work of Christ, that as we gather, we gather not sinfully before you, but by the righteousness and holiness of Christ before us. We come, O Lord, though, as your adopted children asking. We pray, O Lord, for our civil government, and today we think, O Lord, of those who are service members serving our military, who in many ways continue to uphold our own freedoms here in this land. We pray, O Lord, for them. that you'd preserve them and that you'd care for them. And for the service members, O Lord, who do not know you, we pray, O Lord, that you'd use Bible-believing chaplains to draw them in. But we, O Lord, are thankful for their service amongst us. We pray, O Lord, that you would use them. that you'd use them well in preserving peace and prosperity within our own land, but, O Lord, that you'd use that formative experience, O Lord, that they might come to know you. We pray for our own service members amongst us, and we pray for those who have served amongst us, that you, O Lord, would remind them of your great blessing as we serve as stewards in your kingdom. We pray also, O Lord, for the work of the church. We think of the Ileana Presbytery and the women's ministry therein. We pray for Chris Lawler as she oversees that ministry, as she plans a retreat coming this fall. We pray, O Lord, that you'd be gracious to her and to the other women who are seeking to plan this retreat. But we pray, O Lord, that you'd be kind to the women, not only of our own church, but of all the churches in our region. That the women's ministry would be an encouragement, not merely locally, but regionally to the women in Iliana Presbytery. We pray, O Lord, that you bless this ministry and that you bless the Presbytery as it continues to work and also meet at that time. We pray also, O Lord, for those who are lost. We think of those who are lost in South America this morning. Sometimes many of those countries, O Lord, can escape us. We can often forget to lift them up in our prayers, and so we lift up that continent to you this morning, that you, O Lord, would bring revival there. We know, O Lord, that perhaps other religions, even Catholicism, have taken great deep roots in South America, but we pray, O Lord, for evangelistic fervor. We pray for the Presbyterian Church of Brazil and the many other Presbyterian churches throughout the continent. We pray, Lord, that you bless them. That the evangelical gospel would continue to go forth there and that there would be a mass turning from sin to Christ. But we pray, O Lord, that you even raise up missionaries amongst us. That we, O Lord, might go. That we would have people go and share the gospel there. But if not amongst us, O Lord, we pray throughout even the PCA and the broader church. That we, O Lord, would continue your mission of bringing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. We pray for growth too. We pray for growth locally. We think of our own deacons and pray that you continue to invest your spirit amongst them as they seek to serve us. As they care for the physical needs of the church. As they care for the financial needs of the church. As they oversee those various gifts. We pray, O Lord, that you would continue to invest in them the grace of liberality, that they would be examples amongst us, that we, O Lord, might be a people that are giving. That as they give their time, we give our time. As they give their monies, we give our monies. As they give themselves, we give ourselves. We pray, O Lord, that the grace of liberality would be an intoxicating feature of our church, and that it would draw us to be a more giving people. And we pray that that would begin in our leadership, that it would begin with our deacons. We even pray for officer nominations as they closed last week, and the various men that have been nominated. We pray, O Lord, that you prepare them for training and that you prepare them in these various graces as we've already prayed. We also pray, O Lord, for help. We thank you, O Lord, for your grace with Donna's son as we receive good news that after the issues with his heart that he'll no longer have to wear the vest in emergency situations. We thank you, O Lord, for your grace and we pray that that would be a blessing to them. We lift up Nancy to You. We pray that You would show and shine Your grace upon her. We know often she's unable to be with us for various reasons. But we pray, O Lord, that Your Spirit would care for her, that our people would care for her, and that You, O Lord, would bring many opportunities, even in our own mind, to dwell upon the things of Christ. We pray for the Walters family as they love Nancy. We pray that you'd continue to show your grace to them. We also pray, O Lord, for wisdom as a congregation. We pray for wisdom as we chart our way forward as a church. as we seek to find a permanent place of worship. We pray that you'd give us clarity, that you'd give us direction, that you'd give us conviction and zeal, O Lord. But be with the leaders of this church. Be with the session as it seeks to offer direction. Be with the diaconate as it seeks to evaluate the financial state. Be with the building committee as it makes decisions and executes the vision and direction with the finances that we have. We pray, O Lord, that you'd give us wisdom, that you'd give us wisdom as a church, as we seek, O Lord, to honor you, not merely for the days ahead, but for generations to come. We pray all of these things in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Well, I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 14, Luke 14. Jesus is continuing his ministry in Luke, and believe it or not, the last visit to the Pharisees' house seems to be an eternal one, as we continue to unpack Jesus' teaching in this last visit to the Pharisees. And he is going to continue to build upon the banquet motif. We heard a very general parable last week on the banquet nature of Jesus' ministry, but we will continue to hear that in greater detail here. As perhaps the tension in the room could be felt by those who are at this dinner feast, Jesus will continue to drill down. And so as Jesus drills down, will you stand up as we hear from Luke chapter 14? We'll be picking up in verse 15. 