Party Invitations

Well, last Sunday we kicked off a new series, and it's new, but it's also very old because it's very much connected to the start of our church, and we're calling this series party.

In fact, last Sunday was such a party I wore my hat backwards, which is the edgiest thing I have ever done.

So uh party is an interesting word in the history of our church.

When we first started, my very first time coming here in 2007, I was interviewing to potentially be on staff as in a youth role.

Uh, there was a huge banner on the front of our building that said party on Sunday.

And so if you ever came back in the day or if you ever drove by this place, you know, 20 years ago, you would have seen a banner that said party on Sunday.

And that made some people mad.

Their interpretation was that we were trying to, I don't know, be cool or or maybe be flippant about our love for Jesus.

If you've been here for long, you know that's not the case.

We we take God really, really seriously.

We don't take ourselves seriously, but we take God very, very seriously.

That word party, though, it wasn't it wasn't flippant and it wasn't trying to be like clever marketing.

It was a declaration that this is going to be a place where you can celebrate the love that God has for you, where you can enjoy God.

And I don't know how you grew up.

Some of us didn't grow up in church at all, some of us grew up in all kinds of different environments.

We have people from every walk of life here.

Um, many of us who grew up in church grew up being taught conviction and morality and appreciation for truth.

And those things are vital, important, the holiness of God, of clearly of utmost importance, but some of us were not taught how to enjoy our relationship with God.

And yet it's so clear in Scripture that we're meant to.

You look at scripture like Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 10.

Nehemiah 8:10

And by the way, if you ever go to our website, we have something called the Message Companion.

All the scriptures are listed there, so you can always follow along or go back later and read if something jumps to your mind.

Nehemiah 8:10 says, Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Nehemiah 8:10

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Jesus prayed in the garden before being arrested and going to the cross to God the Father.

He said, Now I'm coming to you.

I told them many things while I was with them in this world, so that they would be filled with my joy.

A huge part of the purpose of Jesus' ministry to us, for us, is that we would be filled with his joy.

This is something he had spoken earlier to them that very evening in John 15.

He said, I've told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.

Yes, your joy will overflow.

We are supposed to have joy.

In fact, I sometimes I'll have people ask me, like, what are the things you think a healthy church needs to have?

If someone's asking me, sort of, my opinions about that.

There's a lot of things that healthy churches should have.

Uh you know, leadership should be held accountable, there should be good structure in place, transparency, discipleship should be happening, all kinds of things.

But one of the things that I do believe is like a true benchmark of a healthy church is are your hallways filled with the laughter of children?

Or sometimes the screams.

But but laughter and screams, right?

Like and obviously R SR, a friend of mine, it's a story I'll I just I think about fairly often, actually, is a friend of mine that grew up in a church, and at one point in time the church had a lot of kids, and there was this patch of grass that was outside near the parking lot, and all the kids after church or or between services would sort of find themselves playing on the grass, and it really bothered church leadership.

And they were like, These kids need to stop playing in the grass.

And someone at the church actually proposed to build a playground there.

Let's make it a place where the kids are having fun and enjoying it.

And the church's response to that was to pave over the grass.

I know.

I know.

Years later, and this is a true story, years later, um, someone from that church ended up coming here.

And they told us that they had a baby, and their baby was the only child, would have been the only child like under five years old in the entire church.

Well, it's not a shock, right?

When you when you're when you're angry at the play and laughter of children that the children won't be there.

And I'm not saying that to compare ourselves and say, oh, I'm not saying that at all.

What I'm saying is like, there's something about religion, the kind of religion, not the reverent worship of God, but that kind of religion that sort of solidifies into a cold and and sort of lifeless thing that greatly undervalues joy.

The laughter of children is viewed as a nuisance, something that needs to be fixed, not leaned into.

Joy is spiritual.

In fact, Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23 lays out for us the fruit of the Spirit, and it tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Galatians 5:22

Now, part of me really wishes that is listed in order of importance, because that means those of us who struggle with self-control can breathe easy because that's the last one.

You know?

Like if let's say hypothetically you really like, I don't know, basketball sneakers, and you see a pair online, you're like, I don't need those, but I want them, and then you buy those, you can be like, well, self-control, not going great, but it's the last one.

You know, you can sort of, it's a hypothetical situation.

But I don't think it's listed in order of importance.

