This message, titled The Great Banquet, from Luke chapter 14, verses 12 through 24, was preached at Winchester Reformed Presbyterian Church in Winchester, Kansas. For more information, visit us at winchesterrp.com. Well, brothers and sisters, as I read this parable, It makes me, if I can put it this way this morning, it makes me want to be a Christian and it makes me want us as a church to be a person, to be a church that believes and is fully convinced that it is truly a great thing to be a Christian. As I read this parable and think upon the words of Jesus, brothers and sisters, I want for myself and I want for you that we would believe and that we would be persuaded that it really is the greatest privilege in this life to be a Christian. That Christianity is not simply a footnote in our lives, that being a Christian would not simply be looked upon as something that is negligible, as something that is peripheral to our otherwise joys and desires of life, but to believe and to be persuaded that it is a tremendous thing to be a Christian, to be saved, by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, that it is a tremendous privilege. And I want that so desperately for my life. I want that for yours because I fear for myself and for you that that is something that is very easy to forget. It is very easy to forget what a tremendous privilege it is to be a Christian. And I begin that way this morning because in many ways that's how this parable begins. Or rather, to put it maybe a little more strictly, it is the reason why Jesus gives this parable to begin with. Without repeating everything that we've already read, we have here, and it began earlier in Luke chapter 14, Jesus is sitting around a table, and he's feasting with some Pharisees. And in verses 12 through 14, as we've read them this morning, this scene follows immediately upon another parable that Jesus had given. If you just look back in the beginning of Luke chapter 14, beginning in verse 7, the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus now comes to give more instruction to those who are sitting around this table. And really, the instruction that he gives is quite practical. You might call it practical instructions for hospitality. And Jesus says, you know what, when you have a feast, when you have a meal in your home, Don't just invite your friends and your brothers and your rich relatives, because as Jesus says so plainly, when you do that, then they're going to invite you in return and you're going to get repaid for the kindness that you have shown. And Jesus says, but when you do have a feast, rather aim as a hospitable host to not be repaid. And so invite the poor, invite the lame, invite the crippled, invite the blind, invite those who can bring only their needs. and let them feast with you around the table. And Jesus is giving these, what you might call practical instructions on hospitality. And we find in verse 15 that one of those men that is reclined at the table there with Jesus, as he hears these things, he just breaks out, doesn't he, in this word of praise. There in verse 15, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. And the practical meaning, we don't need to jump through hoops, the practical meaning of what that man is saying is simply this, what a privilege, what a privilege it will be for any and for all who come to eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. This man is saying what a privilege it is to be one of those people. And at first glance, we might think, well, this man really seems to get it. It is a blessing. It is a tremendous blessing. It is an unknown and untold blessing to be one who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. And we can look at that and we hear that and we begin to think he really seems to get it. But the question is, does he? Does this man really comprehend what a blessing it will be to eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. And in response to what this man says, Jesus in verse 16 through the 24th verse tells a parable. And we need to understand that as Jesus tells this parable, it comes as a challenge to this man. It is not a challenge of the truthfulness of what this man says, as if Jesus is trying through this parable to say, well, you say it's blessed to eat bread in the kingdom of heaven, but oh, oh, oh, you're wrong. Jesus is not challenging this man as to the truthfulness of what he says, because it is a blessing to eat bread in the kingdom of God. Rather, to understand the context here, Jesus is challenging this man, you might say with these words, do you actually believe that? You say it, and you say the right words, you say it is a blessing to eat bread in the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus is challenging this man, do you really believe it? At the end of the day, are you actually persuaded? that to eat bread in the kingdom of heaven is the very definition of blessing and happiness. And so it's that challenge that comes to us as well this morning. And as the spirit helps, I want to look at this parable under three points. First, to spend some time on the invitation. Secondly, to look at the indifference. And finally, this morning, to look at the insistence. So I wanna begin this morning by focusing our attention on the invitation. So this man in this meal, you might think he sits up straight and he says, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. And in verse 16, but he, that's Jesus, Jesus said to him, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. It's very clear that as Jesus begins to tell this parable, Jesus is seeking to instruct us by means of a parable, as the parables often do. Jesus is seeking to instruct us about the character of the kingdom of heaven. how it is that you and I are to think about this kingdom of God. And Jesus says in response to this man, he says, well, I want you to understand exactly what the kingdom of God is like. He says, well, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And it doesn't require us jumping through hoops to understand that the man that Jesus is speaking of here stands in the place of God. It is God who is giving a great banquet. It is God who through his gospel is inviting many to come to this great banquet. It is God who invites and summons people to his kingdom of grace and his kingdom of glory. And I want to look at this invitation then as we have it here. I want to look at this invitation because The details are so important. You'll notice that it's an invitation to a feast. In verse 16, a man once gave a great banquet, a great banquet. He gave a feast. It's the imagery of a feast. It's very providential this morning that we land here on this parable. I didn't plan it this way when I set out to begin preaching the life and the ministry of Jesus. I wrote a schedule and I didn't know we were gonna be looking at this text the very week of Thanksgiving. But the very imagery that Jesus uses as he speaks about this invitation, it's an invitation to a great banquet, to a great feast, is an illustration that ought to resonate with every single one of us. You know, in just a couple of days, most of us, if not all of us, are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving. And what's at the center of Thanksgiving? Well, it should be gratitude, but that gratitude is expressed in a meal, and in a great meal at that. Most of us on Thursday or Friday or at some point this week, we'll sit around a table and that table is going to be spread. There will be turkey and there will be potatoes and there will be corn. There will be stuffing. There will be cranberry relish. There will be dinner rolls. There will be after the dinner, pumpkin pies and different assortment of desserts being treated. And it is by all accounts and purpose, it is a feast. And you see, what I want you to understand this morning is that as we look at this invitation in this parable, we need to have something of that picture in our mind. A man once gave a great banquet. He spread the table. It wasn't just a meager portion here or there. It wasn't just a scattering of a few crumbs of bread or a glass half empty of water. It's a great banquet. And it's the very imagery of a feast. And of course, we know that as Jesus is relaying to us something here about the kingdom of God, that we are not simply to think of literal food. The apostle Paul in Romans chapter 14, Romans chapter 14 verse 7 says, you know, the kingdom of heaven does not consist of meat and of drink, but the kingdom of heaven, he says, consists of righteousness and of peace and of joy in the Holy Spirit. But you see, that righteousness and that peace and that joy and that gladness of the kingdom of God and what it is the gospel invites us to, a common image used throughout the scriptures is that of a feast. You can think of Psalm 22. We sang it this morning, that the afflicted shall eat and they shall be satisfied. You think of Isaiah 25, which we read earlier in our worship service. As the prophet is foretelling the culmination of God's gospel grace, when He will wipe every tear from our eyes, how does the prophet say it in Isaiah 25 verse 6? It's a feast of rich food. It's a feast of well-aged wine. You can think of Matthew chapter 8 verse 11. In the Gospels, where Jesus says, you know what, as my gospel goes out, there will be people who are called from the East and the West, and they will do what? They will recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You think of the imagery that the book of Revelation gives us. So we opened in worship this morning, Revelation chapter 19, verses six through nine, the marriage supper of the lamb. You see, my point is this, brothers and sisters, the point of Jesus is this, that's what the gospel is. It's a feast. It is not a sparse meal, it is a great banquet. The things that God invites us to by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can only adequately be portrayed for us as a great banquet. His grace and His mercies, His provision, His promises, These are things that are pictured again and again in the scriptures in the terms of a feast and how fitting. Because at the end of the day, the gospel is satisfying. And many of us will sit on Thursday and we will have our stomachs satisfied by the feast before us. The gospel is satisfying, the gospel strengthens us, the way that a great banquet strengthens our bodies. The gospel makes us glad, even as a well-spread banquet table makes most of us rather happy. And so that's one of the things to see about this invitation. It's an invitation to a feast. And we need to understand here is the very imagery of Jesus to portray to us the greatness and the glory of the gospel. It's not only a feast, it is, as we see in this parable, it's a prepared feast. Look there in verse 17. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come. Why? There at the end of verse 17, for everything is now ready. You know, perhaps you can relate to this when you've been invited to somebody's house, or you invite somebody to your house to share a meal, what is usually the common question that is asked? What can I bring? You provide this part of the meal, but please let me provide another part of the meal. What can I bring to this meal? What can I bring to our fellowship? And I want you to see this morning as this invitation goes out, as the gospel is portrayed to us as a great feast, it is a feast that requires nothing more. The servant is to go out and he is to say, everything is now ready. This is not something for which he goes out and says, well, almost everything is now ready, but now you need to bring something else to the feast. He doesn't portray this as a potluck, does he? All of us chipping in and preparing some food that all of us can share in. There is this emphasis on the fact that everything is prepared. Everything is now ready. And it's a reminder, it ought to be a stark reminder to us, brothers and sisters, that in the gospel, Jesus has left nothing undone. Jesus, by his grace through his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension to the promises of the gospel, Jesus has accomplished everything. Everything is now ready. That's the glory of the gospel. The gospel doesn't say, well, you got to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and then you can be saved. The gospel doesn't say, well, you gotta do everything within you, and then God's just gonna add to your best efforts. The gospel doesn't say, well, God's thrown us a rope, and now we've gotta climb that rope to get to heaven. Here is the invitation, come. Why? Because everything is ready. Jesus has done it. Jesus has lived the life that the law commands and Jesus has died the death the law demands. It is all ready. It is all done. What were those closing words of Christ on the cross? It is finished. Jesus saying, I have done it. All has been made ready. This is not a potluck. This is not something that we bring to, to add to what God has done. It's an invitation to a well-prepared feast. But another thing that we see about this invitation is just how freely it's offered, how freely it's offered. In verse 17, at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come for everything is now ready. And we'll look in a few minutes at those that he first goes to. But then in verse 21, so the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. Right? Here's this master who's throwing a great banquet. Who's he inviting? He says, here's who I want to come. Go to the city streets and you bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Those who can't bring anything. Those who can only bring empty hands. Those who can only come to my table needing to eat and drink. You go and you invite them. And we read in verse 22, and the servant said, sir, what you commanded has been done and still there is room. Verse 23, and the master said to the servant, go out then to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. Go to the boonies. Go to the out of touch and out of reach places. Go to those who are neglected, go to those who are marginalized, go to those who are on the very outskirts, go to the highways and the hedges and whoever you come across, compel them to come in because this master is saying, I have one desire that my house would be filled. And it is a simple demonstration of what we call the free offer of the gospel. As Jesus told his disciples in Mark chapter 16, go and preach the gospel to every creature under heaven. You don't go to the rich who can repay you. You don't, you don't go to them and ask for something in return. You go to people who have needs and all of us have needs under the gospel. We have spiritual needs and we are to go and freely invite all to come to this feast. So that's the invitation. It's an invitation to a feast. It's an invitation to a well-prepared feast. It's an invitation that goes out freely to all people without distinction. It's the invitation. But secondly, and more to the point this morning, as the parable develops, we begin to notice an indifference. Look with me again at verse 17. And at the time for the banquet, He sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come for everything is now ready. And there's a note in that, isn't there, of anticipation. The banquet's ready. All that needs to happen are for those who have the invitation to come. But as soon as we hear that summons of the master, come for everything is now ready, immediately we are met with verse 18. Verse 18, but they all alike began to make excuses. And what are the excuses? In verse 18, the first man says, I've bought a field and I need to go look at it. In verse 19, the excuse of the man is, I've bought five yoke of oxen. I need to go examine them. That word literally mean I need to train them, I need to break them in. Please excuse me. In verse 20, another says, I have married a wife. and therefore I cannot come. The invitation goes out and it's met with excuses. I've bought a field, I have a yoke of oxen, I have now acquired a wife. And what's striking about these excuses, brothers and sisters, if I can put it this way this morning, what's striking about these excuses is that there is nothing in them at face value that is wrong or sinful. There is nothing wrong or sinful about buying a field. There is nothing wrong or sinful about breaking in a yoke of oxen. There is certainly nothing wrong and sinful in taking to yourself a wife, or if you're