February 18, 2025 • 47 mins
Ever wondered how mastering the art of invitation could transform your spiritual journey? Join us as we celebrate the vibrant community at First Baptist Church, Powder Springs, exploring the theme of invitation—a recurring motif in Jesus' teachings. We dive into personal stories and teachings from our "Red Letters" series, shedding light on how parables reveal profound truths. Pastor Christian Henry and his wife, Laura, have spearheaded a remarkable rise in Next Gen ministries, and we prepare to honor Pastor Dave Berryhill's impressive 27-year legacy.
Discover how the power of a simple invite can reshape both the inviter and the invited, as illustrated by the parable of the wedding feast from Matthew 22. Drawing from engaging anecdotes, including the unexpected parallels of Spartan races and spiritual quests, this episode emphasizes the universal language of storytelling. By addressing common reservations about attending church, such as perceived hypocrisy, we encourage embracing imperfections and fostering authentic connections grounded in forgiveness and understanding.
As Easter approaches, we offer practical advice on building relationships and extending heartfelt invitations to church events. Highlighting the importance of personal connections over digital outreach, we underscore how genuine life changes can inspire others to join our community. Celebrate new believers, relish in the support of our community, and reflect on how we can all extend God's love and promises to those around us. Let's commit to cultivating a culture of invitation, enriched by gratitude, prayer, and worship, as we continue to share the transformative message of Jesus.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, good morning, put your hands together, as we
are so excited to be here thismorning at First Baptist Church,
powder Springs, and again, aswe said earlier, just so
thankful for all that God isdoing, thankful that you are
here.
Your presence matters, but mostof all, we know that it is
God's presence, his presencematters, and he has promised to
be with us.
So therefore, we know that heis with us because he always
(00:29):
he's a good God, he always keepshis promises and I always love
to tell you, every Sunday, newthings that God is doing in our
church, ways that he's workingin us, ways that he is working
through us.
Last week we had a baptism.
This morning we had a baptismand I just did a little math
over the past week and all theway from preschool, from our
(00:50):
preschool ministry, to our highschool ministry, including the
kids and the volunteers we had195 in our Next Gen ministries
just last Sunday.
Put your hands together for allthat God is doing as he is
raising up the next generation,and I even noticed that as
children's ministry has beengrowing so much, just kind of
(01:11):
did the math and noticed thatour student ministry is up 30%
on Sundays the last month andour student ministry is up 20%
on Wednesdays just the pastmonth.
We are so thankful for PastorChristian Henry, his wife Laura.
Can we just thank God for themone more time?
As God is using them in such agreat way, and many of you, as
(01:33):
you know, as our next generationministries are growing, that
means that our volunteer baseneeds to continue to grow.
Here's a couple of ways.
One there is a needed volunteerin our one-year-old class at 11
am during this hour, and so ifGod might be calling you, I
would encourage you just torespond to the call and you
answer the Lord and you let thekids' ministry that you want in.
(01:55):
But also, as you can imagine,with so many volunteers we need
in our children's ministry,there are a lot of call-outs
that can happen on a Sundaymorning, and so we want to build
our sub list.
So maybe you're not able to bethere every Sunday, but you
could be there to replacesomeone that can't be there
regularly, and so you can justlet Miss Cindy, or you can let
(02:17):
Evan and Anna know, or call usat the church office and you can
just say, hey, I'd love to beon the sub list and just sub in
the children's ministry anytimeI'm needed, and we would love to
make that happen.
I want you to know that on March16, sunday, march 16, we're
going to be celebrating, withthe reception together, pastor
Dave Berryhill's retirement.
(02:39):
He is our associate pastor ofoperations and we are so
thankful for his 27 plus yearsof pastoral ministry here at
First Baptist Church, powderSprings, and so we're going to
celebrate that together on thatSunday.
And I also want you to knowthat the Lord has raised up an
interim for that position, andAlan Martin.
(03:00):
Alan, would you please standfor us.
Alan Martin has accepted thecall to be our interim operation
director, so we are so thankfulfor you.
Brother Alan, would you pleasestand for us?
Alan Martin has accepted thecall to be our interim operation
director, so we are so thankfulfor you.
Brother Alan, thank you so much, and I think you're going back
out to the parking lot.
He's digging into the week thisweek, so work in the parking
lots as well.
I don't know what he doesn't do, but, man, we're just so
thankful for the way that Goduses everyone here.
Let's pray together.
Other Heavenly Father, we loveyou and God, we're just so
(03:27):
thankful for you.
God, thank you for all thatyou're doing, god.
We do not deserve it, god, wehave not earned it.
God, it is all out of yourgrace and all out of your love
and all out of your mercy.
And so, god, we just give youthe glory, all for it.
And we want to proclaim that weare your church, god.
We don't want what we want, god, we want what you want, god.
This is your word, we are yourpeople and God, we pray.
(03:50):
So therefore, father, for yourwork, god, may your spirit do
your work this morning for theglory of your son.
We love you in Jesus' name, andall God's people said amen.
You can open up your Bible withme to Matthew, chapter 22.
Matthew 22 this morning iswe're going to dive into God's
Word and this morning we'regoing to talk about the power of
(04:10):
the invite.
Everybody say invite, the powerof the invite.
Jesus shares with us a story inthe Word of God that he talks
about how he wants to empoweryou for a very special
invitation the power of aninvite.
I can remember I have abrother-in-law His name is Joey,
(04:31):
and Joey would back in 2018,2019, he would always invite me
to go to these Spartan racesthat he was going to right and
he would run these Spartan races.
He would run a race of threemiles, six miles, 12 miles, and
then he had a 30 miler that hewas running and this 30 mile
race had 80 different obstacles.
(04:53):
And these 80 differentobstacles for this race, if you
failed an obstacle, you'd haveto do 30 burpees every failed
obstacle.
It was nuts.
I'm like why are you runningthese races?
Who's chasing you?
Joey?
What is going on?
And he would always invite meto come and I never wanted to go
.
And he said well, I've got todo this 30 miler.
How about you just come andpick me up and drive me home
(05:16):
after I run this 30 miles,because he's probably going to
collapse, right?
So I told him all right, I'llcome pick you up.
And so when I came and pickedhim up, I think it's gonna be on
the big screen, if you can seeit, and this is kind of what I
saw, maybe the side screens, butyou'll see like mud they're
running through mud pits,they're climbing cargo A-frames
Over here.
There's like a slippery wallkind of thing.
You see him going up the ropesof the slippery wall and I get
(05:37):
there to the Spartan race.
I'm like in, let's go right, Iam in.
And so 2019, I ran three Spartanraces.
I ran the three miler like alittle baby race and I ran the
seven, eight miler and then Idid a 12 to 13 miler by myself
and all the obstacles and allthe miles and stuff, and I never
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thought I would do anythinglike that.
But it was all because of thepower of the invite and he
invited me and once I saw it Iwanted to be a part of it and I
want you to know that God isincluding you in on this power
of the invite, that he isempowering you to be a part of
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his invitation.
So, before we get there, I justwant to remind us this morning
that we are in our series calledRed Letters.
Everybody said Red Letters.
The red letters in your Bibleare all of the words of Jesus.
We're talking this month aboutthe teachings of Jesus.
We started with Jesus justsimply saying follow me, the
most two powerful words thatcould ever be said follow me.
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Last week we talked about theseven I am statements of Jesus.
This morning we're going totalk about, with these red
letters, what Jesus really said.
We're going to talk about theparables.
Everybody say parables.
Parables are the stories ofJesus.
I've heard it put that parablesare earthly stories with
(07:02):
heavenly meanings, and so we seethroughout Scripture, through
the Gospels, that Jesus loved totell stories.
In fact, I've learned that asJesus.
There's a few facts here thatyou'll have to see.
But in Matthew, chapter 22,verse 1, it says again Jesus
spoke to them in parables or instories.
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Jesus loved to preach, jesusloved to teach, jesus loved to
do it while telling stories,parables.
Here's some interesting factsabout parables.
Did you know that Jesus toldaround 40 parables throughout
his ministry that are recordedin scripture?
About one third of histeachings were parables.
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In other words, jesus usedstories.
Jesus used parables more sothan any other form or method of
teaching whenever he wasteaching the word of God.
Also, I want you to understandthat the disciples did not
always understand the parablesthat Jesus was saying.
Right, you ever read your Biblelike I don't even know what I
(08:06):
just read.
You're not alone.
That's how I feel at times.
That's how you feel at times.
Everybody feels that way attimes, and even the disciples
who follow Jesus.
Jesus would always have toexplain those parables to his
listeners, even to his disciples.
So we're all in good company.
And number four, I think themost important part, the most
(08:28):
important question you can askyourself when you come across a
parable in the Bible is whichperson in the story am I?
Which person in the story am I?
And the same is true today.
Researchers and scientists andpsychologists tell us that we
remember stories some 20 timesmore than we remember any fact,
(08:51):
figure or stat.
Do you realize that the Bibleis actually a book of stories
that's interpreted by truths?