At the same time, at the same time, I don't think, I don't think that the order is completely arbitrary either.

That is, is the Holy Spirit inspired Paul, who wrote that, begins to describe what are the what are what is the fruit of the Spirit, what is the evidence of God's Spirit at work inside of someone.

We might even say, what are the marks of a mature believer?

That the first thing he lists is love.

And then what comes next is joy.

And yet in religion, many of us have experienced this, there's a tendency to greatly value self-control over joy.

You know, if someone's a mature believer and they're very self-controlled, which is a good thing, by the way, it's a very good thing, it's fruit of the Spirit.

But that is weighted so much more heavily than joy and love.

And if you meet someone and they profess to follow Jesus and they don't love people and they don't live with joy, that's that's actually evidence that they've got a lot, a lot of growing up to do in their faith.

See, that word party, it's meaningful because we are meant to live with joy.

We are meant to follow to follow Jesus with genuine, true joy and excitement for all that he's done for us.

That's why those words party on Sunday were so meaningful when we started.

In fact, we're gonna talk today about the fact that we've actually all been invited to a party by God Himself.

Whether you realize it or not, you have been invited to a party.

Now I'm sure we've all had that experience in life where I'll put it this way, we've definitely all had the experience where we found out about a party we didn't get invited to, which is not fun.

That's always awkward, like, oh, would you oh I would have in I would have enjoyed that.

That's thing, you know, very cool.

Um I was thinking about this a lot this week.

I had an experience when I was in 10th grade, the weirdest party I ever got invited to in my life.

Okay, strangest party was when I was in 10th grade.

I was in high school.

There was a boy in my my class in our school named Michael.

Michael was awesome.

Everybody loved Michael, Michael was great.

Uh Michael was born with some pretty major issues and had some serious special needs because of some things that happened to him at birth.

Uh, but Michael was like the life of the the class, everyone loved Michael.

He comes up to me one day and he says, Justin, will you come to my birthday party?

And I'm like, of course.

Michael, I'd love to go to your birthday party.

And he said, Awesome, can you give me a ride?

And I was like, perplexed.

I just got my license, and I'm like, uh, I mean, you need a ride to your to your own birthday party?

And he's like, Yes.

And I said, Oh, okay.

So I asked for directions to his house.

Now, to those of us who have have come into this world somewhat recently, let me explain what that meant.

This is pre-GPS, this is pre-a website called MapQuest that would give us this is what this looked like.

I'm like, explain to me how to get to your house.

And then what the person would do is they'd figure out where you lived, and they're like, okay, you're gonna take this road, you're gonna see a tree, you're gonna turn left at the tree.

If you get to the gas station, you've gone too far.

Like, that's how we all, you guys remember the days when we used to have to do that?

We would like landmarks, you're uh all this kind of stuff.

Yeah.

So he explained to me how to get to his house, told me what his his address was.

I pull in, I'm there.

And I go to the door, I ring the doorbell, and his mom answers the door, and she goes, Thank you so much for taking him.

And I'm so confused.

Like, you're not going to Michael's party?

And I asked her, I was like, Are you you're not going?

She goes, Oh, no, no, no.

But you guys have fun.

I'm like, all right.

So we get in the car, and uh, and he gives me directions on where we're going.

You know, I'm just following his lead as we go.

I have a gift.

We get to this house, we walk up to it, knock on the door, woman opens and goes, Oh, I'm so glad you guys are here.

You're the first.

So we walk in, I go, hey, where do I put this gift?

And she kind of looks at me perplexed and says, Um, okay, just over there.

And I'm like, all right.

So I'm sitting here, it's a very strange environment.

Uh I don't know what's going on.

People start arriving, other teenagers, no one else has gifts.

Finally, 20, 30 minutes in, I'm just like, I gotta figure out what's up.

So I go and I talk to the lady, I said, Hey, I was under the impression this was Michael's uh birthday party.

She goes, Oh, why is that?

I was like, Well, because he he asked me to take him to his birthday party.

Like, that's how he invited me.

And she went, Oh my goodness.

So they go, Okay, this is our youth group at our church, and our youth pastor challenged the students to invite friends to this event that we're having tonight.

And I think that, like, if you got invited, there was maybe a prize, if you brought someone, you were gonna be like entered for a prize or something like that.