1415. This is the Word of God. When one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he set his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, I have bought a field and I must go see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. And 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. And the servant said, Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still more room. And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highway and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who are invited shall taste my banquet. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever. You may be seated. I am perhaps an avid board game player. There's nothing more interesting to me than mixing strategy with conquering my foes. I enjoy playing board games. And I remember my time in Tuscumbia. We had a group of guys that would come together. We tried for once a month to play board games together. And these events would usually start in the morning, a Saturday morning, since no one was at work. We would play a few board games into the afternoon and then the families would then come to that house and we would have a dinner together. It was an all-day event that we always look forward to. What game would we play this time? What strategy would I need to conquer these friends? We were all very competitive. If you took too long to take your turn, we would want to take out that dunce cap. Analysis paralysis is what we would say to one another if you couldn't play well. But I remember once, it was my friend's birthday, and he wanted to celebrate by having one of these events together. And so he sent out his invites. And he got invites back from all five of our friends that we would all be there for his birthday celebration, as it were. And I remember we chose a game perfectly curated for the amount of people that would be there. You see, some games are better with more, others are better with less. And so we chose the right game. But then his birthday came, and we went over to his house, and we sat there with the game completely set up for all five people waiting for those seats to be filled. But there were only three of us there, and we waited. And we waited, no updates, no updates. So we finally reached out and it seems that one of those friends decided that that day would be a day that he would finally build his coop. And he solicited the friends that were invited to this great banqueting enjoyable feast and they were drawn away. They had other commitments, but they never let us know. Jesus, in this passage, is perhaps testing our commitments like my friends had their commitments tested. If you look at the passage, who hasn't Jesus offended at this point? It has been quite the party. The Pharisees were angry that Jesus was healing on the Sabbath. The invited guests were angry because Jesus had called them all out as they vied for each other's position. The host is angry because Jesus hated his exclusive list of people. Everyone at the party was angry. This is a dinner party you would not want to be at. You could feel the tension in the air. You could cut it with a knife. You could feel it. And so in the midst of that tension, that anger, vitriol, what do we have? We have a man who hates tension. And so what does a man say in response to this tense party? He tries to get everybody to get along. And what better way to get everyone to get along than to say, blessed is everyone who eats bread in the kingdom of God. He's trying to cut the tension in the room and to unify the room. Everyone in this room believes that. Everyone could look forward to heaven. made a theological link. They knew what Jesus was talking about. That when he talked about the banquet, he was talking about the coming kingdom of God. But it also exposed the complacency of those who were there. You see, everyone who was at that meal thought that they were looking forward to that heavenly banquet. There was a complacent heart. Even in American culture as we think about it, how often if you bring up the heavenly realm, the heavenly things, who doesn't believe they're going to heaven? Everyone believes. Everyone is complacent. Perhaps they're like those at this dinner party. Blessed is he who comes and eats bread and drinks wine in the kingdom of God. Christians can struggle with complacency too, though. We have a temptation to be like the Pharisees. We can get set in our ways. We can presume God's grace. We can be presumptuous that we are in the kingdom. After all, we are the frozen chosen. We are those who are chosen by God, so we get complacent. But Jesus wants to, perhaps, push us a little. that our pious hope for the future that will come in the kingdom is not merely a future thing, but it is a thing to be grasped today. The invites are out today, and you must accept. The invites have gone out. Are you complacent? Are you saying, yes, Jesus, I will come to your banquet, but let me first do a few things. Let me clean up my house. Let me get married. Let me finish my taxes. Since God invites us to his banquet, we must learn to commit ourselves to it. We must commit ourselves. We must not grow complacent. And so there are three ideas that I want to connect to this idea. The first thing I want