Within the Bible, there aresome 300 different stories all
coming together and all makingup one story, the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
And did you realize that one ofthe most powerful ways for you
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to witness to somebody about thegospel is for you?
The Bible says for you to shareyour story, to share your story
, for you to share yourtestimony, and then you share
the story of Jesus so that Jesuscan save them, just like he
saved you.
I remember being in the Amazonjungle in Brazil a mission trip
years ago, and I remembermeeting a young man.
(09:38):
I've told you a little bitabout him and this young man.
He came out of the jungle,someone shared the gospel with
him, he got saved, he married aChristian woman and when I met
him he had just memorized, wordfor word, 150 different stories
of the Bible, because it wasillegal to tell his family, his
(10:05):
people, his tribe, his villageand anybody else that he could
witness to, so that he couldshare with them the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
So there's 40 differentparables of scripture.
I looked through all 40different parables this week.
I wanted to preach every one ofthem and I would still love to
preach every one of them, butyou don't wanna stay here that
long.
I get it.
(10:26):
I get it.
So I asked the Lord, lord, whichone do you want me to teach
this Sunday?
And this is the one that hegave me from Matthew 22, the
parable of the wedding feast.
And the point of the parable ofthe wedding feast is you aren't
just the invited, you're alsothe inviter.
You aren't just the invited,you're also the inviter.
(10:47):
So here we go, we're gonna diveinto this parable, and the
first section of the parable issalvation.
Everyone say salvation,salvation.
Let's read together it says inMatthew, chapter 22, verse two
it says the kingdom of heavenmay be compared to a king who
gave a wedding feast for his son.
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In other words, jesus wouldtell all of these stories
because he was always trying touse these earthly stories to
teach heavenly meanings orheavenly truths.
He wanted to teach them aboutthe kingdom of heaven.
He wanted to teach them aboutthe kingdom of heaven.
He wanted to teach them aboutthe kingdom of God.
So in this story he's comparingit to a wedding feast by a king
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for a son.
I don't know about you, but weall love a good wedding, right?
I have literally officiatedweddings in the woods.
I've officiated a lot ofweddings in barns.
People love to get married inbarns today.
It's crazy.
I've officiated a lot ofweddings in barns.
People love to get married inbarns today.
It's crazy.
I've officiated a wedding at amansion by a pool overlooking a
lake.
I have officiated a wedding onthe side of a mountain and the
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reception was in a cave and itwas under 40 degrees.
I was wearing full under armorunder my suit and my tie on that
wedding.
I have even officiated awedding in a church before.
Believe it or not, they don'tdo that anymore, but used to.
I remember when Michelle and Igot married and we had picked
out all of our favorite foodsright for the reception.
(12:15):
And so we get married and wewalk into the reception and
there's all of our favoritefoods that we picked out and we
never got to eat one bite.
Because she was a sixth gradeteacher and a basketball coach
at the time high schoolbasketball coach and I was a
youth pastor and she had a lineof teenagers on her side and I
had a line of teenagers on myside.
Because what do they want?
They just wanted selfies withthe couple that just got married
(12:38):
.
We took selfies for two hours.
We never even.
I think the only wedding cakewe ate was me, and it's because
you shoved it in my mouth at onepoint, right, you never got to
try the cake and so we didn'teven get to enjoy our own feast.
I think the best wedding feastI've been a part of, I remember
officiating a wedding and thefood was they had brought in a
(13:00):
brick oven, pizza truck and anice cream truck.
I wanted to get married everyweekend.
It was just awesome.
And so we see here that Jesus istelling the story, and he's
telling the story and he'scomparing it to imagine Jesus
saying go with me, imagine thatthere is a king of a kingdom and
he is throwing this massiveparty this wedding feast for his
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son.
In fact, they would understandexactly what he's talking about
because of the culture of Jewishwedding back then.
So the way that they would doJewish wedding, first of all,
the groom, whenever they wouldget engaged or betrothed, the
groom would actually leave forabout a year, wouldn't see the
bride for a year, and what wouldhe do?
He would go back and he wouldbuild onto his parents' house so
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that they would have a place tolive.
He would call it going andpreparing a place for his bride.
The Bible says he was gone forabout a year.
Number three the groom's returnto the bride would be a
surprise and it said he wouldoften come back at night and
there would be a shout and therewould probably be a trumpet and
the entire place would eruptbecause the groom had come back
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and so the bride had to remainready and the wedding procession
would lead the bride back tothe home of the groom and the
wedding feast would last up toseven days.
Isn't that exactly what Jesusis doing for us?
Hadn't Jesus?
Didn't he say that he went awayto prepare a place for you?
Doesn't the Bible tell us toremain ready for Jesus?
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Doesn't the Bible say that he'sgonna come back with a shout
and with a blast of a trumpetand then he's gonna take us to
heaven to be with him?
Put your hands together rightnow just to see the gospel of
Jesus Christ, even within theword of God.
So the Bible talks about themarriage supper of the lamb
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Revelation, chapter 19 and 20.
The marriage supper of the lambis this wedding feast that
inaugurates all of eternity thatyou are invited to and that I
am invited to that.
If you believe in Jesus, ifyou've given your life to the
gospel, you get to go.
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But the beauty of your life isthat you're not just the invited
, you're also the inviter.
Isaiah 25, verse 6 says there'sgonna be rich food full of
marrow, which means it's gonnabe like a steak buffet.
To be rich food full of marrow,which means it's going to be
like a steak buffet.
Zephaniah 3.17 says that Godwill exalt over us with his love
, meaning on earth, we'resinging to him, we're singing to
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him.
We're singing to him.
But in the marriage supper ofthe lamb, the beginning of all
of eternity, god's going to stepup and he's going to sing over
you and he's going to sing overus and he's going to exalt over
us with his love and this iswhat we get to invite people to.
And so here in this passage wesee invitation.
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Everyone say invitation.
This is the point of thepassage.
It says in Matthew Jesus saidin verse three he said and that
king sent his servants to callthose who were invited to the
wedding feast.
And so he is.
What Jesus is saying is thatyou, that I, that we are the
inviters.
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In other words, the king was soproud of his son, he loved his
son so much that he wanted toinvite his kingdom.
So they went out and theystarted to invite.
And this is our opportunity thatwe're not just inviting people
to be a part of a quote religion.
No, we're inviting people tosomething far greater and far
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bigger than that.
We're inviting people to heaven.
We're inviting people to have arelationship with the God of
the universe.
We're inviting people to beforgiven of their sin.
We're inviting people to have arelationship with the God of
the universe.
We're inviting people to beforgiven of their sin.
We're inviting people for themto get to experience real, true,
abundant life.
We're inviting people that theyget to be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
We're inviting people that theyget to be a part of this
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wedding feast that God hasplanned for us and God has
planned for them.
We are inviting our friends,we're inviting our families,
we're inviting our neighbors,we're inviting our community,
we're inviting our coworkers,we're inviting our classmates,
we're inviting our acquaintances.
First Timothy, chapter two,verse four, says that God
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desires that all people would besaved, because salvation is the
heart of God.
Invitation is the heartbeat ofthe believer.
Because salvation is theheartbeat of God, invitation
must be the heartbeat of thebeliever.
Did you know?
Today, professionals tell usthat 82% of unchurched people
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have admitted that they arelikely to come to church if
someone just invited them.
The problem is, only 2% ofchurch members invite the
unchurched.
82% said that they would come,only 2% said that they have
actually invited, and we evensee today that 57% of Americans
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seldom or never attend religiousservices.
I do want to tell you that FirstBaptist Church, powder Springs,
that this is not meant to be aguilt trip whatsoever.
I believe that we are different.
I believe that God is using you.
I believe that you are invitingpeople because someone has
invited you.
How many of y'all are herebecause someone invited you here
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, even if that was years ago.
Raise your hand right now.
Raise your hand.
Someone invited you at somepoint in time.
Keep your hand up.
Keep your hand up to FirstBaptist Church, patterson
Springs.
Look around the room to beinvited.
My hands up.
The pastor search team invitedme here, man, I'm so thankful
that they called my family and Ito be here.
I heard a question this pastweek that really convicted me,
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and the question was ifeverybody came, who I invited,
who would be here this Sundaymorning?
If everybody came that Iinvited, who would be here this
Sunday morning?
If everybody came that Iinvited, who would be here this
Sunday morning?
I think I would rather put itthis way If everybody came next
Sunday, who we invite this week,who will be here next Sunday?
Right, we need to be people.
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Jesus is telling the story.
We need to be people that weare inviting them to be a part
of.
We believe that church is theglimpse of heaven that God is
giving us on earth.
We believe that God is givinghis children the opportunity to
have more fun going to heaventhan the world is going to hell.
Can I get an amen?
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We believe that church ought tobe fun, that we ought to laugh
and have a good time in church.
That's why we gather together.
That's why we time in church.
That's why we gather together.
That's why we hug each other,that's why we come early, that's
why we stay late.
That's why we play music.
That's why we sing songstogether.
That's why we worship Jesus.
That's why we hear from God.
We hear from the words of JesusChrist.
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That's why we love to get ingroups together.
