In St. Luke's Gospel, chapter 14, and I told her I didn't know where to start reading, but I'm gonna back up over there. In verse 12, chapter 14 in verse 12, where I'm gonna begin at this morning. Then said he also to him that bade him, when thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbor, lest they also bid thee again and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense or repay thee, for thou shalt be repaid, or recompensed, at the resurrection of the just. 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. and sent his servants at suppertime to say to them that were bidden, come for all things are now ready. Now this here is, I looked at it and looked at it and I preached it before and I preached on excuses and I probably will again and again and again. But if you notice, Jesus, what is a parable? First of all, we need to know what a parable is. What is a parable? What? An illustration of something that is like, or could be, or will be like. An illustration. And so, in this parable of the great supper, Now Jesus had met with them and he had been talking to them and he had been telling them, you know, on different things and healing and so on and so forth. But as I read this, well, I read it different times this week and read other places, I kept going back to this and I kept feeling that God wanted to show me something. And a lot of times, a lot of times, the title of a message will help explain what we need to know and what we need to be a doing, amen? Now y'all look at me like I'm crazy, and I am, but I'm gonna preach here in a minute, so you better grab ahold of something and hold on. Because it's gonna involve us all. How many like to be part of everything in the church that's going on? Well, why do some of you turn me down every time I actually do something? But this was a parable of a great supper, and we know the Bible says that one of these days that the rapture takes place, and we get on with the Bible, it does say that Jesus is going to gird himself and he is gonna serve us all. Now how many of you read in the Bible that this great supper was representing really the rapture? But there's so many points to be made out of this. And so I said, God, what would you have me to take a text out? What would you have me to speak on? And I got, when I read that, and he sent his servants at suppertime to say to them that were bidden, come for all things are ready. And I wanna talk this morning or preach or whatever for a few minutes on church, it's time. It's time. You might say, well, brother, what are you talking about? It's time. It's time that the church gets busy. That's a good place for amen. It's time that the church gets busy. It's time. Why do I say that it's time that we need to be about the Father's business? How many believe that we're in the latter of the last days? If you don't believe we are, you just pick your Bible up and you read over Matthew chapter 24, and then you read some over Revelation, and you will see when Jesus said that things that we're seeing come to pass now, floods. Has anybody seen any floods this year? If you haven't, just go down to some of these places it has. Some of you have been to some of them. Earthquakes, have you heard about earthquakes in diverse places? Volcanoes? Storms everywhere. Has anybody been in a storm this year? Jesus said all of these things would come to pass. He said there'll be wars and reamers of wars. There'll be hostilities, that's heartaches, that's storms in different places and in different ways. So we're seeing about everything that we can imagine that's going on in the world today. As Ronnie or somebody said up here this morning about Mississippi, man, they've been hit and hit and hit, ain't they? What about California? I mean, I don't know how there's anything standing as much as has been going on in parts of California. Fires and foresters burn out and floods and snow that had never been snowed before. But Jesus said these things would come to pass. He said, but the warning is, He said the time is not yet, but what else did He say? But he said, look up, look up. Is anybody looking up today when we see these things? He said, look up, for redemption draweth nigh. Jesus said, no man know the day or the hour of the coming of the Son of Man, but he's coming. How many believe he's coming one of these days? How many believe it's closer today than it's ever been? And so, this man, This supper that he's talking about was Jesus, and he said unto him, a certain man made a great supper, and he bade many. In other words, he invited many, many people to come to it. So if I think about it today, WE TODAY HAVE THAT INVITATION. AMEN? WE STAND FOR AN INVITATION. GOD HAS GIVEN US ALL AN INVITATION TO COME TO THAT GREAT SUPPER. SO, BUT WHAT REALLY I GOT TO THINKING ABOUT IN THAT VERSE 17, AND HE SENT HIS SERVANT at supper time to say to them that were bidden, or invited, Come, for all things are now ready. I believe this is ever a time that God is really pouring out His Spirit upon America today, and not America, but all over the world today. I believe, Brother Billy, it's day and time that we're living in today. He said the last days, he said he would pour out his Spirit, and he said the latter rain would be greater than the former rain. He's talking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I've seen it here in the last two months like I've never seen it before ever surface. that the Holy Spirit is at work, amen? So you and I, what are we this morning? We are the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen? If you're a servant of the Lord, raise your hand and say, I'm glad that I am. Well, there's a few of you that's glad that you are a servant of the Lord. Well, what is he saying to us today? He called his servants, which is you and I, the church today, and this was