He does the washing.

And he says to Peter, unless you allow me to do this for you, unless you receive and accept what I'm doing for you, you cannot have a relationship with me.

There are people, and this is heartbreaking, there are people that get so close to Jesus.

They get like right up to that point where they see him and they they maybe even feel love for him.

And what holds them back from knowing him, from entering into relationship with him, from becoming part of that new creation that we're all part of if we've given our lives to Jesus that ultimately ends in heaven, the thing that keeps them from that is a refusal, an unwillingness to receive what he's giving them.

It's like Peter saying, no, no, no, no.

I don't I'm not comfortable with that, I don't want that.

And Jesus says, if you don't do this, if you don't receive this, you have no part in me.

Maybe it's pride, maybe it's an unwillingness to submit, I don't know.

But this story of the man without the right clothing, this is not the story of a poor guy who just couldn't afford the right clothes and a king that throws him out for no good reason because he's angry.

No one at the wedding had the proper clothing.

No one who was at that wedding was wealthy enough to be dressed to impress the king.

Everyone came equally unprepared, but the king gave them a covering.

He gave them a garment that covered and it made them acceptable.

But perhaps one man refused it.

That all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ.

Like putting on new clothes.

Romans 13.

Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Isaiah 61, even the Old Testament.

The prophet wrote, I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God, for he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.

We're told in Ephesians chapter 4 that since we've heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Throw it off like throwing off old clothing.

Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes and put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

If you've accepted Jesus into your life, you have been clothed with Christ.

A new garment has been put upon you.

None of us, none of us are good enough or holy enough to be in God's presence.

Like none of us can walk in here on a Sunday and like impress God.

You know, that's one of the hard things about life.

We we in our lives we get impressed by people.

Sometimes you meet someone and what they've done, you're like, oh wow, oh my gosh, wow.

Have you ever been so in awe of someone you've been around, like you you almost didn't function normally as a human?

Like you forgot how to speak?

Because you're just so impressed?

I I have.

When I was covering college basketball for years, like sometimes I would meet somebody and I would just sort of like, this is someone I had idolized, and I'm just like, uh, you know, like dumbfounded, can't have, can't find the words.

That never happens to God.

Like there's no one that's ever gonna stand in front of God and like God's gonna look around the angels and goes, guys, guys, whoa, whoa, we are in the presence of greatness right now.

Do you know how much money this person made in their life?

Whew.

No.

No, just like at that wedding, everyone is equally, everyone is equally, equally unprepared to be in the presence of the king.

On their own merit, on their own righteousness, on their own holiness.

And that's why the king is so good and loving that he clothes them at his own expense.

But to refuse that, to say, no, I don't want that.

I want to be here in my own, on my own merit.

I want my own righteousness to be what gets me by.

How offensive.

How foolish.

It's no different than if Peter had followed through and said, no, I won't let you wash my feet.

Jesus, you don't get to wash me.

The truth of the matter is, as we wrap up this series, we have all been invited to a party that we have no business being invited to.

No business.

None of us.

I mean, and like I know some of y'all, and uh like some of you guys are amazing.

I mean, all of you are amazing, of course.

Sorry, all of you.

I don't know all of you, so a few of you are pretty good, okay?

A few of you are alright.

Even a few of the people watching from home.

I mean, a couple of, no.

Like some of you I know really well.

And you are people who have followed God your whole life, and you are passionate, and you are like, oh, you are on fire for the Lord.

And even, I know you guys, you would say, I'm not worthy of being in God's presence.

On your own.

That you've been in, you've been invited into a relationship with the King of the universe, the creator of everything, the one and true God who is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous.

In him there is no sin, there is no darkness at all.

None of us deserve that.

We've all been invited to a party that we have no business going to.

And none of us have anything decent to wear.

But at his own expense, and at great expense, our father sent his son to die, to pay the price for our sin.

And to clothe us in his righteousness, in his goodness.

So that now, when we are quote unquote at the party, we wear Jesus.