That's why we love to servetogether.
That's why we freak out when wesee each other out in the town,
right when we go out to eat andwe see our other church
brothers and sisters.
Why?
Because God has called us to bea part of something that he
wants others to be a part of too, and it's not because it's a
part of our church.
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Our church is just arepresentation of the kingdom of
God.
This is not about me and it'snot about you and it's not about
us.
It's all about Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
It's all about Jesus, and he'sthe one that we're ultimately
inviting people to and he's theone that we're ultimately
celebrating here on a Sundaymorning.
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So in invitation we also seerejection.
Everybody say rejection.
Who's ever been rejected before?
You ever invited someone tochurch and they didn't come?
Raise your hand.
I want y'all to see you're notalone.
You're not alone.
Have you invited someone tochurch?
I've invited people to church.
I've invited people to ourchurch and I'm a pastor here,
and they still don't come.
My goodness, what's wrong withthese people?
And it's so interesting, right,it's interesting how this
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happens.
But Jesus actually shares withus that this is very common.
It says in Matthew, chapter 22,the end of verse 3,.
But they would not come.
And again the king sent otherservants saying tell those who
are invited.
See, I have prepared my dinner,my ox and my fat calves and I
have been slaughtered andeverything is ready.
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Come to the wedding feast.
But they paid no attention andwent off, one to his farm and
another to his business.
Could you imagine if you werethrowing a wedding for your
child and no one came to thewedding?
Could you imagine if no onecame to the wedding?
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Could you imagine if no onecame to your wedding?
Could you imagine if, if yourfiance did not show up to your
wedding, it just keeps gettingworse?
Could you imagine you'reinvited and in fact, you and I,
we're the bride, but we don't goto Jesus's wedding, which is
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actually a wedding party for usas well.
That's the whole point of thisstory.
We see that the king sends hisservants out a second time, for
us as well.
That's the whole point of thisstory.
We see that the king sends hisservants out a second time.
Everything is set, everythingis ready, but the people didn't
come.
One person said this farm isn'tgonna take care of itself.
Another person said I've gotbusiness to take care of.
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I have more important things todeal with.
But remember, jesus is talkingabout the kingdom of God.
This is the way my sin works.
This is the way your sin works.
This is the way the sin of theworld works.
We tend to think that otherthings are more important than
the things of God.
One this farmer said that cowsand crops are more important
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than Jesus Christ.
A businessman might say thatmoney is more important than the
Messiah, or success is moreimportant than the Savior.
And that's not just on them,that's on me and that's on you.
This is what sin wants to do inus.
In fact, there are five commonexcuses or reasons why people
don't go to church.
Number one they have aperception of hypocrisy.
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They think that we think thatwe're perfect, but yet they know
that we're sinners.
So they think we're hypocritebecause we're not perfect.
We're sinners.
But guess what?
We're not perfect.
We're sinners, and we're justsinners that are saved by the
perfect one, by the Savior, andhe is the one that is working in
our life to forgive us.
Can I get an amen?
So we know we're not perfect.
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So when we go out there, wecan't be afraid of admitting our
mistakes, we can't be afraid ofeven confessing our sin.
They don't need to think thatwe think that we're perfect.
They need to think that we knowthat we're sinners and that our
sinners are saved by Jesus,who's the only perfect one, who
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forgave us on the cross.
Number two maybe they have anegative past experience in
church, or maybe they disagreewith church beliefs, or maybe
their perception is irreverence.
What does the church have to dowith me?
Or maybe they are too busy, ormaybe Sunday morning is just a
bad time for them.
Whatever it is, whatever excusethey might give, whatever it is
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that you might hear, I wouldencourage you take it one step
deeper.
Take it one step deeper and askthem another question.
Well, this is what God is doingin my life.
This is what I've learned aboutthese.
Have you ever considered this?
Because here's the deal youhave been rejected, I have been
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rejected, but rejection does notmean that we stop inviting them
or stop inviting others.
Many years ago, alabamaUniversity of Alabama, had a
quarterback.
Some of y'all remember himbecause he was terrible and
y'all probably beat him, and hisname was Freddy Kitchens.
Right so Freddy Kitchens?
He actually ended up being anNFL never was an NFL quarterback
(25:04):
, I don't think but he ended upbeing an NFL coach for the
Cleveland Browns.
Then he got fired.
But Freddy Kitchens I rememberwhen he was at the University of
Alabama I was living inTuscaloosa at the time and I
heard a story about him SaidFreddie was in a restaurant.
He tapped a girl on the shoulder.
He said hey, I want you to goout with me.
She looked at him.
She turned around the other way.
He completely ignored him.
He tapped her on the shoulderagain hey, I wanna take you out
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on a date.
She looked at him, turned theother direction, ignored
direction, ignored him again.
He tapped her on the shoulder athird time and he said my name
is Freddie Kitchens.
I am the quarterback of theUniversity of Alabama.
I want to know what are thechances you're going to go out
with me.
She said about the chancesyou're going to be an NFL
quarterback.
And she turned back around andcompletely ignored him.
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He was rejected.
He was rejected, but I lookedup online this week and
Freddie's, married with kids,was rejected.
But I looked up online thisweek and Fred he's married with
kids, right, like he didn't letthe rejection stop him.
In other words, as we ministerto people's lives, sometimes
what Satan wants to do is hewants to use the rejection as to
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think I'm not a good inviter,so I'm not gonna try anymore,
I'm gonna leave it to somebodyelse.
And Jesus says that there isrejection.
Check this out.
He says that there is rejection.
And in Isaiah, chapter 53, it'snot gonna be on the screen, but
verse three says that Jesus wasdespised and rejected by others
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who esteemed him.
Not Luke six.
Jesus said blessed are you whenpeople hate you, when people
reject you.
Rejoice in that day, leap forjoy, for great is your reward in
heaven.
And here's what's interesting.
Rejection in this passage ledto persecution.
Everyone say persecution, itsays in verse 6, while the rest
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of the people that were invited,seized those servants and
treated them shamefully andkilled them.
I've been through persecutionin my life for my faith to some
degree.
You may have been throughpersecution in your life to some
degree.
Jesus uses passages like theseto encourage us and to empower
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us.
Different types of persecutionthat you might experience as a
believer in Jesus.
You might be mocked or made funof because of your faith.
You might be ignored orisolated because of your faith
in Jesus.
In other parts of the world,people are being taken to court,
they're being arrested, they'rebeing physically beaten.
They're even being martyred fortheir faith in Jesus.
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Did you know that 70 millionChristians have been martyred
for their faith throughouthistory?
Over 380 million Christians arebeing persecuted today for
their faith.
And did you know that two infive Christians in Asia face
persecution daily?
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We see in the Bible how thedisciples, the early church,
responded when they went throughpersecution.
There's a story in Acts,chapter four.
You won't see on the screen,but there's a story where the
disciples went through thispersecution In Acts 4.29,.
They were persecuted for theirfaith and they get back together
and they pray.
And just when you think, theyget back together and pray and
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they ask God, god, may thatnever happen again.
God, may we never be persecutedagain.
God, that was awful.
God, that was terrible.
God, that was terrible.
God, would you protect us?
God, would you please let usnot be persecuted.
That's not what they prayed inverse 29.
It says, and now they prayedLord, look upon their threats
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and grant to your servants tocontinue to speak your word with
all boldness.
In other words, the disciplessaid God, thank you, thank you
that we are found worthy to evenbe persecuted for your name.
And, god, we're gonna go backout and we're gonna share the
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gospel and we're gonna ministerin your name and we're gonna
witness the people of Jesus.
And so, god, we pray that wewould not back down, we would
not shy away, we would notshrink, but, god, that we would
be bold in the way that wewitness with the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Did you know that we're seeingthat with our church right now?
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With our church right now, godis doing such a great work?
We are seeing more spiritualwarfare in our church than I've
seen the entire time I've beenhere and God's just been
speaking to me personally andGod's just been telling me Chip
watch.
He says the more I work Satan,the more that Satan's going to
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attack.
And then God says watch whathappens next.
And the more that Satan attacks, god says, the more that I'm
going to work.
In other words, we have got totake our eyes off the
persecution.
We've got to take our eyes offof the attack.
We've got to take our eyes offof the warfare.
You have to take your eyes offof the suffering in your life.
You have to take your eyes offof the difficulty in your life.
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You've got to take your eyesoff the pain and off the hurt in
your life.
And we've got to put our eyeson Jesus and what Jesus wants to
do in the pain, through thehurt, during the suffering,
because he wants to use it inyour life, in someone else's
life, for his glory.
Put your hands together thismorning for the way that Jesus
works and the way that he usesall of our lives.
So we see in this persecutionand we see judgment.
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This is so interesting.
Just very quickly, in verse 7 itsays the king was angry and he
sent his troops and destroyedthose murderers and burned those
cities.
In other words, here's what wesee is that God takes care of
the persecution.
We don't have to retaliateright?
The Bible says in Romans 12, 19, vengeance is mine, I will
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repay, says the Lord.
What do we need to focus on?
We need to focus on theministry.
We need to focus on theministry.