the servant that he's talking about, and he called his servant and he said his servant, at suppertime to say to them that we're bid and come for all things are now ready. Don't you think that we're living so close today that we need to get self out of the way, we need to get things out of the way, and we need to get on our minds and in our hearts what Jesus is telling us to do. Amen. Instead of worrying about what's going on, and Iran and all these other places. Hey man, over there, we need to be worried about what is going on in our families and in our church, hey man. We need to be more sincere. How long's it been? How many's got children in here this morning? How many's got brother or sister or a mom and dad that may be lost? How long's it been since you went to them and invited them to come to church with you? How long's it been? How long have you called one of your brothers or sisters up and said, hey, come and go to church with me Sunday? How long's it been since you talked to one of your sisters that got out of church and maybe not right with God? God is still sending His servants out today, amen. Now, how many in here would say or think it is a lot easier to go out and to witness to somebody else's children, somebody else's mom, somebody else's dad, somebody else's brother, somebody else's sister, how many would say it's easier to go to somebody else's family and talk to them about the Lord and invite THEM to the Lord than it is to your own family? Is it not a lot easier to go to somebody else and talk to them about the Lord than still in your own family? But Jesus sent out the servant. How many, if we're all, how many Christians in here today? I'm not gonna ask you. So this is what Jesus is saying to us today. It's time to get busy, amen. It's time to get out of this box that we're in here this morning and go out there and I'll show you and prove to you here just in a little bit where we need to be at and what we need to be doing. So Jesus said he sent his servant at suppertime to bid them that were invited to come and he said for all things are now ready. So don't you think that Jesus is still giving the invitation for whosoever will listen to Him and come to die? Do you think Jesus is a respecter of person this morning? Do you think that Jesus separates the red and yellow and black and white? Do you think He thinks more of one race than He does the other? Absolutely not. Why? Because we're all God's children, hey man. We're all God's creation this morning. But Jesus sent His servant out. Now some of you I know that's went out and you've visited But listen to what it said. He said, go out for all things are ready. And the servant, and they all with one consent began to make excuse. I think the excuses was talked about earlier today. How many times have you invited somebody to church and they said, well, I'm too tired or well, I've worked all week and it's a pretty day, pretty day today being Saturday and so it's a pretty day so I'm gonna go fishing or I'm gonna go somewhere or another and do something else and then tomorrow because The only other day I got off, I'm going to mow my yard or I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that. How many times have you got a family that you've invited to church and said, do you want to go to church with me and they gave you an excuse? How many of you have done that? Well, half of the crowd was with me this morning, Paul. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU INVITED A BROTHER OR SISTER OR A SON OR DAUGHTER TO CHURCH? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU INVITED ONE OF THEM TO CHURCH? THIS IS WHAT JESUS IS TALKING ABOUT HERE, CHURCH. HE SENT HIS SERVANT OUT TO TELL THEM THAT ALL THINGS ARE NOW READY. SO WE HAVE DONE ADMITTED THAT WE BELIEVE WE'RE CLOSER TO THE END THAN WE'VE EVER BEEN, THAT JESUS COULD COME JUST ANY DAY, AND HERE WE SIT BACK AND WE GOT LOST FAMILY MEMBERS AND LOST FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, AND WE WON'T GO OUT AND INVITE THEM AND TELL THEM TO COME TO CHURCH. A lot of people are just sitting around out there, they're just sitting and waiting for somebody to come and invite them to church. You say, Well, I've had people say, Well, they know where the church is at, they can come if they want to. That ain't what Jesus said to do, was it? He didn't say build this, build it here. just for a few people, what do you think he built this building for? He built this building for the latter days, and I believe we're in the latter days, so he's telling us to go out and invite people to come in. It's awful easy, isn't it? It's awful easy. to say, well, let somebody else go. Have you ever been told that? Have you ever said to somebody, well, will you pray, go pray for somebody? Will you go visit somebody? What's wrong with people when God tell to go visit, they want to put it off on the preacher or somebody else to go do it. If you're saved and God tells you to go visit somebody, go pray with somebody, go invite somebody, then God means for you to go. He don't mean for me to go. He means for you to go. I ain't getting a lot of amen this morning, but that's all right. I got your attention. Ain't it awful easy to come in and get on one of these beautiful pews here and good and soft and just sit back and let your mind wander? What are we gonna go to to eat? I got some grins in here. I believe, I just feel somebody already guilty of it. What are we gonna do next week? What are we going on vacation at? When you've got six other days to talk about this stuff, but then you wanna come to church and talk about it. Amen, Mike. We ought to be appraising God that we're able to get up and get out here this morning. I've heard the old saying and I've noticed that. People don't need God until they're in trouble, amen? They don't need God until they're