Each other all right Luke chapter 14 I'm being serious. I mean you'd be surprised They love the Lord. They might love each other. They sure don't like each other. I Have been at those churches Year, I mean 20 some years ago. I dated a girl and she said I'll never want to see you talk that man again I said who was that? That's my granddaddy Not a joke that's reality I've seen him. I was at a church one time and preaching revival and a fella came in and he wanted to get a visitor. Came in and he sat down and the fella said, you're in my seat. He said, oh, is it your seat? He says, you know how you donate pews and they put the little plaques on the side? He said, that's my name right there. All right, Luke chapter 14. I better get to preaching, but maybe I am a little bit already. but we're preaching to the choir on that. All right, Luke 15, and let us begin our reading back in Luke 14, verse 15. Luke 14, verse 15. And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade many, or invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say unto them that were bidden, come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must need to go and see it. I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou has commanded, and yet there is room. The Lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. And so we continue this morning with the parables here in the 14th chapter. In the verse 15, one of them that said it me, when he heard these things, he said, blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Now, what had happened was, is the Lord had come. He had, they tried to set him up. They set a man in front of him. It's a Sabbath day dinner after synagogue. And they wanted to see if he would heal the man. He did heal the man. And he taught to them that a man is better than an ox, basically. You all will pull an ox out of its ditch on the Sabbath day, but you'll be upset that I heal a man. And then he saw how prideful they were, how they were jockeying for the higher positions in the feast. And he gave a parable. about when you go, go and invite those to your feast that cannot repay you, that you may have reward in the resurrection of the just or the resurrection of the righteous. And so one of the men shouts out and says, well, blessed are they that will eat bread in the kingdom. But then Jesus said this parable unto them. It's obvious that Jesus here Did not like the man what the man said was right But our Lord Is at this stage thinking this man ain't gonna eat bread the king Neither any of these people here gonna eat bread in the kingdom And he gives a parable about, basically, verse 24 is the thrust of why he told it. I say unto you, those who have been bidden will not eat my supper. That's what it's about. Let me say this. John MacArthur said, and I agree with him here, Jesus never left a man in false religious assurance. Well, praise God, we're gonna eat bread in the kingdom. Then Jesus lets them know, you're not eating bread in the kingdom. He says a parable unto them, you will not eat of my supper. He never allowed them. Now, I want you to think about something. Jesus never sought any kind of middle ground with the Pharisees. He never did. He never said, well, we worship the same God. Or I know you're doing this for Jehovah's sake. You're just a little misplaced. To be a Christian is to love the things that the Lord loves, right? It's also to despise the things the Lord despises. Who did Jesus rebuke in his ministry? The religious? Pharisees Yet through the years I tell you That as I preached against the Pharisees all these years as the Lord has I can't tell you how many times Good-meaning people and I believe saved meaning people come up and go well now I Know there's a little Pharisee in you that I stepped on today. Yes, I And you can identify with them well now and then they'll take it to that well you buy that you don't mean and then they'll Start or they'll start. Yeah, but we live in a society where everything goes and This is a Roman culture. See they want what is in us that wants us to defend the Pharisees The only time that I find anybody relating to the Pharisee is when Paul had to make the choice of whether he was gonna live or die in that temple, and he said, I'm a Pharisee. That's the only time anybody ever sought common ground with the Pharisee. The rest of the time, he said, I mean, read the book of Galatians. His harshest criticisms came to these. Why? Because they have made law keeping and keeping the commandments and all these things so rigid, they believe that that performance is gonna get them into heaven. Matter of fact, they, and what started it off here was the question about the Sabbath. And someone has, and by the way, I'll mention this on a side note, if we're gonna continue the series you asked for, that's fine, but you gotta ask for it. I've got one more sermon and it is gonna be on the subject of the Lord's day. But we'll preach that when it's time to preach that. That'll be Wednesday But if we have no more questions, then we'll end it there because that's pretty much the last. There's a few other questions I think I can answer in my preaching that I don't need to devote a whole sermon to, but so if there's something you need to ask, you need to ask it in the next between now and Wednesday. Anyway, and you know, maybe it's time for it to go because it's just but He rebukes him and he begins to tell this parable. He has rebuked for the Pharisees. But there's a little bit of Pharisee in me. Rick Presley, who is a friend, he wrote a satire that Boyd called At the Feet of Gamaliel. And he used to send it out to preachers and oh, it used to make them so mad. because he would