Second, corinthians 5, 11 says,even just seeing, knowing the
terror of the Lord, that we needto persuade others.
We need to remember that Godtakes care of the persecution
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and one day God's going to seteverything right.
One day.
The Bible says that God's goingto repay, but until then, we
keep our eyes on Jesus.
I heard just a story this pastweek of David Livingston.
David Livingston was one of themajor missionaries that first
took the gospel to Africa.
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And as he took the gospel toAfrica, god was doing such a
work and all the African tribesand all to be honest with you
all the African gods, thedemonic gods, were getting so
upset because of this ministrythat God was using David
Livingston to do with the gospelthat one night there was a
tribe that came to kill DavidLivingston, his family and their
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missionary friends in theircompound.
And the tribe gets to theircompound and the story goes that
they see 39 giant warriorssurrounding the compound.
So the tribe escapes, they fleeand David Livingston learns of
it.
Someone tells him the wholestory and he wrote it back home
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to his church.
It was a day back then and hejust sent letters.
Months went by and a lettercame back and they said you're
not gonna believe this, but thenight that the tribe came to
kill you, your family and themissionaries with you, we were
praying that night and therewere 39 people in our prayer
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service and we were praying foryou, that God would protect you.
And those tribes saw 39warriors.
In other words, god is watchingover you, god is your protector
.
Jesus says vengeance is mine, Iwill repay, says the Lord.
So what do we focus on?
We focus on invitation.
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Watch this.
After there was invitation andrejection and persecution and
judgment, the king sends themback out.
Then the king said to hisservants again the wedding feast
is ready, but those invitedwere not worthy.
Go, therefore, to the mainroads, invite to the wedding
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feast as many as you find.
And those servants went outinto the roads and gathered all
whom they found, both bad andgood.
So the wedding hall was filledwith guests.
Jesus is saying keep sharing thegospel.
Jesus is saying keep invitingthem to your church.
Jesus is saying keep sharing myname.
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Jesus is saying if you're theinvited, then you're also the
inviter.
So what do the main roads mean?
The main roads, that is whereeveryone would travel through.
It was typically intersectionsin the cities and the towns.
It would be the highestconcentration of people.
Jesus is saying I want you tobe open, I want you to be public
, I want you to invite even theoutcast and the poor.
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I want you to be urgent,because Jesus is saying you
don't know when I'm coming back.
We need to invite people ofdifferent countries.
We need to invite people ofdifferent ethnicities.
We need to invite people ofdifferent religious backgrounds.
Why?
Because everyone is invited tothe wedding feast of Jesus.
Everyone is invited to believein Jesus and be saved.
Everyone is invited to be apart of his church and everyone
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is invited to be a part of hisfamily, his worship, his people
and his mission.
And here's what's interestingThey've done the research and
all the different ways that weinvite people to church.
Social media, the website, couldbe churches that have digital
signs, could be churches thathave billboards, churches that
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have magazine ads or newspaperads or signs on baseball fields
or whatever it is.
Do you know what the mostpowerful invite out of all of
them is?
It's you.
It's you.
It's the personal invite.
People aren't looking for asign.
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People aren't looking for an ad.
People want to see someone'slife that has been changed and
someone that God is continuingto work within them, because
that's what people want God todo in their life too.
So how do you invite?
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Number one is just pray.
You just pray.
You pray for the person that.
Who is it that you would loveto see God bring here?
We have a lady that started arun club here at our church,
wasn't even attending our church.
She started a run club here andsomeone asked her how they can
pray for her.
They put her on the churchprayer list.
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She learned that the entirechurch was praying for her and
she said I'm gonna start comingto that church because I did not
know that a church could loveme like that and pray for me
like that.
And you may be here thismorning, that might be you, but
we pray.
We pray for people.
Why?
Because we love people, becauseGod loves people, and we want
God to do the work and webelieve God.
I believe that you can use me,god.
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I believe that you wanna workin their life and we be
relational.
Don't just be religious.
Religious is just walking up tosomebody and telling them all
about their sin and how wrongthey are and about how wrong
they are about all of life, andyou shame them and you guilt
them and then you invite them tochurch.
They're never gonna come.
But being relational is askingthem questions.
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How are you doing?
How can I pray for you?
Do you have any spiritualbeliefs in your life?
And it's listening.
It's not shaking your head ifthey're saying something that
doesn't match up with scripture.
You're listening to them withloving eyes.
You're asking them questions.
You're building a relationship.
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You are winning the right toshare your spiritual beliefs in
Jesus with them.
And then you might ask them doyou go to church anywhere?
And so many people in the Southsay yes.
My favorite question andresponse is what's your pastor's
name?
Then they don't know.
If you don't know your pastor'sname, you don't go to church
there.
And then you get to share withthem your story and what God's
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been teaching you and how God'sbeen changing you and how God's
been working in you, becausethat's what people want.
They don't want some cold, deadreligion.
They want to be a part of aplace that is alive, that they
can experience God forthemselves.
I would encourage you.
Invite them to Sunday mornings.
Invite young families to kids,because families are always
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looking for a safe, clean, fun,loving environment that their
kids can experience, that theparents get to be hands-free and
enjoy a worship service forthemselves.
Invite teenagers to studentministry.
Invite people to our groups.
So many people today won't cometo a worship service, but they
will come and check out yourgroup.
Invite them to events.
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We've got Easter coming upPerfect Sunday.
Invite them to any Sunday, butif there's a special Sunday that
people will come to church,it's often Easter Sunday.
It's going to be on April 20th.
We've got a service at 9, 30,and 11, just like every Sunday.
But before that, on the Fridaybefore, we're going to have a
Good Friday service.
On the 18th it's gonna be at5.30 in the sanctuary and at 7
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o'clock in here.
We're gonna talk about thedeath of Jesus in the Good
Friday service and theresurrection of Jesus in the
Easter service.
But here's where the passageends is impersonation.
Very quickly, jesus ends thestory in a very interesting way.
But when the king came in tolook at the guest, he saw there
a man who had no wedding garmentand he said to him friend, how
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did you get in here without awedding garment?
And he, the friend, wasspeechless.
Back then, culturally, not onlywould you give someone an
invitation, but especially ifyou were wealthy, you would give
someone the wedding garment youwould want them to wear to the
wedding that you were invitingthem to.
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So there was one man out of allof these people and he wasn't
wearing the wedding garment.
In other words, he wasn'thonoring the king, he was just
trying to be a wedding crasher.
And the king.
He was just trying to be awedding crasher.
And the king said you don'tbelong here, you're not coming
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for the purpose that I designedthis wedding.
The king said to the attendantsbind him hand and foot, cast him
into the outer darkness.
In that place there will beweeping and gnashing of teeth,
for many are called but few arechosen.
It sounds very harsh, but thisis actually a very gracious part
of the story of Jesus, becauseJesus is saying we don't want to
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get caught, having died andenter into eternity and we don't
have the proper wedding garment, hear me, which isn't a piece
of clothing.
The wedding garment is the.
The Bible calls it beingclothed with the righteousness
of Jesus Christ.
See, when we believe in Jesus,when we believe that he died for
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our sin, when we believe thathe rose from the dead and we
give our life to him, calling onhim to be the Lord of our life,
the Bible says then that heclothes us with his
righteousness and we are saved.
So the Bible is saying Jesus issaying don't get caught passing
into eternity without thewedding garment, without the
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righteousness of Jesus.
When you give him your sin andhe forgives you of your sin, he
gives you his righteousness, heclothes you with his
righteousness and then you areworthy, not because of you but
because of him, and you arewelcome and you're invited.
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And today you're the inviter.
So I just wanna ask you thequestion which person are you in
the story?
I wanna ask every head to bebowed, every eye to be closed.
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Maybe in the story you are theperson that you know, the king.
You know that God himself hascalled you out.
He's called you out to invitepeople to be a part of the
kingdom, and maybe, just thisentire time you are thinking of
a person, or you're thinking ofpeople, you're thinking of
family members.
You're thinking of people.
You're thinking of familymembers, you're thinking of
friends, you're thinking ofneighbors, you're thinking of
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people that you see often andGod has laid them on your heart.
I wanna encourage you righthere, right now.
Just ask God, god, would yougive me the opportunity?
God, would you give me theboldness?
God, would you give me theopportunity?
God, would you give me theboldness?
God, would you give me thewords to say in the moment God,
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would you cross our paths againso I can tell them about what
you're doing in my life and whatyou can do in their life.
And maybe you're here thismorning and you're like that,
one friend of the crowd and youhaven't been clothed with the
righteousness of Jesus yet, youhaven't been forgiven of your
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sin, you haven't given your lifeto him.
I wanna encourage you righthere, right now.
I can't pray that for you, Ican't save you, but right here,
right now, you can pray thatprayer and you can pray right
now to Jesus and you can besaved.
You can say Jesus, I need you,I believe in you.
You can tell him, jesus, Ibelieve that you died on the
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cross for my sin and I'm askingyou to forgive me of all of my
sin.
Jesus, I believe that you rosefrom the dead and, jesus, I've
given my life to you becauseyou're alive, you're real.