And this was Michael's plan to get me to come was to convince me it was his birthday party, and we want to think about it for a second.

I mean, let's just give props to Michael.

Because A, mission accomplished, B, he got a gift, you know?

Like, but then I found out later on that kind of the point was to invite your unsaved friends.

It was like an evangelism thing, and I'm like, wait a minute.

I'm a believer.

Does he not know that?

Am I I gotta look in the mirror and evaluate how I'm operating at school?

Because apparently Michael was like, I know who's unsaved, Justin McTear.

Let's get him to this party.

You know?

What in the world?

That's a real thing that happened to me.

I've been invited to some interesting parties, and I'm sure you have as well.

No, being invited to a party, you can't be upset.

Like, I don't I look back at that.

I'm not upset by it, because who gets upset at being invited to a party?

Like, if that offends you, you gotta you gotta you gotta deal with stuff, right?

Being invited to a party is an honor, and we're told in Scripture that all of us, all of us have been invited to a very, very special party.

Truly.

Jesus is teaching in Luke chapter 14, he himself was invited to a party, and he used the uh the time at this dinner that he's at to teach people about God, about what God is really like.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

And so in Luke chapter 14, starting in verse 12, it says, Jesus said to his host, When you give a luncheon or a dinner, when you throw a party, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

It's a little counterintuitive.

He's like, if you do, they may invite you back, and so you'll be repaid.

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you'll be blessed.

Although they cannot repay you, you'll be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

When one of those at the table heard him say this, he said to Jesus, Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.

Now, put a pin in that.

That is a that's an idea that's been in the minds of God's people for a very long time at this point.

The prophet Isaiah, for example, I'm gonna go back a little bit.

The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 25, 6 through 8 said, On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all people, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats, the finest of wines.

On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people, the sheep that covers all nations.

He will swallow up death forever.

That's what he's talking about when he says shroud.

A shroud was something you wrapped a dead body in.

He's gonna remove that.

He's gonna remove the curse of death.

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth.

The Lord has spoken.

There's been this idea of a feast, of a banquet in heaven with God that's been on the minds of God's people for a very long time, as Jesus is having this conversation.

And so this man says, Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.

And here's what Jesus responds.

Here's how he replies in verse 16.

He says, A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.

At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready.

But they all alike began to make excuses.

The first said, I've just bought a field and I must go and see it.

Please excuse me.

Another said, I've just bought five yoke of ox and my way to try them out.

Please excuse me.

Still another said, I just got married, so I can't come.

I love that.

That's great.

I just did a really quick meeting with a couple that's going to get married in May, uh, great couple, and you know, we didn't have the conversation that, oh, you're not gonna get to do anything anymore because once you're married, but it is an excuse you can use.

Oh, I'd love to.

How many of us, let's be honest, how many of us have used our spouse as an excuse to get out of something?

I I would love to go.

Personally, if it was just me, I'd be there.

But you know how, you know, you know, she's uh, you know, happy wife, happy life, right?

You can do that kind of thing.

Well, I love it.

Uh I just got married, so sorry, can't come.

The servant came back and reported this to his master.

And then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.

Sir, the servant said, What you ordered has been done, but there is still room.

So he goes and he gets those people, the less desirable people, but there's still room.

And the master told his servant, Go out to the roads and the country lanes and compel those to come in, so that my house will be full.

I tell you, not one of those who are invited will get a taste of my banquet.

Jesus tells another version of this in Matthew chapter 22, and it's very similar with a few details that are slightly different.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

This is uh something he teaches more than once.

This idea that we have been invited, that God, who is the master in this parable, has invited everyone to a party, to a banquet.

And there are some takeaways from this that are so powerful that help us understand who our God actually is and what he's invited us into and what we have the opportunity, not just once at some point distant in the future in the life to come, but every single day, the opportunity that we have in terms of a relationship with our God.

Let's examine a few things.

First of all, who is invited?

Who gets invited to the party?

Everyone.

Right?

Everybody gets invited.

Now it comes in stages, and typically the way this is understood is that the first group of people represent the Jewish people who had been given the prophecies and all the scriptures, and they were the ones that were supposed to be anticipating the Messiah.

The Pharisees who spent their time opposing Jesus and arguing with Jesus, they were the ones that should have seen him coming a mile away.

But they did not.

Pride got in the way.

And so those original invited guests didn't come.