point out satires, you know, you put in yourself and he's talking about these pharisaical meetings. Oh, that's not pharisaism. That's not, I mean, he'd just burn them, burn them up. Look, it's really easy for me to say, she's a pharisee, he's a pharisee. Let me ask you this question. What about the pharisee and me? Because amongst conservatives, that's what we struggle with. And I've told people before, my problem is, is I'm too judgmental of the judgmental. I'm pharisaical against the Pharisees sometimes. But Jesus is giving this in reply to the Pharisees, saying, you're not eating bread in my kingdom. So let's look at the parable, because he teaches a lot in this parable. The invited ones. Now, and he says, a certain man made a great supper. Now this isn't a dinner, it's a supper. And it's at night. And bade many, invited many. So this must be a very wealthy man. And as we've said before, in this culture at this time, and even today, those that go over in the Middle Eastern culture, one of the great events is to sit around and eat. and to have big festivals and different things like that. So this man, probably a wealthy man, he's made this great supper and he's invited many. And his servant at supper time said to them that we're bidden. Now, we covered this before in one of our, when we talked about the Lord used, this isn't the first supper parable he's used. He did one with the wedding. They didn't have cell phones, obviously, nor did they have calendars and clocks and pre-prepared food and caters and things like that. So he would send out, they would send out an invitation. Hey, the Lord of the Mouth, he's gonna be preparing a great supper. We want you to come. Well, that could be two days, that could be three days, that could be four days. I mean, you've gotta gather the food. We didn't have canned vegetables. You gotta, we're frozen vegetables in the refrigerator. You gotta gather the food. Walmart ain't cutting up the meat. You gotta butcher the, but my point is, it's very simple, is it's, you can't give a hard fast two days we're gonna have it. You gotta go in and say, he's making us supper. And so, okay, so they know the next two or three, four days, they're not gonna be, they're gonna be, okay, we'll come, we'll come, we'll come. And so he has invited them. Let me say this, he has likened this to the house of Israel. They've already been told that the Lord's gonna bring Messiah, he's gonna bring a great supper, and he's going to, and all will be ready. And so then he goes out in this two invitation system, he goes to those who are already invited. So then he and sent his servant at supper time to say unto them that were a bit They were already invited come for all things are now ready And so you can liken this to John the Baptist you can liken it to Jesus You can liken it to his apostles the nation of Israel had already been told and have been told on watch guard for Messiah and they knew about the time that Messiah would come because of the prophecies of Daniel in his 69th week and so forth and all that and I don't think the Magi follow the star like I do my GPS. No, I mean the star dictated to them. It was used for time and navigation of not just when but where. I just like and so They knew it was time for Messiah to be born. Israel knew it was time for Messiah to be born. And that's why there was so many false prophets, false messiahs in that day, because a lot of people were trying to cash in on it. Just like they knew when Moses was gonna be born. It was already foretold. But the point is, is the house of Israel had been given the covenants, they had been given the promises, They have been given the promises, they have been given the oracles of God, they have been given everything to tell them, not exactly when Messiah was come, but the season. And now here comes John the Baptist and Jesus preaching and teaching about what? The kingdom of heaven is at hand. He said, blessed are they that eat in the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is already at hand because the king is at hand. And so he said, he went out to those that had already been invited. Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's very clear. He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And so, and they with all, and so they said, all things now ready, come, come. And as we said, this is likened, this supper invitation is likened, this kingdom is likened to the Lord and to salvation. If you will, look with me in the book of Isaiah in chapter 25. We're not gonna give a lot of commentary, but I wanna show you that Israel had already known that the coming of Messiah and the rejoicing in the kingdom period, they didn't understand the two aspects of the kingdom. Many still don't understand the two aspects of the kingdom. That the spiritual kingdom came in, and then after the spiritual kingdom would come the physical kingdom. They think it all just came at one time. That everything was done, is going to be done, is going to be accomplished when the kingdom comes in. There are a lot of people still confused about that. They think oh, well everything's happened with Jesus time. It's all just coming and then others are like well nothing's coming And it's all gonna happen in the future and we've said that we believe that we're going to be in Revelation 20 tonight There's an already good night yet about everything the spiritual that brings the physical we have been resurrected and spiritually one day we will physically be resurrected the spiritual kingdom has come and Already is, but not yet. The physical aspects of the kingdom have not manifested themselves yet. They had of the two as one. And here in the 25th chapter of Isaiah, he speaks about the kingdom coming. He says in verse one, we'll read the chapter for its context. Oh Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name. For thou hast done wonderful things, thy counsel of old are faithfulness and truth. For thou hast made of a city and heap of a defense, a city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city, it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible Nations will fear thee. This is talking about his second coming. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy. In his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat. When the blast of the terrible one is as a storm against the wall. Talking about how he guards us against that wrath that's coming. Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers. as the heat in a dry place, even the heat with a shadow of a cloud, the branch of the terrible one shall be brought low. Now look, verse six. And this mountain, now that's Jerusalem. Jerusalem's the highest mountain in that area. This mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all the people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lease of fat things full of morrow of wines on the on the lease will refine and he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all his people and the veil that is spread over all nations he will swallow up death and victory so there's a you know You said that sounds familiar. Paul quoted that in first Corinthians chapter 15 talking about here the feast of the rejoicing of the day of the resurrection of the righteous. Well, we're feast and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces and the rebuke of his people shall take away from off the earth for the Lord has spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, lo, this is our God. We have waited for him and he will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him and we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest and Moab shall be trodden down under him. Even a straw is trodden down for the dunghill. And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them as he swimming with spared forth his hands to swim. And he shall bring down their pride together with of with the spoil of their hands and a fortress of the high fort of thy wall shall he bring down and lay low and bring to ground even to the dust. We see the return of the Lord. He's not only dreadful in the fact that he's going to bring out vengeance, but it's rejoicing. It's a time of resurrection. It's a time of feasting. It's a time of rejoicing in the Lord. And so when the Lord said, I'll repay them in the resurrection of the just, the man said, isn't it going to be blessed of us to be in the kingdom? And the Lord casts forth His parable and says, I've sent out my invitation to the already invited ones. I've sent out my invitation, but what was their response? Salvation is a celebration throughout the Bible. Let me just say that before we move on. Salvation is a celebration. I like that old song, Come and Dine the Master Caller, Come and Dine. We can feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. He calleth unto us, come and dine. There's a table spread where the saints of God are fed and He calls His chosen ones, come and dine. Yeah. We can feast at Jesus' table all the time. It's likened to a feast. Isn't that what we've seen in Revelation? When the wrath of God is being poured out, we're all gathered around the feast of the Lord. But it can be a feast now. And so He is bringing them and calling them to Himself. Spiritually. I'll give you bread where you'll never hunger again. I'll give you water where you'll never thirst again. But notice they began to make excuses. Now, there is a difference in a reason and an excuse. I'm just going to say that. Now, sometimes we have reasons we can't do certain things. But there is a difference in a reason and an excuse. But they made excuses. And they made ridiculous excuses. He bit him. And they all, with one consent, began to make excuses. And the first one said, I bought a piece of ground, and I need to go and see it. Going to go survey your land at night? Because this is his supper tonight. I mean, he can't wait. You're going to go survey land at night. Well, I have five things of oxen. I'm going to go improve them. You're going to go plow at night? Now both of these two things can wait. You've already made the purchase. Certainly they can wait it out. But then you're going to say you're going to do it at night? And then the third guy, I'm henpecked. My wife won't let me go. I mean, if that's his real reason, he ought to have lied about it. Hey, can we go to church today? We going to church? impact Now I'm gonna let you in on something A lot of times people say things to me They give me reasons or excuses Why when they give me a reason why they can't come to church many times They'll give me a reason and and in my honesty my response to this is I understand I understand. If I was in the same situation, I may do the same thing. Sometimes they give me an excuse and I say I understand and what I mean by that in my mind is I understand you're sorry. I understand you're sorry. Forgive me. I watched me and my brother used to go and He pulled my dad out of bed and bathed him and dressed him and put him in a wheelchair, wheeled him into church to preach. And then when he couldn't preach, we did the same thing. I didn't take him because I was pastoring the church. I would go over there and meet with him. And this morning, there's a man that I know was crying this morning. About an hour from now, from here. Cuz since 1968, he's gotten up every morning with a Bible on the