You can tell him.
Jesus, I'm calling on you to bethe Lord of my life.
The Bible says in Romans 10,nine if you confess with your
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mouth that Jesus is Lord andbelieve with your heart that God
raised him from the dead, youwill be saved.
Call on Jesus right now.
Jesus, save me, be my God, bemy Savior.
Jesus, we thank you for thattruth.
We thank you for your death andresurrection.
We thank you for your salvation.
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Jesus, we love you and we praythese things in your name.
And all God's people said putyour hands together for anybody
that gave their life to Jesus.
This morning, we just wanna saythat we love you.
Welcome to the family.
We're here to help you and Ijust wanna encourage you.
God wants to work in your lifethis week.
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Who is it that God wants to use?
Who is it that God used in yourlife to invite you to Jesus,
and who is it that God wants touse?
Who is it that God used in yourlife to invite you to Jesus,
and who is it that God wants touse you to invite others to him
as well?
Let's all stand together and Ijust wanna pray one more time
before we worship.
But we'll all stand.
Let's just ask God's blessingon these last moments together.
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Heavenly Father, god, I justthank you so much that you have
so much in store for us.
You have eternity in store forus, and God, we just we can't
wait.
God, we give you all the praise, the honor and the glory.
And, father, thank you thatwe're invited, thank you that
we're included.
Jesus, thank you for making itpossible through your death and
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your resurrection.
So, god, we just pray that youwould just ignite a culture of
invite within us, within ourchurch, god, that the beat of
our heart would be invitation,because your heart is salvation.
Lord, we love you, we worshipyou, we worship you.
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We give you all of ourselves.
Thank you for giving us all ofyou.
In Jesus' name, we pray and allGod's people said let's sing
one more worship song to Jesus.
Well, good morning, put your hands together, as we
are so excited to be here thismorning at First Baptist Church,
powder Springs, and again, aswe said earlier, just so
thankful for all that God isdoing, thankful that you are
here.
Your presence matters, but mostof all, we know that it is
God's presence, his presencematters, and he has promised to
be with us.
So therefore, we know that heis with us because he always
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he's a good God, he always keepshis promises and I always love
to tell you, every Sunday, newthings that God is doing in our
church, ways that he's workingin us, ways that he is working
through us.
Last week we had a baptism.
This morning we had a baptismand I just did a little math
over the past week and all theway from preschool, from our
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preschool ministry, to our highschool ministry, including the
kids and the volunteers we had195 in our Next Gen ministries
just last Sunday.
Put your hands together for allthat God is doing as he is
raising up the next generation,and I even noticed that as
children's ministry has beengrowing so much, just kind of
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did the math and noticed thatour student ministry is up 30%
on Sundays the last month andour student ministry is up 20%
on Wednesdays just the pastmonth.
We are so thankful for PastorChristian Henry, his wife Laura.
Can we just thank God for themone more time?
As God is using them in such agreat way, and many of you, as
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you know, as our next generationministries are growing, that
means that our volunteer baseneeds to continue to grow.
Here's a couple of ways.
One there is a needed volunteerin our one-year-old class at 11
am during this hour, and so ifGod might be calling you, I
would encourage you just torespond to the call and you
answer the Lord and you let thekids' ministry that you want in.
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But also, as you can imagine,with so many volunteers we need
in our children's ministry,there are a lot of call-outs
that can happen on a Sundaymorning, and so we want to build
our sub list.
So maybe you're not able to bethere every Sunday, but you
could be there to replacesomeone that can't be there
regularly, and so you can justlet Miss Cindy, or you can let
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Evan and Anna know, or call usat the church office and you can
just say, hey, I'd love to beon the sub list and just sub in
the children's ministry anytimeI'm needed, and we would love to
make that happen.
I want you to know that on March16, sunday, march 16, we're
going to be celebrating, withthe reception together, pastor
Dave Berryhill's retirement.
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He is our associate pastor ofoperations and we are so
thankful for his 27 plus yearsof pastoral ministry here at
First Baptist Church, powderSprings, and so we're going to
celebrate that together on thatSunday.
And I also want you to knowthat the Lord has raised up an
interim for that position, andAlan Martin.
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Alan, would you please standfor us.
Alan Martin has accepted thecall to be our interim operation
director, so we are so thankfulfor you.
Brother Alan, would you pleasestand for us?
Alan Martin has accepted thecall to be our interim operation
director, so we are so thankfulfor you.
Brother Alan, thank you so much, and I think you're going back
out to the parking lot.
He's digging into the week thisweek, so work in the parking
lots as well.
I don't know what he doesn't do, but, man, we're just so
thankful for the way that Goduses everyone here.
Let's pray together.
Other Heavenly Father, we loveyou and God, we're just so
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thankful for you.
God, thank you for all thatyou're doing, god.
We do not deserve it, god, wehave not earned it.
God, it is all out of yourgrace and all out of your love
and all out of your mercy.
And so, god, we just give youthe glory, all for it.
And we want to proclaim that weare your church, god.
We don't want what we want, god, we want what you want, god.
This is your word, we are yourpeople and God, we pray.
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So therefore, father, for yourwork, god, may your spirit do
your work this morning for theglory of your son.
We love you in Jesus' name, andall God's people said amen.
You can open up your Bible withme to Matthew, chapter 22.
Matthew 22 this morning iswe're going to dive into God's
Word and this morning we'regoing to talk about the power of
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the invite.
Everybody say invite, the powerof the invite.
Jesus shares with us a story inthe Word of God that he talks
about how he wants to empoweryou for a very special
invitation the power of aninvite.
I can remember I have abrother-in-law His name is Joey,
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and Joey would back in 2018,2019, he would always invite me
to go to these Spartan racesthat he was going to right and
he would run these Spartan races.
He would run a race of threemiles, six miles, 12 miles, and
then he had a 30 miler that hewas running and this 30 mile
race had 80 different obstacles.
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And these 80 differentobstacles for this race, if you
failed an obstacle, you'd haveto do 30 burpees every failed
obstacle.
It was nuts.
I'm like why are you runningthese races?
Who's chasing you?
Joey?
What is going on?
And he would always invite meto come and I never wanted to go
.
And he said well, I've got todo this 30 miler.
How about you just come andpick me up and drive me home
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after I run this 30 miles,because he's probably going to
collapse, right?
So I told him all right, I'llcome pick you up.
And so when I came and pickedhim up, I think it's gonna be on
the big screen, if you can seeit, and this is kind of what I
saw, maybe the side screens, butyou'll see like mud they're
running through mud pits,they're climbing cargo A-frames
Over here.
There's like a slippery wallkind of thing.
You see him going up the ropesof the slippery wall and I get
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there to the Spartan race.
I'm like in, let's go right, Iam in.
And so 2019, I ran three Spartanraces.
I ran the three miler like alittle baby race and I ran the
seven, eight miler and then Idid a 12 to 13 miler by myself
and all the obstacles and allthe miles and stuff, and I never
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thought I would do anythinglike that.
But it was all because of thepower of the invite and he
invited me and once I saw it Iwanted to be a part of it and I
want you to know that God isincluding you in on this power
of the invite, that he isempowering you to be a part of
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his invitation.
So, before we get there, I justwant to remind us this morning
that we are in our series calledRed Letters.
Everybody said Red Letters.
The red letters in your Bibleare all of the words of Jesus.
We're talking this month aboutthe teachings of Jesus.
We started with Jesus justsimply saying follow me, the
most two powerful words thatcould ever be said follow me.
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Last week we talked about theseven I am statements of Jesus.
This morning we're going totalk about, with these red
letters, what Jesus really said.
We're going to talk about theparables.
Everybody say parables.
Parables are the stories ofJesus.
I've heard it put that parablesare earthly stories with
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heavenly meanings, and so we seethroughout Scripture, through
the Gospels, that Jesus loved totell stories.
In fact, I've learned that asJesus.
There's a few facts here thatyou'll have to see.
But in Matthew, chapter 22,verse 1, it says again Jesus
spoke to them in parables or instories.
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Jesus loved to preach, jesusloved to teach, jesus loved to
do it while telling stories,parables.
Here's some interesting factsabout parables.
Did you know that Jesus toldaround 40 parables throughout
his ministry that are recordedin scripture?
About one third of histeachings were parables.
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In other words, jesus usedstories.
Jesus used parables more sothan any other form or method of
teaching whenever he wasteaching the word of God.
Also, I want you to understandthat the disciples did not
always understand the parablesthat Jesus was saying.
Right, you ever read your Biblelike I don't even know what I
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just read.
You're not alone.
That's how I feel at times.
That's how you feel at times.
Everybody feels that way attimes, and even the disciples
who follow Jesus.
Jesus would always have toexplain those parables to his
listeners, even to his disciples.
So we're all in good company.
And number four, I think themost important part, the most
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important question you can askyourself when you come across a
parable in the Bible is whichperson in the story am I?
Which person in the story am I?
And the same is true today.
Researchers and scientists andpsychologists tell us that we
remember stories some 20 timesmore than we remember any fact,
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figure or stat.