sick or something comes up and then they want to cry out. They want to cry out. Well, so and so needs help, so and so needs help. How many believe that they're gonna die tomorrow? How many believe they're gonna die this week? How many don't believe you will? That lady said you never know. So don't you think that we need to have our minds more on getting right with God? They're just saying, if you get right, get right, live right, then you'll die right, and then you'll go to heaven. Amen. But sometimes we take God for granted. Can I hear an amen in here? We all take God for granted. Amen. How many sat down to eat breakfast this morning and bowed their heads and said, God, thank you for this food that you've provided and put on the table. Thank you, God, for a wife or a husband or whoever has put it on the table. How many just bowed their heads and said, God, I thank you for this food that you've given me this morning? I didn't ask you to raise your hand because you'd probably lie to me. It's a whole lot easier to tell a lie than it is a truth sometimes, ain't it? Especially if you're in trouble. Ronnie, sing that song. Got so much to thank God for. We've heard that song and heard it and heard it. And then I look back over the congregation and there might be one or two hands raised. What in the world have we come to church for if we're just going to come and sit and daydream and plan our vacation and plan on where we're going to go eat at? What did Jesus say? He said, enter His house with what? Well, thanksgiving and praise, amen. And we enter his house sometimes and we look like we've lost our best friend, amen? We do, we sit there daydreaming. You know, I wish y'all would take time about coming up here sometimes and sitting up here in this pulpit and looking at what I look at every Sunday. See all eyes is on me, you know how I look, right? Because you just see me, but I see every one of you. I see every one of you. And don't you think that I can't tell when your mind is somewhere else instead of where it needs to be? Amen? DON'T YOU THINK THAT I CAN'T FEEL IT AND DON'T YOU THINK THAT THE WHOLE CHURCH CAN'T FEEL IT WHEN SOMEBODY IS COMING AND HINDERING THE SERVICE? CAN ANYBODY FEEL IT? IF YOU EVER COME INTO CHURCH BOY JUST I MEAN EVERYBODY JUST SEEMED HAPPY AND HAPPY AND HAPPY AND JUST BOY THE SERVICE JUST WENT BY SO GOOD AND ALL IN IT. EVERYBODY WAS REJOICING EVERYBODY WAS HAPPY Right? Them's are good old times, ain't it? What do you think I'm preaching this message for, brother? He always is a disservice. But Jesus sent his servant out. He said, Go and tell them it's ready. And they began to make an excuse. You know the reason the house, God's house is not full today? Maybe it's not because you haven't invited. But did you know why there's so many empty pews in the churches? But let me say this, I'm very, very fortunate we are here this morning. It's simply because it's not that people ain't been invited. It's just they've made an excuse not to come. Amen? Made an excuse not to come. Absolutely. How many thinks it's hard to be a Christian? Well, I got two or three hands, four or five hands. Let me ask you this. They didn't understand me much. How many thinks it's hard to be a Christian, live a Christian life? Got a few more that time. I might get the whole church here if I asked it again. It's not easy, is it? It's not easy. Do you think it's easier to serve the devil Serve the Lord. I'm asking a question right now. Is it easier and more simple to serve the devil or the Lord? It's a lot easier to serve the devil, isn't it? You say, well, how's that? You don't have to do nothing. He don't want you doing nothing. Just follow Him, listen to Him. If you're the servant of Satan, you wouldn't have to get up this morning early and take a shower and get ready and come to church. You just laid in the bed. Watch TV all day. Go fishing. Be a pretty day, go fishing. You've got to put forth an effort when you're a Christian. Amen? You've got to put forth, and that takes what? What does that take to be a Christian? Takes what? Effort. Effort. A determination. Submission. What's that? Submission. Submission. Not amidst when we work hard all day and come in and had a bad day and everything, especially on night services. It's a lot easier to give that excuse, well I'm tired, I've had a rough day. I just don't think I'm going to church tonight. That's when I've had some of the greatest blessing, when I was tired and didn't feel like going to church, that's when I've had my healing sometimes, amen? If we listen to the devil, we'll never go to God's house, amen? If we listen to the devil, we'll never go invite anybody to God's house. Jesus said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He said, I'll add all these other things unto you. It takes a determination, it takes a desire, amen, to serve the Lord, amen? I'd stand up here and I'd be a lying to you, and you know I'd be a lying to you, and you'd fire me, run me off, shoot me or do something if I told you there was not pleasure in sin. Can anybody say amen to that? There is pleasure in sin. And some of us does it, but we won't admit it. We think we're above sin. None of us is above sin. A lot of people think, well, you've got to, you've got to be, Tony told us before, you've got to be a drug addict, an alcoholic, all kind, have all kind of addiction. You think you've got to be, do that before you sin. You've got to commit a sin before it's counted sin. But we think we've got to do that. We look down on people a lot of time, down on the drug addict, down on the alcoholic, down on the liar, down on the busybodies and so on and so forth. But in God's eyes, sin is sin and none is no bigger than the other. And amen. I've heard people say, well, that was just a little white lie. I told them there ain't no such a thing as