Lord's Day and going to church and preach the word. I'm not just preachers, I know a whole lot of other folks through the years that have been like that. And man alive, I hear stuff that just don't make any sense to me, I'm sorry. Well, we couldn't make it. She was sick. Does it take the whole family to watch her? Mm-hmm. Because I raised three children. God forbid that as a pastor, I guess I couldn't come all the time to have a sick kid. Because me and the wife, we just got to sit over her or him. Right. Take the whole family to do that? No. Well, you know what? You know what? Pull this down to two things. Land and oxen, possessions. I gotta go try out my new boat. Well, you got Saturday for that, don't you? I gotta go do this, I gotta go do that. Again, I understand your reason, and I also understand an excuse and sorriness when I hear it. I can tell the difference in the two. Matter of fact, they train you in the sales game to when you turn it, when they give you something to say, go see this customer, you know what's supposed to check at the box? They gave me a reason or they gave me a put off. You know what a put off is? They just make it up something. We never found out why they really don't want to do it, because they lied to us. They're just telling us anything to get us shut up and get out the door. That's fine. You want to put me off? Put me off. I hear excuses all the time. But you know what? You know why I don't call people out on it? It ain't my job. That's between you and the Lord. He's a far harsher judge on this stuff than I am. Far harsher judge than I am. And you know what? It's a good thing he's the judge. You know why? Because I could read the thing wrong. I could read the thing wrong. I could be thinking you're just saying something. Well, maybe I don't know the whole thing. Maybe you are putting me off. Maybe there's something worse that you don't want to tell me about. I get all that. That's why I don't say anything. That's not why they didn't come to church this time. Well, why didn't they tell me? Well, they're kind of embarrassed. So I get that. I get that. I understand. That's why I don't press the matter. But they invited him to come. Now, guess what happened to the one who made the supper? He got angry. That's what he did. He said to another, I have married. Now, I would have made something else up if that was me. So that a servant came and showed his lord these things, possessions and people. Well, I can't do it, you know, so and so. We got that family thing. Well, that's fine. But it seems like you got a lot of family things. And we're talking about once or twice a year, that's one thing, but it sounds like you got a whole lot of things. Well, we got company coming in. That's a great opportunity for them to come to church, ain't it? Well, they don't really feel comfortable. Well, maybe you ought to be a testimony to them that you're going to come to church whether they come or not. Let them sit at the house, give them some Cheerios or some eggs or whatever, hand them the remote. Tell him to watch The Smiling Preacher on TV, but I'm gonna be in church. Don't say it mean or smart Alec, just say it sweet and nice and be gracious about it. Maybe your testimony of you're not gonna sit around and... Anyway, I could get off on that subject, because you know I rarely preach on it, and when I find a text that says it, boy, I wanna wear it out. showed his Lord these things, then the master of the house being angry. Well, I think you'd be angry. You've done all this to make us suffer. They said it was coming, but they didn't come. To his servant, go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city. Note that for now. and bring in the poor, the maimed, and the hauls, and the blind. Well, we've got to have the place full. So go ahead and just invite everybody you can. Well, now, we've already done that. There's still room. There's still empty tape. There's still empty seats. And there's still room. They're still running. Then the Lord said unto the servant, then go out into the highways and go outside of the city. What do you think that he's teaching here? I'll make parallels to us in our day, but I think what he's saying to them is, we invited you Pharisees and scribes. We told you about the law. We told you about this. We gave you the law, and you made 550 laws out of one law. I mean, you've added law upon law after law. I mean, the thing here is the Sabbatei, and they've literally got about 17 paragraphs of whether or not you're carrying a burden, if you've got a splinter in your finger, or if you dig it out, are you working? That's not a joke. They literally have a debate over that. Well, that's what happens when you start with law. And they have missed the boat. The point of the law wasn't to make them high and haughty. The point of the law was to bring them low so they would see their need of a savior. They think they keep the law. I love what Paul said. You who desire to be under the law, Have you read it? Have you? Have you read it? No, we haven't read it. We're a bunch of Gentiles. We just pick and choose what we want. We'll go into one chapter, pick this out, go into another chapter, pick this out, and leave everything else alone. But the point is, is they should have known. He went to those that were already invited that knew the law. Most of them didn't come. But thank God, some of them came. Then, well, we'll go out to the outcasts within the city, picturing within Jerusalem. Not all them came, but some of them came. Now it's time to go outside the city gates. That's us Gentiles. We're gonna send a servant outside the city gates. He's gonna send them out where the vagabonds, the