And then who's next?

This group of people that are less desirable.

They would have been looked at in their culture as people you want to avoid, stay away from.

But they still live in the same city.

He goes and he gets all of those people.

Jesus was often criticized by the religious people in his day for spending so much time with people that were viewed as undesirable.

It was the tax collectors, it was the prostitutes, it was the people who were just common people, not the people that the religious elite viewed as worthy.

But even when those people show up to the party, it's not full.

And I love this idea that the the king will not, he will not tolerate his party having an empty seat.

Right?

He won't do it.

And so he says, well then go way out.

Go outside the normal boundaries, go out into the country and just bring whoever you can find, compel them, bring them.

And this is classically understood to represent the the non-Jewish people, the Gentiles.

And the amazing thing about our faith, study history, our faith is the first true multinational, multicultural movement that has ever existed in the history of the world, and it doesn't matter where you were born, what your race is, what your ethnicity is, what your socioeconomic status is, the movement of Jesus is the first ever in the history of the world, multinational, multicultural, not connected to any of those types of ideas.

And a short time after Jesus, his message would spread beyond Israel, beyond Jerusalem, and it would go to other people, other nations, and it would grow so fast in those groups.

And so it's sort of a picture of what's going to happen in the years to come.

But the basic idea here is that the king wants the party to be full.

The Bible says that God wills that no one would perish, but that all would have eternal life.

When we think in terms of heaven and hell, if we're going to think in terms of that, there is not one iota of joy that God the Father feels toward the idea of anyone spending eternity disconnected from Him.

Someone who lives their life, I believe this with all my heart, even someone who is evil, someone who commits themselves to evil, there are people in this world where it's not naive, it's not, they just didn't know better.

There are people in this world who know what evil is, they know what right is, they know what wrong is, they choose wrong, they do evil, they enjoy it.

And I believe that even those people break the heart of God because his desire is that all would spend eternity in heaven connected to him.

He wants his kingdom to be full, he wants the table to be packed, he invites everyone.

He invites everyone.

And we have to remember that as believers.

Like, who do I have to love if I follow Jesus?

Everyone.

It's not easy to love everyone.

It's one of my favorite things about our church, by the way.

We we talk about this from time to time and we have people that come and maybe don't agree with us on some major issues.

I'll ask this question well, do you believe that agreement is necessary for love?

Because I don't.

Like, I'm not compelled by Jesus to love those I agree with.

I wish, I honestly wish Jesus said, love the people that you like.

And there is great freedom to know that you are not compelled to like everyone.

You don't have to like many people.

But you have to love all of them.

You have to love all of them.

Even the ones you don't like, even the ones that you strongly disagree with.

I can't look at a human being on this planet and through my faith in Jesus justify not loving them.

Because he loves everyone.

Everyone is invited to the party.

And so remember that in your life, as you interact with others, they maybe rub you the wrong way, that frustrate you, that stand for things very different than what you stand for, and know as you talk to them, they've been invited to the party too, even if they don't know it.

Everyone's invited.

But who comes?

Not everyone.

You ever been to a party that like no one showed up for?

You ever thrown a party that no one showed up for?

It's a little different.

I'll never forget.

Well, my daughter was in first grade.

She got invited to a party in her class at school.

And you know how first grade parties, the whole class is invited.

That's how kids are.

First kids are like friends with everybody.

In fact, when your kids are really young, those of you who have kids, uh, you'll ask them, like, did you make any friends?

Like, I have five friends.

Like, what are their names?

I don't know.

They don't even know the name, they don't even need to know the name of the kid.

They're like, that's my friend.

What's their name?

I have no idea.

Like, all right, well, let's start there.

Let's learn, you know.

So you invite everyone to your birthday party.

Well, well, my daughter Lily got invited to this kid in the neighborhood's party at her school, and he lived uh near us, and it was a pool party.

And we were running late, we had a lot going on that day, and I remember my wife being a little stressed that they were going to show up about 20 minutes late to the party, to the point that maybe she was thinking about just not going because like it's awkward to show up that late.

They pull up, and no one had arrived.

It's just this kid swimming in a pool by himself.

And there comes my daughter, and this little boy went, Lily! You know, he's like, boom, and they just swam.

It was just the two of them.

I know, it was like the most heartbreaking and also in a weird way, sweet thing.