a woman, in taking to yourself a husband. What is striking about this is that there is nothing at face value that is wrong in these. The first one doesn't say, well, you're gonna need to excuse me, because I've got to go steal a field from my neighbor. The second man doesn't say, well, you've got to excuse me, I've got to go and be super cruel to animals or to people, I need to go hurt someone. This third one doesn't say, well, you're going to need to excuse me because I've got to go commit adultery, right? Obvious, blatant sin, that is not the case here. These are perfectly legitimate things. And so we have to ask what is wrong? Well, to put it this way this morning, what is wrong with all of these things is that man number one and man number two and man number three, what is wrong is simply this. They are making these things the priority. They are making these things the priority. And this is where If you're tracking with Jesus, you begin to feel the sharpness of this parable. All three of them are turning down the invitation to this well-prepared and free feast, really at the end of the day for no other reason than that it doesn't align with their priorities. They are saying, I've got something more important to do than to come to the banquet. And brothers and sisters, this is so, so, so important. Please hear this this morning. So much of what Jesus teaches And so much of what the Christian life comes down to is a matter of priorities. Where are our, where are my priorities? And the question that confronts us is simply, am I making God's priorities my priorities? Am I, for my own life, am I searching the scriptures to figure out what does God prioritize, or am I too consumed with what are Kyle's priorities in this short-lived, vapor-like life? So much of what Jesus teaches and so much of the Christian life comes down to this simply a matter of priorities and we really need to pause and we need to search our hearts and we need to examine our lives. Where are my priorities? And we need to think about this and oh, as a parent I feel this as well. Am I teaching my children what it is to prioritize things in life? You know, as parents, we want all kinds of things for our children, don't we? We want our children to be socialized. We want them to know how to speak to kids their age. We want them to know how to interact with adults. That's an important thing to us. We want our children to get good report cards. We want our young people to be thinking forward about their lives and what they are going to do. We want our kids to excel at sports. We want them, some parents get hung up on how desperately they want their children to be popular and to be loved and to be liked by everybody. We want our young people to learn good manners and good behaviors and to do things and to do them well. But here's a question that confronts, are we teaching them priorities? Because if I can say it this morning for our own lives, and as you think about the instruction of our children, and as the Lord gives you opportunity, your grandchildren, brothers and sisters, we are on the brink of spiritual insanity if we think priorities just fall into place. We're on the brink of spiritual insanity if we just think priorities come naturally. and aren't taught and aren't modeled and aren't searched for in the scriptures and through spiritual discipline brought to bear in our lives. Brothers and sisters, what makes all of these three men so wrong? They are prioritizing themselves over the things of God. And the striking thing about this parable is that it tells us there will be people who go to hell because their priorities are wrong. Jesus says in verse 24, I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. Why? Because there were other things that mattered more to them than the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've said more than I meant to there, but we have here in verse 18, as this parable develops, Jesus says, they all alike began to make excuses. And we begin, don't we, to see the absolute indifference that these men have to this great banquet, to this feast. And in some ways, it's hard to break those excuses apart. When you read commentators, you find they grapple with, well, are there categories in which we can look at this? What is the first man saying that the second man maybe isn't saying that the third man isn't saying? And it really is hard to break it apart as if there's all kinds of different classes of excuses being made. It's not easy. you can look at these things from slightly different angles, and you begin to get a comprehensive picture of just what it is that is the priority of these men's lives. So from one angle, we might say, well, here's the priorities of these men. This first man, his priority is pride. I've bought a field, and I need to go stand in my great field that I just bought for myself, and I need to look at it. I need to look at my field. That's why he doesn't want to go to the banquet. So he can stand on a plot of ground and survey it with his eyes. And there's an element of pride. Look at what I now possess. I just want to fix my eyes on it. And this second man excuses himself for the cares of this world. five yoke of oxen, and they really need to be broken in. I've just got to get it done. Don't you know this is my job, this is what I have to do, and the cares of the world can pile themselves, and for the sake of the cares of this world, he says, I can't go to the banquet. This third man excusing