Do you realize that the Bibleis actually a book of stories
that's interpreted by truths?
Within the Bible, there aresome 300 different stories all
coming together and all makingup one story, the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
And did you realize that one ofthe most powerful ways for you
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to witness to somebody about thegospel is for you?
The Bible says for you to shareyour story, to share your story
, for you to share yourtestimony, and then you share
the story of Jesus so that Jesuscan save them, just like he
saved you.
I remember being in the Amazonjungle in Brazil a mission trip
years ago, and I remembermeeting a young man.
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I've told you a little bitabout him and this young man.
He came out of the jungle,someone shared the gospel with
him, he got saved, he married aChristian woman and when I met
him he had just memorized, wordfor word, 150 different stories
of the Bible, because it wasillegal to tell his family, his
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people, his tribe, his villageand anybody else that he could
witness to, so that he couldshare with them the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
So there's 40 differentparables of scripture.
I looked through all 40different parables this week.
I wanted to preach every one ofthem and I would still love to
preach every one of them, butyou don't wanna stay here that
long.
I get it.
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I get it.
So I asked the Lord, lord, whichone do you want me to teach
this Sunday?
And this is the one that hegave me from Matthew 22, the
parable of the wedding feast.
And the point of the parable ofthe wedding feast is you aren't
just the invited, you're alsothe inviter.
You aren't just the invited,you're also the inviter.
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So here we go, we're gonna diveinto this parable, and the
first section of the parable issalvation.
Everyone say salvation,salvation.
Let's read together it says inMatthew, chapter 22, verse two
it says the kingdom of heavenmay be compared to a king who
gave a wedding feast for his son.
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In other words, jesus wouldtell all of these stories
because he was always trying touse these earthly stories to
teach heavenly meanings orheavenly truths.
He wanted to teach them aboutthe kingdom of heaven.
He wanted to teach them aboutthe kingdom of heaven.
He wanted to teach them aboutthe kingdom of God.
So in this story he's comparingit to a wedding feast by a king
(11:32):
for a son.
I don't know about you, but weall love a good wedding, right?
I have literally officiatedweddings in the woods.
I've officiated a lot ofweddings in barns.
People love to get married inbarns today.
It's crazy.
I've officiated a lot ofweddings in barns.
People love to get married inbarns today.
It's crazy.
I've officiated a wedding at amansion by a pool overlooking a
lake.
I have officiated a wedding onthe side of a mountain and the
(11:54):
reception was in a cave and itwas under 40 degrees.
I was wearing full under armorunder my suit and my tie on that
wedding.
I have even officiated awedding in a church before.
Believe it or not, they don'tdo that anymore, but used to.
I remember when Michelle and Igot married and we had picked
out all of our favorite foodsright for the reception.
(12:15):
And so we get married and wewalk into the reception and
there's all of our favoritefoods that we picked out and we
never got to eat one bite.
Because she was a sixth gradeteacher and a basketball coach
at the time high schoolbasketball coach and I was a
youth pastor and she had a lineof teenagers on her side and I
had a line of teenagers on myside.
Because what do they want?
They just wanted selfies withthe couple that just got married
(12:38):
.
We took selfies for two hours.
We never even.
I think the only wedding cakewe ate was me, and it's because
you shoved it in my mouth at onepoint, right, you never got to
try the cake and so we didn'teven get to enjoy our own feast.
I think the best wedding feastI've been a part of, I remember
officiating a wedding and thefood was they had brought in a
(13:00):
brick oven, pizza truck and anice cream truck.
I wanted to get married everyweekend.
It was just awesome.
And so we see here that Jesus istelling the story, and he's
telling the story and he'scomparing it to imagine Jesus
saying go with me, imagine thatthere is a king of a kingdom and
he is throwing this massiveparty this wedding feast for his
(13:22):
son.
In fact, they would understandexactly what he's talking about
because of the culture of Jewishwedding back then.
So the way that they would doJewish wedding, first of all,
the groom, whenever they wouldget engaged or betrothed, the
groom would actually leave forabout a year, wouldn't see the
bride for a year, and what wouldhe do?
He would go back and he wouldbuild onto his parents' house so
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that they would have a place tolive.
He would call it going andpreparing a place for his bride.
The Bible says he was gone forabout a year.
Number three the groom's returnto the bride would be a
surprise and it said he wouldoften come back at night and
there would be a shout and therewould probably be a trumpet and
the entire place would eruptbecause the groom had come back
(14:08):
and so the bride had to remainready and the wedding procession
would lead the bride back tothe home of the groom and the
wedding feast would last up toseven days.
Isn't that exactly what Jesusis doing for us?
Hadn't Jesus?
Didn't he say that he went awayto prepare a place for you?
Doesn't the Bible tell us toremain ready for Jesus?
(14:29):
Doesn't the Bible say that he'sgonna come back with a shout
and with a blast of a trumpetand then he's gonna take us to
heaven to be with him?
Put your hands together rightnow just to see the gospel of
Jesus Christ, even within theword of God.
So the Bible talks about themarriage supper of the lamb
(14:50):
Revelation, chapter 19 and 20.
The marriage supper of the lambis this wedding feast that
inaugurates all of eternity thatyou are invited to and that I
am invited to that.
If you believe in Jesus, ifyou've given your life to the
gospel, you get to go.
(15:10):
But the beauty of your life isthat you're not just the invited
, you're also the inviter.
Isaiah 25, verse 6 says there'sgonna be rich food full of
marrow, which means it's gonnabe like a steak buffet.
To be rich food full of marrow,which means it's going to be
like a steak buffet.
Zephaniah 3.17 says that Godwill exalt over us with his love
, meaning on earth, we'resinging to him, we're singing to
(15:33):
him.
We're singing to him.
But in the marriage supper ofthe lamb, the beginning of all
of eternity, god's going to stepup and he's going to sing over
you and he's going to sing overus and he's going to exalt over
us with his love and this iswhat we get to invite people to.
And so here in this passage wesee invitation.
(15:54):
Everyone say invitation.
This is the point of thepassage.
It says in Matthew Jesus saidin verse three he said and that
king sent his servants to callthose who were invited to the
wedding feast.
And so he is.
What Jesus is saying is thatyou, that I, that we are the
inviters.
(16:14):
In other words, the king was soproud of his son, he loved his
son so much that he wanted toinvite his kingdom.
So they went out and theystarted to invite.
And this is our opportunity thatwe're not just inviting people
to be a part of a quote religion.
No, we're inviting people tosomething far greater and far
(16:37):
bigger than that.
We're inviting people to heaven.
We're inviting people to have arelationship with the God of
the universe.
We're inviting people to beforgiven of their sin.
We're inviting people to have arelationship with the God of
the universe.
We're inviting people to beforgiven of their sin.
We're inviting people for themto get to experience real, true,
abundant life.
We're inviting people that theyget to be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
We're inviting people that theyget to be a part of this
(16:59):
wedding feast that God hasplanned for us and God has
planned for them.
We are inviting our friends,we're inviting our families,
we're inviting our neighbors,we're inviting our community,
we're inviting our coworkers,we're inviting our classmates,
we're inviting our acquaintances.
First Timothy, chapter two,verse four, says that God
(17:22):
desires that all people would besaved, because salvation is the
heart of God.
Invitation is the heartbeat ofthe believer.
Because salvation is theheartbeat of God, invitation
must be the heartbeat of thebeliever.
Did you know?
Today, professionals tell usthat 82% of unchurched people
(17:48):
have admitted that they arelikely to come to church if
someone just invited them.
The problem is, only 2% ofchurch members invite the
unchurched.
82% said that they would come,only 2% said that they have
actually invited, and we evensee today that 57% of Americans
(18:13):
seldom or never attend religiousservices.
I do want to tell you that FirstBaptist Church, powder Springs,
that this is not meant to be aguilt trip whatsoever.
I believe that we are different.
I believe that God is using you.
I believe that you are invitingpeople because someone has
invited you.
How many of y'all are herebecause someone invited you here
(18:35):
, even if that was years ago.
Raise your hand right now.
Raise your hand.
Someone invited you at somepoint in time.
Keep your hand up.
Keep your hand up to FirstBaptist Church, patterson
Springs.
Look around the room to beinvited.
My hands up.
The pastor search team invitedme here, man, I'm so thankful
that they called my family and Ito be here.
I heard a question this pastweek that really convicted me,
(18:57):
and the question was ifeverybody came, who I invited,
who would be here this Sundaymorning?
If everybody came that Iinvited, who would be here this
Sunday morning?
If everybody came that Iinvited, who would be here this
Sunday morning?
I think I would rather put itthis way If everybody came next
Sunday, who we invite this week,who will be here next Sunday?
Right, we need to be people.
(19:17):
Jesus is telling the story.
We need to be people that weare inviting them to be a part
of.
We believe that church is theglimpse of heaven that God is
giving us on earth.
We believe that God is givinghis children the opportunity to
have more fun going to heaventhan the world is going to hell.
Can I get an amen?
(19:38):
We believe that church ought tobe fun, that we ought to laugh
and have a good time in church.