you to see in this passage is that he graciously invites us. He graciously invites us. We see this in verse 16 and 17 as the parable opens. The man says a statement that is meant to unify and Jesus wields that statement. perhaps to remind us what is the kingdom. Verse 16, but he said to them, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at that time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, everything is now ready. Jesus offers a broad net of an invitation. We see the wealthy nature of the man who is leading the banquet here. Jesus is no doubt thinking of the Father as he sends out invites throughout all the world to come in and to welcome them in. Jesus is thinking of the Pharisees as the Pharisees are invited to the banqueting table of God. But you'll see that there are two types of invites here. It was customary in the ancient world that when you received an invite, you'd RSVP and then when the day would come, you'd be reminded of that RSVP. Come. You see that in verse 16 with the initial invite. A man with a great banquet invited many. This is the first invite. It would go out two to three days before the banqueting feast. You perhaps think of your busy schedules two to three days in advance for a great banquet. Golly, how do you plan? They didn't plan like we planned. We planned for months and years into the future. They are thinking of weeks. And so, Jesus is saying he sent out an invitation, perhaps drawing us back to the Old Testament when God invited a people to be his own. The initial invite has gone out. But if you look at verse 17, you see that there's that reminder that comes with it. And at the time of the banquet, the day of, His servant went out to those who had been invited and said, come now. Everything is ready. He had the RSVP and now you have the reminder of that RSVP. Everyone who said yes on the first were duty-bound by honor to attend that meal. This was perhaps just a show of reminder, a common courtesy. The meal that you said you would come to is now ready. Now come! The host has prepared the way. Now you may come. The animals have been slaughtered. The stews have been made. The food is ready. And so now come and enjoy it with the host. It's the intimate invite. We sometimes do the same thing. We have great parties. You get your save dates for a wedding and then you RSVP for the wedding and then you might send an additional reminder for the wedding. We do some similar things and how annoying is it if you are planning a wedding when someone says they'll come and then they do not come. We'll get into that in the passage later. But we do some of these sorts of things. We plan, and Jesus and the Father plans, and in that planning they invite. And this inviting is a very liberal inviting. The Lord invites and invites widely. He is a great king and he can afford much. And so the banquet he prepares for, he sends invites throughout all the world. And he is gracious enough that in that invite, he then sends a follow-up. That come, come to me now that I have invited you. Come, as the passage says, for everything is ready. Jesus sends a very liberal invite. I want you to see that as we think through this parable of a banquet. He doesn't prepare a banquet that is stingy. A stingy banquet with only select people. He prepares a banquet and invites liberally. And the response, as you'd expect to that first invitation, should be an exciting yes. It reminds me of when I went to Malawi with a friend. We were both 18. And we decided that we wanted to go on a mission trip together before college. And we traveled to Malawi for a month. But after a month, I think we were ready to be home. Home was beckoning us. It was calling us. We were ready to return. And I remember as my friend, as we were in Ethiopia, we got our printed tickets. We didn't have smartphones at the time. It was all printed. And I remember my friend looking at his ticket, and at the front of his ticket, it said S on it. And he was concerned. Why didn't Scott's ticket have an S on it? Why does my ticket? And he began to think. And in his own mind's eye, he crazed himself. What was he crazed about? Because he deciphered that that S meant standby. And he interpreted that standby ticket to mean expendable luggage. That he was not a mandatory seat on that plane. And so he started to panic. Scott, you cannot leave me. He pled with me. Do not leave me in Ethiopia. If I don't go, you don't go. Please, he begged. And then that begging turned to even further desperation. He said, I'm getting on that plane no matter what. And my 260 pound friend said, I will just go dead weight. They'll have to drag me off this plane. That's how we should respond to Jesus's invite. We're so committed. We know where we must be. The banquet has been prepared. We have been invited. And we will do anything. We will become dead weight on a plane in order to get there. Even if we have a standby ticket. Ready. because of the gracious invite. J.C. Ryle helpfully says, there is nothing wanting on God's part for the salvation of man. If man is not saved, that's not the fault on God's side. The Father is ready to receive all who come to him by Christ. The Son is ready to cleanse all from their sins to apply to him by faith. The Spirit is ready to come to all who ask him. There is not, there is an infinite willingness of God to save man. if man were only themselves willing to be saved. Ryle is a Calvinist. He's a Calvinist, no doubt, but you can hear the warmth in his Calvinism. The warmth of the graciousness of God of inviting. There's an open invitation to the gospel. But our problem is that last sentence from Ryle. There is an infinite willingness of God to save man if man is only willing then to be saved by