thieves, the gypsies, the hustlers, the thieves, the homeless, and everybody else is living. He's gonna send them out to the outcasts. And the Lord said in the sermon, go into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none of those men which were originally, I'm translating this or interpreting it, who were originally bidden to the supper, who wouldn't come are gonna end up eating at my banquet when I come again. So what's the application? Let's give just a few things here in application. Salvation is likened to a supper time and rejoicing. Book of Revelation is likened to a marriage supper. This is rejoicing. Man, how wonderful it's going to be to be around the Lord. We're going to eat in heaven. I hope you, we're going to eat in heaven. I mean, there's a tree up there that's got all kinds of manner of fruit on it, the tree of life. We eat of that tree, it's going to keep us alive forever, man. Do you believe that? I believe that. There was a literal tree in the garden one time. I believe there's a little tree up there. I do believe these are symbolic of something, but does the Lord ate fish around the... in a glorified body? Explain all that. I can't explain all that. But I believe it. Salvation is a time of rejoicing. There's rejoicing in heaven when one sinner comes to repent. I mean, the worship of the church ought to be like this supper. Here's something that a whole lot of Baptists really need to get a hold of. It's okay to enjoy church. There's no prohibition against laughing at church. There's no prohibition at smiling. I remember that old Mt. Critchie used to go around, used to say, some of y'all look like you was baptized in lemon juice and weaned on a pickle. And Mom and Lalda have come to stay. I mean, we're allowed to. One old hillbilly boy used to look out at the crowd every now and then. He's a big revival preacher. He'd look out at church. All the time, he'd look out and go, some of y'all look like you've been sentenced here tonight. And we weren't sentenced to church. It's my privilege to come to church. And I know that we preach the word of God as we preach the word of God. Not every sermon can be positive and upbeat and uplifting. Every servant don't have to be browbeaten and Debbie Downer either. And you know what? You preach through, you're going to find everything in here. You're going to find, hey, I'm rebuking for excuses. But I'm also rebuking, hey, you know why you don't come to a supper? Because you ain't hungry. How many of you done that a long time ago? And you know why people don't miss church for every excuse under the sun? They ain't hungry for God's Word. I didn't call to come to make anyone hungry. I've come to feed the hungry. And that's all I worry about. You ain't got to worry about stealing satisfied sheep that get their stomach filled. But we're allowed to rejoice at church. You know, I know too many that they're out there. They're all week long. I mean, look, I was talking with Grant about it this weekend. He's doing a little bit of work on the side until the church can try to help out. I mean, he said, I got to get out of the house. That's the main reason. We'll leave a lot of this off camera. But he got to get out of the house a little bit. And he said, to the offering, you know, of helping build the thing. We'll get the thing built, and I'll be able to do that, different things. And he said, all right. He said, now, for the last so many years, I've been full time, and you've been working. And he said, he said, a lot of pastors just, they cannot relate to people that have to work for a living, and all that they have to deal with in this world. And then we can't have something every other night at church because, you know, we got families, I got school, we get tired, we got stuff to do. That's why we don't, as the old timers say, don't church them to death. You'll run them off. But the point is, if you're out there all week long, you're amongst the people of the world, some of them are good, some of them are foul, some of them are mean, some of them are nice, And then you've got all the problems in the world. You've got problems in your, maybe not in your immediate home, but you've got family that's going through problems. You've got a family that's sick, family that's broke, family that's angry, family that's not talking, family that's rebellious to the Lord. We all got family problems in our life, but maybe not with our family. I woke up grumpy, but this morning. I'll let her sleep sometimes you know It is immediate and sometimes you're the grumpy one, but the point is is this world is not easy Job said man's days are short and full of trouble then you go down to Walmart you go I was with somebody at Walmart this week and they were going to make a cake that was nine dollars for whipped cream Five dollars for this, four dollars for that. Oh man, a lot. You know? The groceries are going through the roof. I said before, the grocery stores offer the same as cash options. Grocery stores may have to start soon. I mean, man, a lot. Can I put a chicken on layaway? I mean, it's getting bad out there. And gasoline, they say, oh, we're going to get a break in gasoline. It's only going to be $4 a gallon. You know, it costs you $40 just to drive to town. One thing I did, coming from the city, I didn't count on having to drive 14 miles to the gas station, you know. But, you know, I would have rethought some things that I didn't know. But, hey, you got the economic pressures out there, you know. You got, you know, we look to our leadership. Oh, my goodness. I mean, Mr. Magoo wasn't this messed up. I mean, I mean, I've seen stuff. I mean, they had to cut him off the other day. He