That's why we gather together.
That's why we time in church.
That's why we gather together.
That's why we hug each other,that's why we come early, that's
why we stay late.
That's why we play music.
That's why we sing songstogether.
That's why we worship Jesus.
That's why we hear from God.
We hear from the words of JesusChrist.
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That's why we love to get ingroups together.
That's why we love to servetogether.
That's why we freak out when wesee each other out in the town,
right when we go out to eat andwe see our other church
brothers and sisters.
Why?
Because God has called us to bea part of something that he
wants others to be a part of too, and it's not because it's a
part of our church.
(20:18):
Our church is just arepresentation of the kingdom of
God.
This is not about me and it'snot about you and it's not about
us.
It's all about Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
It's all about Jesus, and he'sthe one that we're ultimately
inviting people to and he's theone that we're ultimately
celebrating here on a Sundaymorning.
(20:39):
So in invitation we also seerejection.
Everybody say rejection.
Who's ever been rejected before?
You ever invited someone tochurch and they didn't come?
Raise your hand.
I want y'all to see you're notalone.
You're not alone.
Have you invited someone tochurch?
I've invited people to church.
I've invited people to ourchurch and I'm a pastor here,
and they still don't come.
My goodness, what's wrong withthese people?
And it's so interesting, right,it's interesting how this
(21:01):
happens.
But Jesus actually shares withus that this is very common.
It says in Matthew, chapter 22,the end of verse 3,.
But they would not come.
And again the king sent otherservants saying tell those who
are invited.
See, I have prepared my dinner,my ox and my fat calves and I
have been slaughtered andeverything is ready.
(21:23):
Come to the wedding feast.
But they paid no attention andwent off, one to his farm and
another to his business.
Could you imagine if you werethrowing a wedding for your
child and no one came to thewedding?
Could you imagine if no onecame to the wedding?
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Could you imagine if no onecame to your wedding?
Could you imagine if, if yourfiance did not show up to your
wedding, it just keeps gettingworse?
Could you imagine you'reinvited and in fact, you and I,
we're the bride, but we don't goto Jesus's wedding, which is
(22:09):
actually a wedding party for usas well.
That's the whole point of thisstory.
We see that the king sends hisservants out a second time, for
us as well.
That's the whole point of thisstory.
We see that the king sends hisservants out a second time.
Everything is set, everythingis ready, but the people didn't
come.
One person said this farm isn'tgonna take care of itself.
Another person said I've gotbusiness to take care of.
(22:30):
I have more important things todeal with.
But remember, jesus is talkingabout the kingdom of God.
This is the way my sin works.
This is the way your sin works.
This is the way the sin of theworld works.
We tend to think that otherthings are more important than
the things of God.
One this farmer said that cowsand crops are more important
(22:54):
than Jesus Christ.
A businessman might say thatmoney is more important than the
Messiah, or success is moreimportant than the Savior.
And that's not just on them,that's on me and that's on you.
This is what sin wants to do inus.
In fact, there are five commonexcuses or reasons why people
don't go to church.
Number one they have aperception of hypocrisy.
(23:16):
They think that we think thatwe're perfect, but yet they know
that we're sinners.
So they think we're hypocritebecause we're not perfect.
We're sinners.
But guess what?
We're not perfect.
We're sinners, and we're justsinners that are saved by the
perfect one, by the Savior, andhe is the one that is working in
our life to forgive us.
Can I get an amen?
So we know we're not perfect.
(23:37):
So when we go out there, wecan't be afraid of admitting our
mistakes, we can't be afraid ofeven confessing our sin.
They don't need to think thatwe think that we're perfect.
They need to think that we knowthat we're sinners and that our
sinners are saved by Jesus,who's the only perfect one, who
(23:58):
forgave us on the cross.
Number two maybe they have anegative past experience in
church, or maybe they disagreewith church beliefs, or maybe
their perception is irreverence.
What does the church have to dowith me?
Or maybe they are too busy, ormaybe Sunday morning is just a
bad time for them.
Whatever it is, whatever excusethey might give, whatever it is
(24:21):
that you might hear, I wouldencourage you take it one step
deeper.
Take it one step deeper and askthem another question.
Well, this is what God is doingin my life.
This is what I've learned aboutthese.
Have you ever considered this?
Because here's the deal youhave been rejected, I have been
(24:42):
rejected, but rejection does notmean that we stop inviting them
or stop inviting others.
Many years ago, alabamaUniversity of Alabama, had a
quarterback.
Some of y'all remember himbecause he was terrible and
y'all probably beat him, and hisname was Freddy Kitchens.
Right so Freddy Kitchens?
He actually ended up being anNFL never was an NFL quarterback
(25:04):
, I don't think but he ended upbeing an NFL coach for the
Cleveland Browns.
Then he got fired.
But Freddy Kitchens I rememberwhen he was at the University of
Alabama I was living inTuscaloosa at the time and I
heard a story about him SaidFreddie was in a restaurant.
He tapped a girl on the shoulder.
He said hey, I want you to goout with me.
She looked at him.
She turned around the other way.
He completely ignored him.
He tapped her on the shoulderagain hey, I wanna take you out
(25:28):
on a date.
She looked at him, turned theother direction, ignored
direction, ignored him again.
He tapped her on the shoulder athird time and he said my name
is Freddie Kitchens.
I am the quarterback of theUniversity of Alabama.
I want to know what are thechances you're going to go out
with me.
She said about the chancesyou're going to be an NFL
quarterback.
And she turned back around andcompletely ignored him.
(25:48):
He was rejected.
He was rejected, but I lookedup online this week and
Freddie's, married with kids,was rejected.
But I looked up online thisweek and Fred he's married with
kids, right, like he didn't letthe rejection stop him.
In other words, as we ministerto people's lives, sometimes
what Satan wants to do is hewants to use the rejection as to
(26:09):
think I'm not a good inviter,so I'm not gonna try anymore,
I'm gonna leave it to somebodyelse.
And Jesus says that there isrejection.
Check this out.
He says that there is rejection.
And in Isaiah, chapter 53, it'snot gonna be on the screen, but
verse three says that Jesus wasdespised and rejected by others
(26:32):
who esteemed him.
Not Luke six.
Jesus said blessed are you whenpeople hate you, when people
reject you.
Rejoice in that day, leap forjoy, for great is your reward in
heaven.
And here's what's interesting.
Rejection in this passage ledto persecution.
Everyone say persecution, itsays in verse 6, while the rest
(26:54):
of the people that were invited,seized those servants and
treated them shamefully andkilled them.
I've been through persecutionin my life for my faith to some
degree.
You may have been throughpersecution in your life to some
degree.
Jesus uses passages like theseto encourage us and to empower
(27:19):
us.
Different types of persecutionthat you might experience as a
believer in Jesus.
You might be mocked or made funof because of your faith.
You might be ignored orisolated because of your faith
in Jesus.
In other parts of the world,people are being taken to court,
they're being arrested, they'rebeing physically beaten.
They're even being martyred fortheir faith in Jesus.
(27:41):
Did you know that 70 millionChristians have been martyred
for their faith throughouthistory?
Over 380 million Christians arebeing persecuted today for
their faith.
And did you know that two infive Christians in Asia face
persecution daily?
(28:02):
We see in the Bible how thedisciples, the early church,
responded when they went throughpersecution.
There's a story in Acts,chapter four.
You won't see on the screen,but there's a story where the
disciples went through thispersecution In Acts 4.29,.
They were persecuted for theirfaith and they get back together
and they pray.
And just when you think, theyget back together and pray and
(28:26):
they ask God, god, may thatnever happen again.
God, may we never be persecutedagain.
God, that was awful.
God, that was terrible.
God, that was terrible.
God, would you protect us?
God, would you please let usnot be persecuted.
That's not what they prayed inverse 29.
It says, and now they prayedLord, look upon their threats
(28:47):
and grant to your servants tocontinue to speak your word with
all boldness.
In other words, the disciplessaid God, thank you, thank you
that we are found worthy to evenbe persecuted for your name.
And, god, we're gonna go backout and we're gonna share the
(29:07):
gospel and we're gonna ministerin your name and we're gonna
witness the people of Jesus.
And so, god, we pray that wewould not back down, we would
not shy away, we would notshrink, but, god, that we would
be bold in the way that wewitness with the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Did you know that we're seeingthat with our church right now?
(29:28):
With our church right now, godis doing such a great work?
We are seeing more spiritualwarfare in our church than I've
seen the entire time I've beenhere and God's just been
speaking to me personally andGod's just been telling me Chip
watch.
He says the more I work Satan,the more that Satan's going to
(29:50):
attack.
And then God says watch whathappens next.
And the more that Satan attacks, god says, the more that I'm
going to work.
In other words, we have got totake our eyes off the
persecution.
We've got to take our eyes offof the attack.
We've got to take our eyes offof the warfare.
You have to take your eyes offof the suffering in your life.
You have to take your eyes offof the difficulty in your life.
(30:11):
You've got to take your eyesoff the pain and off the hurt in
your life.