God. We're not naturally willing to be saved. And we see that as perhaps we move in to the second part of this sermon, which is our hearts tend to make excuses. You see, God invites us to his banquet and we're called to commit ourselves to this banquet. But we make excuses. Our excuses are plenty. These people had three days. They made their RSVP three days before the party. They told Jesus. They told God, we will be at your banquet. We are committing ourselves. But then we get the callback. And in that callback, we see some of the most ridiculous reasons. Lands, animals, and honeymoons. What do they have in common? They're all bad excuses for delaying going to God's banquet. land, animals, and honeymoons. You see the first of these excuses in verse 18, but they all alike began to make excuses. Jesus sent to them out in verse 17 and said, come, the banquet is ready. And all alike, as the ESV said, they made excuses. Perhaps you might even put your conspiratorial hat on. They send out the invites, and in order to shame the banquet hosts, they all have a reason why they can't make it. And the first is because land, I have bought a field. I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. In ancient Israel, buying land was actually more difficult than in our own land. I'm sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of hoops you have to jump through just to buy your own land. You think of, man, 30 days, that is a gauntlet to buy a piece of land. It's a lot of work. It takes a lot of time. You have to review a lot of documents. You have to sign a lot of things. It's not easy. But in ancient Israel, it took two years to buy land. You didn't just wake up and say, I'm going to buy that land like you buy that used car. It took time. You surveyed every square inch. It was mandatory to survey the whole land. You walked every inch of that land. You reviewed it. You had people inspect it. You had everything analyzed and it took years. I don't know if it was because of the backlog or just the slowness, but the man who's making an excuse here has seen the land. He has seen the land. He has been on the land. He has surveyed the land. He has walked the land. He knows that land. And he has bought the land. It's taken two years and he has bought the land. And so you can see the pettiness of the excuse. I bought a field, I must go see it. No, you don't need to go see it. It is a poor excuse. An excuse that makes no sense. There is no urgent demand. You can go tomorrow to see the land. You've committed yourself today, you can go tomorrow. The excuses actually get more ridiculous. In verse 19, Jesus gives us another example. I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused." This is a man who actually did go. This didn't take two years. He decided that, I'm going to buy some oxen today and I have bought them. It'd be perhaps like buying a car. If you want to replace yoke of oxen for used cars, I invite you to. This man bought five used cars. It'd be like if your spouse called you to cancel dinner and say, hey, I've just bought five used cars and I'm going to find out what make and model they are and whether they run. It's a man who doesn't know what he's bought, but he already owns them. He will own them just as much today as tomorrow. It is a preposterous excuse. Then the final one, perhaps one that you might empathize with most, might be the craziest of all. And he said, I've married a wife, and therefore, I cannot come. I know I said I'd be at your banqueting meal, but I have a spouse, and the spouse has decided that I need to be somewhere else, and therefore, I will not be here today. It may seem like the most reasonable, but what this person is talking about is their honeymoon. Three days before the banquet, when they could have gotten out of the banquet. They must have forgot they were married. Who could think? and therefore he cannot come. He is suddenly tied up. It kind of reminds me of in the South where Christian men would waste their life until they were married. They would waste their life throughout all of college, throughout all of grad school. They would just waste, waste, waste. But the moment they got married, now it was time to shape up. Now I must leave my family, but you've wasted so much time. It's like a vacuum. That is perhaps what this last example is saying. Instead of going and setting your sights on the banquet of God today, you're delaying. That is the meaning of all three of these little snippet parables. The people that are tempted to delay. I have better things to do, Jesus. I have better things to accomplish. They were merely excuses to defer what God had for them today. They were legion. Their excuses would go on and on. How often today do we defer our growth in spiritual holiness? We say, I will start, I'll do a Bible reading plan, but not today. I've got to wait until the new year to start this thing up. Because I've got to wait until January 1. Because if I start today, I won't read the whole Bible anyway. We make all sorts of excuses, do we not? We desire to defer. We desire to defer, and that desire to defer is most ordinarily connected to our own worldly excuses. Why do we defer? It is because we are enamored today with other things. We see the light, and we are drawn to worldliness. We're drawn to it like a fly. We want the world, not Jesus. We'll have Jesus someday, just like the Pharisees perhaps would have thought. We'll have Jesus someday, but not today. We have land to sell, cars to buy, families to raise, honeymoons and vacations to go on. We have all of these distractions. And these distractions draw us away from the Lord and they create excuses within us. I'm reminded of a relationship in the early part of America between Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield. Benjamin Franklin, if you've ever seen his Bible, it cuts out most of the Bible and it's only the things he agrees with. Such an American thing to do. But his close friend was actually George Whitefield. George Whitefield, who was the itinerant preacher who would go throughout the colonies and preach from Sunday to Sunday in different locations during the First Great Awakening, the Good Great Awakening, not the bad one, not the second one, the good one. George Whitefield's a good guy. But he was close friends with Benjamin Franklin, and if you know Franklin, he was not a Christian. And perhaps Benjamin Franklin encapsulates these excuses found here. After Whitfield's death, Franklin wrote, Mr. Whitfield used to pray for my conversion every day, but he has never had the satisfaction of believing that any of his prayers were heard. What did Franklin say after Whitfield's death? He said, I have all these other preoccupied things that I do not care the things of God. Perhaps we can sense that in our own lives, in our own family's lives. There are all sorts of distractions that could leave us with a Franklin heart. A heart that says, yes, folks might pray for my conversion, but I am distracted over here today. Well, you are invited. Many are invited, but many also refuse to come. We are distracted and pulled away by our entertainment. We are distracted and pulled away by our family and our friends. We are distracted and we're too busy. We're too busy to have any more time for God. Scott, have you seen my schedule? Have you seen my distractions? I'm too busy. We're too busy to grow as a family. We're too busy to read the scriptures together. We're too busy to pray. We're too busy to sing. We're too busy to do godly things together. I hear that more often than you think. We are pulled away. We're pulled away by our own self interests. And they are distractions. The last thing I want you to see is that those excuses may cost us. Those excuses may cost us. And we see that in verse 21 through 24 as the parable concludes. So the servant came and reported these things to his master, and then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and begin to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Like any good banquet host, there is irritation. My friend's birthday, when people failed to show up, he was irritated. Why? Because he had prepared for them to be there. The animals had been slaughtered. The meals were being prepped. And there's irritation because he can sense perhaps that conspiracy. The conspiracy of the Pharisees who in unison seek to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. He can sense it. So what does he do? Does he cancel his banquet? No. The master of the house becomes angry and what does he say to his servant? Go out quickly to the streets and to the lanes of the city and bring the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. Go out to the streets and to the alleyways. Jesus didn't say go out to Wall Street and find the best people you can to fill this banquet. He says go out to the streets and to the alleyways. Who are in the alleyways? The poor, the crippled, the blind. The lame. The lowly. You see, the banquet must go on, and so Jesus, in his great grace and mercy, says, go out and invite those who are unfortunate and downcast. The blessings that were meant for a great people, the Pharisees, the Israelites, they shall be given to others. They will give this banquet to those who they have overlooked. to the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. This actually harkens back to Leviticus and those who were often viewed in downcast light. It was to the riffraff. Jesus' liberal invitation, we see how liberal it truly is. and who he invites. The mutilated, the deaf, the physically broken, those who are discriminated against here, the Messiah now invites in. Kenneth Bailey summarizes the meaning of this supper like this. God's Messiah is here and he is inviting you to his banquet on the day of salvation. The banquet is now ready. Do not refuse, for if you do, With your ridiculous excuses, as Bailey says, others will fill your place from among the outcasts of Israel. And in the future, an invitation will also then go out to the Gentiles. The banquet will proceed with or without you. It will not be canceled or postponed because of you, but it will go on without you. It's a good reminder. Your excuses can cost you. Like most people, it's hard to pass up a good deal. And there is a good deal that is presented before you today. Because, believe it or not, you are these downcast people. You are the lowly people that Jesus extends his invitation to. You are the poor. You are the downcast, the downtrodden, the mutilated. You are those people. And there is now a deal prepared for you, not a fake deal, not a foolish deal, not even a Black Friday deal where they raise the price before they lower it or sell you a 10-year-old model and say it's a good thing. It's more like a Costco kind of deal. A hot dog at Costco. It's a good deal any day of the week. How could you pass up a Costco hot dog? You can't. How can you pass up the Lord's banquet? You can't. You're lowly and you need His good deal. But you see that even with this good deal, the banquet itself is not filled. Look at verse 22, and the servant says, Sir, what you've commanded has been done and there is still room. And the master said to his servant, go out in the highway and the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. If you thought there was a lower class than the low class, here it is. These are not the people of the streets or the alleyways. These were the people on the other side of the