didn't even know what he was talking about. He didn't know what he was talking about before he even started talking. Robert Kennedy makes a lot of sense. Did you ever think you'd come to the day where you're talking to Robert Kennedy? It's making a lot of sense. He does make a lot of sense compared to a lot of these other guys. Man, a lot. Then we find out that, I mean, all the money that's going on, we're about on the verge of economic collapse. You turn everything on. I mean, I don't know where we're going to be able to handle four more years of this kind of stuff. I mean, we're not. We're already on the brink. And you come to church, you're feeling bad, you're tired, you wore out. Preacher gets up, and then he blesses Then he'd browbeat you to death, or I won't preach on the end of Christ, and hell, everything's gonna get worse and worse and worse. Well, I mean, things are gonna get worse, but thank God that's just gonna hasten the Lord's return. I mean, come church, I know I preach long. And you gotta listen to him. And sometimes it's like that one man, he said, there's a difference. There's a fine line between a long sermon and a hostage situation. It's like, how long can he go? I go about as long as I still have your attention. Now everybody's looking down, all right? That's like that one boy, the preacher got up there and he said, he's in the middle of a sermon. He said, now if you check that watch again, I'm going to add five more minutes, and some little boy on the front row took it off and said, I ain't staying in here any longer than I have to. But when we come to church, it ought to be a time of rejoicing. It ought to be a time of feasting on God's word. We don't have to have all the games and gimmicks of the world because those things will pass away. We have things that the world doesn't have. We've got the eternal word of God and the peace that passes all understanding and growing in grace and knowledge of the truth. And there's nothing that can replace that. Now we've invited all we can. of the church people and the good people we know. And yet, as he said in verse 22, there's still room this morning. We've invited all we can of the church folk. Well, they're not real happy down there with that preacher. Yeah, they'll stay. They'll stay, or they'll go back. Why? Because they got social stuff for them. We don't have all that, and I'm not saying that you can't have that, but the problem with starting a lot of that is a lot of people get in touch with that, and that's why they're there. As a matter of fact, that isn't a hidden strategy. I can show you stacks of books online that you can buy, how to get them involved, because they found out if you can get them involved in some kind of group, you can keep them to stay, because most of the time, they don't even listen to preacher anyway. I mean, that's not even on the radar with the average person. I mean, people come to churches, you know. I mean, in the top 10, it's things like convenience of parking and easily designated buildings and comfortable seats. I mean, you wouldn't believe the stuff. And then groups and all this other stuff, well, you know. Hey, hey, if the word of God, hey, I'm going to believe that God can still do a work and still save the people. I'm going to say gospel seed. And you know what, if the place blows up and we run 300, we'll have 300 people here to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, or we will continue to have the group we have, but we'll thank God for it, and we'll so see and believe in the sufficiency of the word. The word still can bless, because that don't mean he's bound to bless. But what's the alternative? Well, let's go to those. who are unchurched and invite them to Christ. Invite them to the banquet. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, let them come. You know, at the end of the book of Revelation, and the bride says, come. All things are now ready. Compel them. That means to persuade them, that means to, hey, that means to persuade them. That really does, that means to lock in Give them a reason and persuade them. Say this as we close, what about you who come Sunday? Is there anyone here in their mind who's been here, who comes Sunday after Sunday, you've not trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Well, you're no different than the Pharisees that are eating dinner with Jesus, but have never trusted Him. You've eaten, with the Lord, but you're not eating from the Lord. You've been associated with the media, but you've never feasted on Christ. You've never tasted that good, that sweet, that banquet, that dinner. Trust Christ, come unto him. Bible says come unto him all you that are weak and heavy laden today. We give the invitation to salvation Everyone that's thirsty. Are you thirsty for something more in life? Are you thirsty for the things of the Lord? Are you hungry for God come to Christ? Do you know that there's a void come to Christ? and I've said this often and this will be one of my most quoted and Quotes, Spurgeon said, God only meets with desperate men. Only God knows how to make each man desperate. David said, I pant for thee like a deer pants for the water brook. And I don't pant, then the Lord ain't made you thirsty. I can't make you thirsty, only the Lord can make you thirsty. Remember one boy? He came up to me. He said, I don't know what happened, preacher. I said, what? He said, since I've been saved, you're a whole lot better preacher now than you used to be. I said, I know. That happens a whole lot of times. You know why? Because now you've got a hunger for it. And you've got a hunger for the Word, for the truth. Do you have a hunger? Come and die.