We wear Jesus.

When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, when you humble yourself and submit yourself and just say, Lord, I can't do this.

I am not good enough on my own.

I need you.

When you do that and you receive what He's done for you, like Peter finally receiving the washing, when you say, I need you, when that happens, you are clothed with Christ.

And you know what underneath that garment?

Unworthiness.

But with it, righteousness, holiness, goodness, honor, and glory.

And so as we wrap up and worship team, you can make your way out.

We're going to take Lord's Supper together as we as we always do.

By the way, if you're new, I hope you grabbed one of these when you walked in.

If you didn't, so sorry.

You can go grab one right now.

They're at the entrances at the four columns, and you won't mess anything up by getting up right now, I promise.

Jesus loves you.

And as we talked about a few weeks ago, you have been invited to the party.

You have been invited into relationship with God.

Whoever you are, whatever you've been through, wherever you've been, you have been invited into relationship with God.

And all you have to do is walk through the gate.

And that gate is Jesus Christ Himself.

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through him.

You walk through that gate, you receive his love and mercy and forgiveness, you put your trust in him, you submit yourself to him, and you allow him to clothe you.

You allow him to cover you.

This is not about what you can do for him, this is about you being able to allow him to do what he's already done for you.

To clothe you in righteousness, in goodness and holiness.

And that's part of what this meal symbolizes.

So we'll take this together now.

If you're new to this, it's a little piece of bread and some juice.

We go bread first, then juice, although one time we accidentally did it the wrong way, and life went on.

It's all good.

The bread first, then the juice.

The bread represents the body of Christ.

Given up as a sacrifice.

He died to pay the penalty for our sin.

Not just your sin.

Although I'm convinced that each of our sin is enough to deserve that penalty, but even if that's hard for you, uh, all the sin of all the people all time, at the very least, that's a lot.

He died for that.

And then he bled, and that the juice is his blood.

And his blood purifies us, it washes us clean.

Because blood is life, his life, given for our life.

But it's not just that our old is gone, that the old life has passed away, and that our old sins have been covered, and our current sins and future.

It's not just that our our issues and struggles have been dealt with, it's that they've been covered completely for all time.

And now we are clothed in his righteousness if we accept him.

And I'm just saying to you here, if you have not accepted Jesus, and I mean if there has not been a moment in your life where you have said, I have fallen short, I've tried my best, but it's not enough.

And I know that, I know that I need to receive what he's giving me.

I need to let him wash me and cleanse me.

I need him.

I'm telling you, it's not about what you do for him.

You can't do enough.

Stop trying.

It's about you receiving what he's done for you.

If you've never had that moment where you've surrendered your life to Jesus and you've given yourself completely to him and you've allowed him to cover you, please, please, if there's anything that stirs in your spirit today, do not walk out of this room before doing that.

There's nothing more tragic than someone who sits in a church and it gets so close.

But for whatever reason, just can't quite bring themselves to receive what God has given them.

He loves you, and you need him, and he is the only way.

And you cannot earn this, but you don't have to, because he has provided the clothing for you at his own expense.

So with that said, let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this bread and what it represents.

This is your body.

Given up as a sacrifice to pay the price for our sins and to clothe us in righteousness.

And we thank you for this.

Let's take the bread.

And now the juice.

Father, we thank you for this juice.

This is the precious blood of your son Jesus.

Shed for us to pay the price for us.

And Lord, this juice means we don't have to be good enough.

We don't have to be worthy enough.

We don't have to attend church enough.

We don't have to read the Bible enough.

We don't have to avoid all the bad things and do all the right things.

All that stuff's important and good, yes, but that is not what gets us into the party.

That is not what brings us into your presence.

It is this sacrifice and our simple acceptance of it.

A humble acceptance of your love and your mercy is all that is required.

And when we receive this, we are clothed in you, Jesus.

We are putting our wedding garments on.

We are celebrating being in the presence of our King.

And we love you.

Thank you, Lord.

Let's take the juice.