You know what I mean?

And my wife got to sit with the mom, and she's like, I'm so glad you guys came.

And we're like, absolutely, you know, all that.

And so that's a that's tough, right?

Being, you know, imagine you you invite people, you send out the invitations, you rent the place, you you get the food, you make the cake, and then like just nobody comes.

And as heartbreaking as that is when we think about that that poor little boy, what is that like for God?

Like, I'm have you ever stopped and considered how deeply God has been rejected?

And how heartbreaking it would be to create the world, to create people, to be patient with people, to watch them ignore you, reject you, disobey you, dishonor you, to send your son to die for them, to invite them into a relationship with you, only to have the majority of people say no.

Like it should break our hearts.

Like, that part of us that's like, oh, that poor little boy, that poor family, like, we should feel that for God.

Because he's been rejected so, so much.

And the audacity, by the way, in this story, if you know the culture and the kind of background, this is the way it would work in Jewish culture.

When there was a wedding, they didn't know the exact date of the wedding, it didn't work like that.

There was no Concept in their culture of it's going to be on this day.

So when you would get invited to a wedding, you would respond with a yes or a no, but but that was you saying, When it happens, I'm there.

And then they would begin to get ready, they would know who's coming, they would have all their RSVPs in, they begin to prepare.

And when everything was ready, when everything was finally prepared, and they had all the things that they needed to throw the party, then they would send out a servant, and that person would say, Now is the time.

And then you went because you had said that you would go.

And so these are people that have said, Oh, I'll be there 100%.

Yes, count me in, I'll be there.

But now the time has come and they have all these excuses.

And I don't know, these excuses kind of cut me deep as I thought about them because they're pretty relatable.

You know, the first guy he's like, Well, I just bought a field, I gotta go check it out.

The second person says, you know, I just bought a bunch of oxen, I gotta go, I gotta go try them out.

I gotta I'm it's probably connected to his job, his work.

The third person's like, there's another relationship, I'm married now, and you know, I gotta choose that person.

I wonder how many people say no to God because they're so busy with their work, maybe so busy with hobbies, or they've they've truly valued another person on this this earth more than they value God.

These aren't bad things.

Like they're not saying no because they're off to do wicked, horrible, evil things.

It's not like they're like, no, we're not coming, we're gonna go murder someone.

That's not what happens here, right?

No, they're these are all fine things.

Like these are all in and of themselves, these are good things.

Like it is good to go inspect what you what you buy.

It is good to go make use of the things that you have purchased to do the things you do in life.

It is good to choose your spouse, it is good to value the relationships that you have in life.

If you're not married, it's good to value your parents, to value your friends.

Apart from rejecting God, these are all very good things.

But it's it's when we choose those things instead of God that everything starts to go awry.

And that is so normal.

That is so normal.

I mean, it's it's something I've fought a lot.

I've talked about this before.

I've fought this a lot with my kids in sports.

Because um I'm pretty sure that youth sports is the official religion of Cherokee County.

I promise you right now, if we left here, there is not a baseball diamond near us that is not jam-packed.

It's tough, right?

Because you have a kid and you get him involved in sports, and and here's what happens to those of us like, real quick, show of hands, any of us who either have or have had sports kids, like you've raised some sports kids.

This is how many of you have way less money than you should have, like all that kind of stuff?

Um I remember one time before I knew this world, before I had kids, there was this guy, he was talking to me, he was like, Yeah, I got this kid who plays baseball, it's so expensive.

I mean, it's so expensive.

We we went to Cooperstown with the whole team like last week, and I I was young, I was like in my early 20s, and I just blurted out like, well, is he good?

And the guy looked at me like kind of taken aback, and I was like, Oh, I'm so sorry, but he was talking about how expensive it was.

We've spent thousands of dollars, we're all going to Cooperstown, and I was like, Well, I hope he's good, you know, because if he's not like that's kind of pointless.

But what happens?

Here's what happens.

You know, with youth sports, it's like your kid, you love him, and you you really love them, and and then you there's just always a moment where you're like, I think they might be good.

They've I think they have a chance.

Granted, I'm five foot seven, I never accomplished anything athletically.

I didn't marry with this in mind, but I think my child's gonna beat the odds and be it just happens.

Every parent's like, they could be really good.

But then their friends are doing it, and then there's a kid that you don't like, and you're like, they're they're gonna be better than that kid.