gate. These were foreigners. These were harlots. These were the rejected. They were so deplorable that they weren't allowed inside. They must stay outside. They were in that nook and cranny. You don't go to that red light district on the outside of Jerusalem. You stay within the gates. It's safe in the gates. We vetted the poor in the gates. Those on the outside, those are truly deplorable people. This is where you're dealing with beggars and harlots and foreigners and all sorts of types of people you probably wouldn't naturally associate with. Jesus says, now that you've filled my banquet with those who are lowly, now get those who are detestable and bring them in as well. Perhaps in the first category we see the general lowliness of humanity, but we see the depravity in the second group. The detestable are welcomed in at the expense of those who see themselves as self-righteous. We see Jesus' response. Those who make excuses. Those who defer holiness. Those who defer God's plan by saying, I want to focus on me, myself, and I today. What does Jesus say as a grave warning to us in verse 24? For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. It's a grave warning. A grave warning for everyone else here today. Everyone must heed this warning because worldly distractions tempt us and they seek to shame Christ by us rejecting Him that we might pursue them. There's a warning here and I want you to memorize it. If you are invited and you are distracted, what will it cost you? It might cost you your admission. This draws back, actually, to the passages that we've heard. This is all building up. Jesus has already talked about those who are in the night who wanted to come in, but they waited too long and the door was already closed. And what was on the other side of that door? It was the banquet. We've seen Jesus talk about it. And he has warned the people, and he here warns us again. You might wonder, why is pastor always talking about these things? Well, Jesus is always talking about them. He's always inviting and He's always warning. Come, come now. Be weary of your own complacency in the faith. Do not wait to the new year. Do not make that wait. Do not continue in your complacency. Complacency tempts and tests every one of us. It's easy to get caught on the back foot. It's easy to be distracted in the world. You just take out that thing in your pocket. It's so easy to be distracted. You have time to kill. If you've ever been at Walmart or any store and there's a line, what are people doing? They're not just standing there. They have time to kill. What do they do? They just scroll. No one interacts with anyone. It is doom. It is dystopian, perhaps. But we can't let ourselves just sit and do nothing. We have to distract. And Jesus is saying, be weary of distractions. Be weary of complacency. You might just be saying, I'm killing five minutes of time. But what are better uses of that time? That is when you could be reading your Bible. That is when you could be praying. That is when you could be talking. Don't waste Jesus' invitation here today. Since God invites us to his banquet, we must commit ourselves. We must commit ourselves. For the Christian, how committed are you to God? He has a party ready for you. He has invited you as a lowly person. And he keeps extending that arm of invitation by sending his spirit to you. And that spirit saying, come now, the banquet is ready. Come and journey towards the celestial city. Christians must continue in accepting that invitation and continuing and striving towards that holiness. But we are also, perhaps in the right way, we are called also to invite. The invitation is invited to us, but we are like that servant in the parable where Jesus says, go out and invite. You personally might not be the greatest evangelist. I, in my early conversion experience, feeling the call to ministry, I was like, I cannot be a pastor because I'm not an evangelist. And every church relies on the pastor to be the evangelist, because no one else wants to be. So I can't be a pastor. But there is an evangelism that every one of us is called to. It might not be sharing the eloquence of the gospel. But we can all invite. We can be this servant. The servant that Jesus talks about here. Invite, invite, invite. Jesus commands you. He commands you in this passage to go out and invite. He doesn't say, well go out and outline the gospel and here's your gospel tracts from InterVarsity, whatever, what have you. No. It's simple. Go out and invite. Go out and invite. One of the natural ways that the church grows is actually not by the pastor's evangelistic zeal, but the people that invite. I'll do the heavy lifting here from the pulpit. All you are called to do is invite. Bring people in. Be not embarrassed of your pastor too much. Bring people in that they might hear the gospel. For the non-Christian, God has sent an invitation today. Perhaps you're learning. Maybe you are too complacent. Well, God has an invitation set to you today to commit to His banquet. Jesus' gospel is found here today. Come. His invitation is extended. How do you receive it? You receive it by faith in repentance, relying on the Son who died for you. He sends His personal invitation today. You are invited. Will you accept? Today is as good as any day. Do not put it off. Do not say, when I have my house in order then, I will believe. Do not say, in the new year, I'll reevaluate and I'll come back, pastor. No, today, if you hear his voice, do not make any lousy excuse. Today, hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. But come to him, call to him, for he has an invitation extended to you. Let us close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are not a stingy father.