himself for the sake of pleasure. I've taken to myself a wife, I've gotten married. And I've got to go enjoy that marital relationship. You might look at it from a slightly different angle. This first man excusing himself for the sake of possessions. It's interesting, isn't it? The necessity, the force with which he says this. In verse 18, the first said to him, I have bought a field and I must go out and see it. This new possession is worth more to him than all that the banquet has to offer. And this second man excusing himself for the responsibilities of life. I've got to break in this five yoke. If I don't do it, who's going to do it? and feeling that it just can't wait. It can't wait another day. It can't wait another hour. It can't wait another minute. All these responsibilities on me. I just don't have time to go to the banquet. I've got better things to do with my times. And this third man making the excuse of relationships. You know, it's interesting. I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. The parable doesn't explain why him having a wife means he can't go, but that's what he says. excusing the banquet and the feasts for the sake and prioritizing human relationships. It's no wonder that Jesus will later teach that you're not worthy of the kingdom of heaven if you don't hate mother and father, brother and sister for the sake of Jesus Christ. You might look at it at another angle. This first man making the excuses of necessity. This second man making excuses of anxieties. I'm just, I'm too anxious. I gotta get it done. This third man making excuses for the sake of desires. I just, I don't desire to go to the banquet. I desire to spend time with my wife right now. You see, it's hard to break these apart to know exactly what the differences of the excuses are. But you see, no matter how you slice it and dice it, it all comes to this. Their priorities don't leave room for the banquet. Their pride and their cares and their pleasures and their possessions and their responsibilities and their relationships and the necessities of life and the anxieties of life and the desires of life are more to them than this feast. And they are perfect examples of those who forfeit the soul for the things of this world, for the fleeting trivialities of this world. They're indifferent. Well, finally, this morning, We have an insistence. So we have this invitation, this master telling his servant, I want you to go far and wide. I want you to invite as many people as you can. We have the indifference in these men's lives. One excuse, two excuses, three excuses. The servant comes back to his master. In verse 21, so the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servants, go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. And the servant said, sir, what you commanded has been done and still there is room. Verse 23, and the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be full." I want you to focus this morning on that six letter word, compel. Go compel people to come in. What does that word compel mean? It's a word that literally means to force someone. To force someone to do something. It's a word that means to constrain someone to do something. It's a word that carries with it the idea of urging somebody. Can I put it this way this morning? To compel somebody means to put them under necessity. To put them under necessity, and that's what this servant is to do. He is to go and he is to compel people to come in. Of course, we're not going to dive into it this morning, but that does not mean that Christianity converts by the sword, by physical force. It's been an error in the history of the church. It's one greatly to be lamented. That's not what Jesus is saying here, but Jesus is saying, as you go out, as my servant goes out so that my house would be filled, here is something that is incumbent upon you. You need to compel people. There needs to be a persuasiveness. in the way in which you plead with people and the way in which you urge them to come in that my house would be full. Do you hear the weight of that? It's not simply, the master is not simply saying to the servant, well, go out and invite them to come and tell them, come. He says, no, you've got to compel them to come. You've got to find a way to be persuasive, to put them under necessity, to put them under obligation to come. And brothers and sisters, there is a world of application in how to do that. How do we compel people to come? We compel them with the mercy and the grace of God. to tell them God is good and he is gracious and he is merciful to sinners and we do whatever we can on the basis of the mercy of God to compel people to come. We can use the provision of God and what he provides in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the ministry of the spirit to persuade people and to compel them to come. We can use the benefits and all the blessings that come as a result of the gospel as a means to compel people to come. We can use the severity of God and his judgments to compel people to come. Knowing the fear of the Lord, the Apostle Paul says, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men to be reconciled to God. Because it is a fearful and dreadful thing, as the author of Hebrews says, to fall into the hands of the living God. The severity of God can be the compelling force to tell people to come. We can compel people to come by our love for one another. Jesus says, by this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another