I promise you that.

We're gonna be there, we're gonna work, we're gonna train, we're gonna hire a trainer, all right?

You have you know seven-year-olds doing speed and agility training at home.

It's just a weird world.

But it's amazing how much that world, and I'll just use this as an example, it's amazing how much that world butts up against against God's stuff, against church.

And I heard a pastor tell me once, what happens when God always loses the tie?

What happens if every time there's a game or a practice and it conflicts with church, that wins?

And youth sports is an easy one to go to because it's it's been a battle I've had to fight in my own life, and sometimes I'm actually really grateful that I am a pastor of a church because I sort of have to be here.

Um I've had a great built-in excuse with with a lot of coaches, but if I wasn't, maybe I don't know how I'm being honest.

I think there could have easily been seasons in life where I just got so wrapped up in that that I was I was MIA for a while.

I really do believe that could have happened.

And it may not be that, it's all the things you list, it could be your business.

And look, we're not we don't keep attendance.

So sometimes being a pastor is a weird job because people confess things to you even though you don't ask them to.

Like you'll bump into someone and you're like, hey, how are you doing?

They're like, Good, I haven't I haven't been there in a while.

And I'm like, I didn't I didn't ask.

You're good, you know?

We've just been really busy, you know, it's summer, and I'm like, You're good.

You are totally good.

I should kind of lean into that.

I know, we know.

You know, that's what I should say.

We haven't been there in a few months.

Oh, actually, it's been seven weeks, exactly.

You know, explain yourself.

We don't do that, we don't do that.

There's things things come up in life, and the Sabbath was meant for rest, and it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.

But when God always loses the tie, when every time you're invited into his presence and to worship and learn and grow and be alongside other believers, and there's anything else that conflicts, other relationships, other events, you name it, work.

But if every time God loses the tie, what does that what does that communicate?

What it communicates is you don't want to be at the party.

You truly don't.

And that's heartbreaking.

Because being in relationship with God is better than anything.

It's better than anything.

There is nothing that compares to it.

It's it's the most incredible relationship you can have.

In fact, it's the only relationship you can have that that by having it should make every other relationship in your life better.

Like I can have a really great relationship with my brother, which I do, my younger brother, he and I are close.

We talk all the time.

I love my I love my brother.

Like we we have a very brotherly relationship, which is sometimes, you know, how many of you have how many guys have brothers in the room?

You know, you punch each other, you you have it brotherly love is a unique thing.

It's like, how do you show love?

We we make fun of each other.

That's how we that's how he knows I love him by insulting him every time we talk, right?

My mom sometimes has overheard us, and we're like, mom, we're love, this is love.

Trust us, this is love.

No, I love my brother, but I can be super close to my brother, and it has zero impact on my relationship with my wife.

But if I'm close to God, if I have a deep relationship with God the Father, it affects every other relationship in my way.

It's so hard to be, I'm so close to the Lord.

I love the Lord and I can't stand that person.

And I can't get along with this person.

No, when you love God and you live in relationship with Him, it should, it should affect every other relationship.

It just changes the way you see yourself, you see life, you see others, it's a beautiful thing.

It is it is wonderful to be at the party with God because it changes you.

And all these people, they have excuses.

And it has to break God's heart because none of those things compare to being at the banquet with God.

So who's invited everyone?

Who comes?

Those who who truly want to be there.

And so it kind of leaves us with a simple question.

This is not meant to convict us deeply.

Do you want to be at the party?

Last week we looked at the story of the prodigal son.

And I had kind of a throwaway line in that in that story.

And if you if you weren't here, there's a father and he has two sons in the story.

The youngest son leaves the father and says, I want my money now.

I I'd rather you be dead and I just had your money.

I don't even want to have a relationship with you.

He goes and he he wastes all the money, he lives a wild life, and he runs out of money, he's starving to death because there's a famine.

So he comes back home just hoping that his father will receive him as a servant so he can just be fed.

His father instead wraps his arms around him, runs out, meets him, dresses him in fine clothes, throws a huge party.

It was a surprise party.

We talked about that last week.

And it's all in honor of this son.

And it's a beautiful picture of the way that God loves us.

The challenge last week was: Are you able to receive God's love?

Could you have been that young man and have been there and be celebrated by your father?