a little white lie. A lie is a lie. Amen. that's just like a woman being pregnant she's not just a little bit pregnant she's either pregnant or she ain't pregnant she's either gonna have a baby or she ain't gonna have a baby is that right? I didn't say that was sin to have a baby I'm just making a porch here sin is sin I've heard people say well yeah I committed a little sin I've heard people say, Oh, God, I've committed a terrible sin. There's no difference in it. Sin is sin. And Jesus said, No sin is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. You say, Well, brother, you just said it all sin. You come short of the glory of God. I did. But that's why Paul said, Apostle Paul, one of the greatest one ever wrote a pen. He said, He said there, he said, I die daily. Amen. IF WE'RE CHRISTIANS, WE DIE OUT DAILY. YOU SAY, YOU MEAN YOU THINK YOU SIN EVERY DAY? I ABSOLUTELY PROBABLY DO. YOU MEAN YOU GET DRUNK EVERY DAY? YOU MEAN YOU SMOKE POT? YOU SHOOT UP EVERY DAY? NO. I DIDN'T SAY THAT. BUT I SIN BY BEING DISOBEDIENT TO GOD. That's just a bigger sin, amen? Sin is sin. When God says to do something and we rebel against God and we don't do it. He said, because whosoever knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is what? He said, to him it is sin. So sin is sin. If we'd spend more time, and I know this is hard to do in the world that we live in today. I had somebody the other day tell me, he said, boy, it's a lot harder today than it used to be. And I said, what do you mean? He said, well, it's just a lot harder. He said, everything's changed. Everything's changed. How many would agree with that? Everything's changed. Well, I'm not going to agree with you because it hasn't. I'm not in a bad mood. I feel so good this morning. You say, well, why do you disagree with us? There's one thing not changing, that's God. You and I may change. The world out there may change. There's all time changes being made. People changes, and I've had people tell me, well, I don't know what to do. People's not the way they used to be. People has changed, people has changed. We need to do this, we need to do that. Well, what we're doing, it's looking pretty good to me here at Bloomington Chapel. What about you? People always want change. If something's working good, just like my dad used to tell me, first car I got when I was 16 years old, it could be a running good and I'd pull it under a shade tree and I'd get out and I'd know what I was doing. I'd twist and screw the carburetor, I'd do something to it, and then he'd have to come get it straightened out. He said, son, that car'd be all right if you'd leave the hood down on it. Did that do any good? The reason I walked half the time, too. So the Bible said, and they always went to court again and make, now listen to these excuses, excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must need go and see it. I pray thee, have me excuse. Did anybody ever buy some land without seeing it? That was just an excuse, wasn't it? That was just an excuse not to go to the House of Lords. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove them. I pray they have me excused. How many people have got cattle in here? How many people got cows? How many people has had cows before? That's more like it. Did somebody ever just call you up and say, hey, I've got a good bull to sell, or I've got a nice cow for sale, or I've got a bunch of cash for sale, boy, they're good and good bred? Did you ever say, okay, I'll buy them? Or did you say, well, I'll come and look at them, which one? You didn't buy them without seeing them, did you? If you did, you're pretty far back. By the way, if you want to buy some land, buy some land down in Florida, I've got some for sale. Anybody want to buy it? Okay. Might miss a good deal. And another said, boy, here I like this one. And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. Ain't that a pitiful excuse? That's an excuse though. I've heard people say, well, I'd come to church if my wife would. And then you invite the wife, well, I'd come to church if my husband would. It was just an excuse. I'd hate to think that my wife would tell me I couldn't go to church. I told her a long time ago, Johnny, she never wanted to try to come between me and my God. She didn't want to never try to separate me and God. A lot of wives like to be put first, don't they? A lot of husbands like to be put first. But you know what Jesus said? Your family's got to be secondary to God. I've never told my wife she couldn't go to church and she never told me because we got that straightened out when I got saved. She never could tell me where I went to go when I was out in the world. She tried to and that didn't work. And it sure won't work when she just starts telling me that I can't go to church. Not going to work. But all these excuses. The world's full of them today, isn't it? And Jesus said, I'm fixing the clothes. And another said, I'll help. Oh, let me get over down here. So that servant came and showed or told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the whole and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, It is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And 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 or people which was bidden shall never taste of my supper. So if you're watching on Facebook or you go to somebody and you invite them and they give you an excuse, they don't come, then don't worry about it because you done all God. Don't worry about what they're going to do. You just need to do what God tells you to do. And if they don't come, And there's gonna be a lot of people that's had the invitation and they've turned it down and turned it down and turned it down. What did Jesus say? When you turn down my invitation to come to me, you'll not have any part with me in heaven.