as I have loved you. We can compel people to come by our good works. Jesus taught himself, you know what? Do your good work so that men might glorify your Father in heaven. We can compel people to come as we bear up under suffering. as we bear up under persecution and the way in which we do that, to let them see that the gospel really is compelling as it overrules all of our suffering and affliction. We can compel people to come in by the contentment we display in our life, by the joy and the gladness and the delight that we have in the things of God. There is a world of application to this. We could multiply this list. on how to compel our neighbors and our friends and our children and our families in an unbelieving world to come. But I want to zero in very specifically on one point this morning. Do you remember how this parable begins? Do you remember why Jesus speaks this parable? He does so because in verse 15, that man declares, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. Blessed. And Jesus is in this parable, he's laying a challenge down. Do you really believe it? So that one of the driving points of this parable, brothers and sisters, is this. We compel people to come when we live and when we act and when we speak the truth of the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What I am saying is this, we need, you need, I need to demonstrate in the very way in which we live, we need to demonstrate with the priorities of our lives that Christianity is worth it, that it is all things. Can you imagine this morning a bride, who for months before her wedding day tells everybody how excited she is for that day, who makes meticulous plans and tells people, I cannot wait for the day of my wedding. Only on that day when her alarm goes off to continue to press the snooze until the service that was scheduled is over. You would look at that bride and you'd say, there's no way you're excited to be married. Can you imagine this morning a dad who says, you know what, my children mean the world to me. And yet every night when he gets home from work, he sits in his chair, he turns the game on, and he completely ignores his children. We would be right to question that man's allegiance to his children. You say you love your children, you say they mean the world to you, and yet you ignore them. Can you imagine a coach who's telling his team, we've got a really important game coming up on Friday night. It's really important. This is the biggest game of the season. And then Monday through Thursday says, nah, I'm not interested in practice, don't worry about it. You would look at a coach like that and you would say the game means nothing to you. Can you imagine brothers and sisters, a Christian who out of one side of their mouth says what a blessing it is to be a Christian. and then turns around and acts like it's a mighty little thing what God has done by his free and sovereign grace. And there are more important things to do. Can you imagine a Christian who says, yes, what a blessed thing it is to be a Christian, who then treats Christianity like it's nothing but a burden, treats the worship of God as if it's nothing but an inconvenience, treats the glories of Jesus Christ as though it's a mighty dim thing. You see, that kind of Christianity will never, never, never, never compel people to come in. When you treat this world and the things of this world, your job and your money, your sports and your hobbies, your relationships, your entertainments, your comforts, when you treat and live as though those things are the dominating priority of your life, more to be desired, more to be enjoyed, You are communicating to others the gospel is a very little thing. And Jesus is saying, no, you need to compel people to come in. You say, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. Do you believe it? And it's so easy to forget that, brothers and sisters. It's so easy. And what is the antidote? The antidote is to fix your mind on the feast that has been spread. The antidote is to think upon the great banquet that is offered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of my absolute favorite hymns, easily in the top three, are based on these words. And in that hymn, I think it really captures the spirit of this. In that hymn, it's called, How Sweet and Awful is the Place? And this is what it says. While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cry with thankful tongues, Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room when thousands, make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? And the answer to that question, it was the same love that spread the feast, that sweetly drew us in, else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. How do we reclaim the high privilege and blessing of being a Christian? by fixing our eyes on the greatness of the banquet of the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And brothers and sisters, when we begin to live like that truly is the greatest blessing in this life, we are compelling people to come. When our lives are lived in such a way that we say here is the priority, the gospel of God and the worship of him, we compel people to come. We insist, and in a very real sense, we put them under necessity. Brothers and sisters, in reading this parable, I want to be a Christian, and I want us to be a church who believe and are persuaded that it is the greatest privilege in all this world to be a Christian. Let's pray.