Do we allow God to celebrate us and to love us, or do we push that away?

But the tragic person in the story, this was my throwaway line, I just said, you know, the older brother is really the saddest person in the story because he refuses to go to the party.

When he finds out that his his rebellious brother is back and there's a party thrown in his honor, it enrages him.

He can't stand it.

He can't stand for it.

And the thing that makes him so sad is that he was by all accounts good.

He was loyal to his father.

He never left.

He worked hard.

He actually says that.

He's like, I've worked for you all these years.

He's a hard worker, he's doing things the right way, he's doing the right things, but when his father threw a party, he didn't go.

So he's the sad one in the story.

Because he's the only one that's not at the party.

Do you do you want to be in relationship with God?

Do you want to be close to him?

Do you want to know him?

Do you want to be drawn deeper and deeper in your relationship with him?

Recognize that he has invited you into that.

And you get to choose.

You get to choose.

And this is the amazing thing about it.

Worship team, you can make your way back up.

This is not just a one-time thing.

This is not just about heaven, by the way.

I mean, it is.

We we see Revelation chapter 19, similar to that language we read in Isaiah.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Revelation 19 says, Then I heard again what sounded like a shout of a vast crowd, or the roar of a mighty ocean, or the crash of loud thunder.

Praise the Lord.

For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice.

Let us give honor to him, for the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb.

And his bride, which is the church, has prepared herself.

She's been given the finest of pure white linen to wear, for the fine linen represents the good deeds of God's holy people.

The angel said to me, Write this, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.

And he added, These are the true words that come from God.

You have been invited to that party.

One day, when history has run its course, and Jesus has returned, and this earth is made into the heaven that it was meant to be.

By the way, if you study scripture, heaven isn't a floaty place up there.

It's here.

It's here.

Like heaven comes here, and this world is what it's supposed to be.

And one of the first things that happens is there's this feast, this party.

You have been invited that.

It says, Blessed are those who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.

That's you, by the way, no matter who you are.

And sometimes we might look and think back to that original story.

Well, am I one of the first people invited or the last?

Who cares?

In some ways, like it's better to be the last people like, I wasn't even supposed to be here.

That's a beautiful thing.

It doesn't matter if you're the first group, the second group, the third.

What matters is are you at the party or not?

Do you want to be there?

The invitation has been laid out to you, and it's it's something that's far off in the future, who knows when that'll be, but but it's also something that's right now.

It's something that's every single day.

Every single day you have a standing invitation to have communion with God every day.

Standing invitation.

Earlier in Revelation chapter 3, Jesus is speaking to a church, and he's he's actually, it's a challenging conversation.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

If you've ever read the letters to the churches at the beginning of Revelation, uh there's only one of the churches that gets kind of like a keep going, fight the good fight, you guys are doing great.

The other churches, Jesus is like, look, we got we got to have a conversation.

These are challenging coaching conversations.

But in the midst of one of those, Revelation chapter 3, verse 20 says this.

Revelation 3:20

Jesus, uh, by the way, this is the same church, if you've ever heard this language in the Bible of you're lukewarm, so I'll spit you out of my mouth, like that kind of language.

It's intense language.

But Jesus says this to that same group of people.

He says, Look, I stand at the door and knock.

If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.

So it's a little party.

Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock.

Open, open up to me, just open up to me.

And he says, We'll share a meal together.

That's the that's what he wants.

That's the goal.

Like, what is his goal in your life?

To have a relationship with you, to know you, to commune with you, to be close to you.

That's what he wants.

And I believe that every single day he knocks, every single day.

And look, like we all have life, we have busy stuff, I do too, and life can be crazy, and your schedule can be packed, and I am as guilty as any person.

I am as guilty as any person, even though I'm a pastor, of allowing other things to get in the way of me spending time with God.

In fact, sometimes working at a church is weird because I can be like, God, I'd love to spend time with you, but I gotta go write the message.

Um that's happened.

I'm I've been like, I felt sometimes an urge just to stop and pray, but I'm like, I don't have time.

Because I have church stuff to do, which is a weird dynamic.

Every day he knocks, every single day, he's there asking, let me in.

Let's spend time together, let's eat together, let's have a party.

This is not just a far off in heaven thing.

This is a right now, today, tomorrow.

And I think it's it's deeper also than just a discipline of having quiet times and opening your Bible.

Some of you guys are really, really good at that, and that's awesome.

That you wake up every morning at a certain time and you open your Bible and you like that, keep keep doing that.

Discipline is very, very important.

But it's not just a routine.

Because he initiates with that knock.

What it really means is that am I prepared at any moment of my day to spend time with God?

Am I interruptible?

Is the status of my heart that I'm listening?

That I'm just discerning, that if everything's crazy and I'm going here or there and something happens, if there's just something inside of me that just stirs, and it's like I can recognize in that, oh, let me pause what I'm doing for five minutes.

Let me turn off the TV, let me let I think God wants to spend some time with me.

Have you ever had moments where you wake up in the middle of the night, like 3 a.m.?

And you're like, oh, why am I awake?

I was asleep.

As I get older, I realize half the time it's because I have to pee.

But, you know, once that happens, those of you who are young, you'll know it's different.

But there are other times that I'll wake up and it's like, why am I awake right now?

And what if our heart went, Lord?

Are you, do you want to you want to talk?

Do you want me to listen?

Do you have something to say to me?

He stands at the door and he knocks daily.

And if we will just be people who dedicate ourselves to saying, Hey, when you knock, I open.

Like make that commitment.

Lord, if you knock, I will open.

I may I may not hear it, you may have to knock for a while, you may have to knock loud, Lord.

Like you may have to ring that doorbell, whatever you got to do.

But I'm telling you, Lord, if you knock and I discern it and I hear it, I will stop what I'm doing, I will open the door because I want to have a meal with my Jesus.

I want to have that relationship.

If that is the posture of your heart and the commitment of your soul, you will have a deep relationship with God because he will never stop knocking.

He will never stop pursuing relationship with you, he will never stop desiring more of you, more time with you, more depth in his relationship with you, more intimacy in his knowledge of you and your knowledge of him.

That will never stop.

And so if we can be people who just say, I've been invited to the party and I'm grateful.

And I love you, Lord, thank you.

And if you knock daily, I will not say I'm too busy, I won't blame my wife, I won't, I won't blame the kids, I won't blame work, I won't blame you know everything else, I won't blame the game that's I won't blame, I'll just say that all goes to the side, even if just for a few moments, to be with you, to accept that invitation to the party, to communion with God.

And with that in mind, we're gonna take Lord's Supper.

And I forgot to grab one.

So I'm gonna come over by my buddy Chris.

What's up, Chris?

How are you?

Got it, got it, thanks, Matt.

All right.

Let's take this together.

If you're new to his hands, by the way, we have these on the back four columns.

Um, it's a meal we take every single, every single week together, and it represents what Jesus has done for us, and it's it's a little, you know, it's a little party, I guess.

Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock, I want to come in and what?

Share a meal with you.

So we get to have this little meal with Jesus every week just to remember what he's done for us, what he's accomplished.

And scripture tells us that this bread, Jesus himself told us this bread represents his body.

It was given as a sacrifice for us, and this juice represents his blood, which was spilled for us, and it purifies us, it cleanses us from sin because he paid the price for our transgressions.

And now we have forgiveness and mercy and life.

We've been invited to the party.

Even if we don't belong.

We do.

We do belong because we've been invited.

It's that simple.

Even if we feel like we don't belong or don't deserve it, we belong.

So let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this bread.

We thank you, Lord, for what this represents.

This is, Jesus, this is your body.

You gave yourself willingly as an act of love so that we can know you and have relationship with you.

As we take this, we just ask that you would stir in our hearts an interruptible, at any moment, desire to have relationship with you, that if you ever knock, we answer.

If you draw us in, we come to you.

That we accept that invitation that you've given us.

Let's take the breath.

And now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood spilled for us.

In your word, blood always represents life, and you gave your life so that we could have life.

Lord, in the metaphor that you gave us of a wedding feast, those can be really expensive.

Some of us have paid for those ourselves before.

Some of us have paid for those for our kids.

We know how expensive a wedding can be.

The feast that you've invited us to is incredibly expensive because you paid this price.

This is the cost for us to have this invitation.

It's your life, Jesus.

And you gave it fully because you love us so much.

So as we take this, we want to say thank you, and we ask, Lord, that you fill us with gratitude and a desire to always draw near, to always answer the call.

And we pray this in your name.

Let's take the juice.