And we've got to put our eyeson Jesus and what Jesus wants to
do in the pain, through thehurt, during the suffering,
because he wants to use it inyour life, in someone else's
life, for his glory.
Put your hands together thismorning for the way that Jesus
works and the way that he usesall of our lives.
So we see in this persecutionand we see judgment.
(30:36):
This is so interesting.
Just very quickly, in verse 7 itsays the king was angry and he
sent his troops and destroyedthose murderers and burned those
cities.
In other words, here's what wesee is that God takes care of
the persecution.
We don't have to retaliateright?
The Bible says in Romans 12, 19, vengeance is mine, I will
(30:59):
repay, says the Lord.
What do we need to focus on?
We need to focus on theministry.
We need to focus on theministry.
Second, corinthians 5, 11 says,even just seeing, knowing the
terror of the Lord, that we needto persuade others.
We need to remember that Godtakes care of the persecution
(31:21):
and one day God's going to seteverything right.
One day.
The Bible says that God's goingto repay, but until then, we
keep our eyes on Jesus.
I heard just a story this pastweek of David Livingston.
David Livingston was one of themajor missionaries that first
took the gospel to Africa.
(31:41):
And as he took the gospel toAfrica, god was doing such a
work and all the African tribesand all to be honest with you
all the African gods, thedemonic gods, were getting so
upset because of this ministrythat God was using David
Livingston to do with the gospelthat one night there was a
tribe that came to kill DavidLivingston, his family and their
(32:04):
missionary friends in theircompound.
And the tribe gets to theircompound and the story goes that
they see 39 giant warriorssurrounding the compound.
So the tribe escapes, they fleeand David Livingston learns of
it.
Someone tells him the wholestory and he wrote it back home
(32:27):
to his church.
It was a day back then and hejust sent letters.
Months went by and a lettercame back and they said you're
not gonna believe this, but thenight that the tribe came to
kill you, your family and themissionaries with you, we were
praying that night and therewere 39 people in our prayer
(32:47):
service and we were praying foryou, that God would protect you.
And those tribes saw 39warriors.
In other words, god is watchingover you, god is your protector
.
Jesus says vengeance is mine, Iwill repay, says the Lord.
So what do we focus on?
We focus on invitation.
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Watch this.
After there was invitation andrejection and persecution and
judgment, the king sends themback out.
Then the king said to hisservants again the wedding feast
is ready, but those invitedwere not worthy.
Go, therefore, to the mainroads, invite to the wedding
(33:29):
feast as many as you find.
And those servants went outinto the roads and gathered all
whom they found, both bad andgood.
So the wedding hall was filledwith guests.
Jesus is saying keep sharing thegospel.
Jesus is saying keep invitingthem to your church.
Jesus is saying keep sharing myname.
(33:51):
Jesus is saying if you're theinvited, then you're also the
inviter.
So what do the main roads mean?
The main roads, that is whereeveryone would travel through.
It was typically intersectionsin the cities and the towns.
It would be the highestconcentration of people.
Jesus is saying I want you tobe open, I want you to be public
, I want you to invite even theoutcast and the poor.
(34:14):
I want you to be urgent,because Jesus is saying you
don't know when I'm coming back.
We need to invite people ofdifferent countries.
We need to invite people ofdifferent ethnicities.
We need to invite people ofdifferent religious backgrounds.
Why?
Because everyone is invited tothe wedding feast of Jesus.
Everyone is invited to believein Jesus and be saved.
Everyone is invited to be apart of his church and everyone
(34:37):
is invited to be a part of hisfamily, his worship, his people
and his mission.
And here's what's interestingThey've done the research and
all the different ways that weinvite people to church.
Social media, the website, couldbe churches that have digital
signs, could be churches thathave billboards, churches that
(35:00):
have magazine ads or newspaperads or signs on baseball fields
or whatever it is.
Do you know what the mostpowerful invite out of all of
them is?
It's you.
It's you.
It's the personal invite.
People aren't looking for asign.
(35:20):
People aren't looking for an ad.
People want to see someone'slife that has been changed and
someone that God is continuingto work within them, because
that's what people want God todo in their life too.
So how do you invite?
(35:42):
Number one is just pray.
You just pray.
You pray for the person that.
Who is it that you would loveto see God bring here?
We have a lady that started arun club here at our church,
wasn't even attending our church.
She started a run club here andsomeone asked her how they can
pray for her.
They put her on the churchprayer list.
(36:03):
She learned that the entirechurch was praying for her and
she said I'm gonna start comingto that church because I did not
know that a church could loveme like that and pray for me
like that.
And you may be here thismorning, that might be you, but
we pray.
We pray for people.
Why?
Because we love people, becauseGod loves people, and we want
God to do the work and webelieve God.
I believe that you can use me,god.
(36:26):
I believe that you wanna workin their life and we be
relational.
Don't just be religious.
Religious is just walking up tosomebody and telling them all
about their sin and how wrongthey are and about how wrong
they are about all of life, andyou shame them and you guilt
them and then you invite them tochurch.
They're never gonna come.
But being relational is askingthem questions.
(36:46):
How are you doing?
How can I pray for you?
Do you have any spiritualbeliefs in your life?
And it's listening.
It's not shaking your head ifthey're saying something that
doesn't match up with scripture.
You're listening to them withloving eyes.
You're asking them questions.
You're building a relationship.
(37:06):
You are winning the right toshare your spiritual beliefs in
Jesus with them.
And then you might ask them doyou go to church anywhere?
And so many people in the Southsay yes.
My favorite question andresponse is what's your pastor's
name?
Then they don't know.
If you don't know your pastor'sname, you don't go to church
there.
And then you get to share withthem your story and what God's
(37:32):
been teaching you and how God'sbeen changing you and how God's
been working in you, becausethat's what people want.
They don't want some cold, deadreligion.
They want to be a part of aplace that is alive, that they
can experience God forthemselves.
I would encourage you.
Invite them to Sunday mornings.
Invite young families to kids,because families are always
(37:55):
looking for a safe, clean, fun,loving environment that their
kids can experience, that theparents get to be hands-free and
enjoy a worship service forthemselves.
Invite teenagers to studentministry.
Invite people to our groups.
So many people today won't cometo a worship service, but they
will come and check out yourgroup.
Invite them to events.
(38:15):
We've got Easter coming upPerfect Sunday.
Invite them to any Sunday, butif there's a special Sunday that
people will come to church,it's often Easter Sunday.
It's going to be on April 20th.
We've got a service at 9, 30,and 11, just like every Sunday.
But before that, on the Fridaybefore, we're going to have a
Good Friday service.
On the 18th it's gonna be at5.30 in the sanctuary and at 7
(38:36):
o'clock in here.
We're gonna talk about thedeath of Jesus in the Good
Friday service and theresurrection of Jesus in the
Easter service.
But here's where the passageends is impersonation.
Very quickly, jesus ends thestory in a very interesting way.
But when the king came in tolook at the guest, he saw there
a man who had no wedding garmentand he said to him friend, how
(38:59):
did you get in here without awedding garment?
And he, the friend, wasspeechless.
Back then, culturally, not onlywould you give someone an
invitation, but especially ifyou were wealthy, you would give
someone the wedding garment youwould want them to wear to the
wedding that you were invitingthem to.
(39:20):
So there was one man out of allof these people and he wasn't
wearing the wedding garment.
In other words, he wasn'thonoring the king, he was just
trying to be a wedding crasher.
And the king.
He was just trying to be awedding crasher.
And the king said you don'tbelong here, you're not coming
(39:41):
for the purpose that I designedthis wedding.
The king said to the attendantsbind him hand and foot, cast him
into the outer darkness.
In that place there will beweeping and gnashing of teeth,
for many are called but few arechosen.
It sounds very harsh, but thisis actually a very gracious part
of the story of Jesus, becauseJesus is saying we don't want to
(40:07):
get caught, having died andenter into eternity and we don't
have the proper wedding garment, hear me, which isn't a piece
of clothing.
The wedding garment is the.
The Bible calls it beingclothed with the righteousness
of Jesus Christ.
See, when we believe in Jesus,when we believe that he died for
(40:30):
our sin, when we believe thathe rose from the dead and we
give our life to him, calling onhim to be the Lord of our life,
the Bible says then that heclothes us with his
righteousness and we are saved.
So the Bible is saying Jesus issaying don't get caught passing
into eternity without thewedding garment, without the
(40:52):
righteousness of Jesus.
When you give him your sin andhe forgives you of your sin, he
gives you his righteousness, heclothes you with his
righteousness and then you areworthy, not because of you but
because of him, and you arewelcome and you're invited.
(41:13):
And today you're the inviter.
So I just wanna ask you thequestion which person are you in
the story?
I wanna ask every head to bebowed, every eye to be closed.
(41:36):
Maybe in the story you are theperson that you know, the king.
You know that God himself hascalled you out.
He's called you out to invitepeople to be a part of the
kingdom, and maybe, just thisentire time you are thinking of
a person, or you're thinking ofpeople, you're thinking of
family members.
You're thinking of people.
You're thinking of familymembers, you're thinking of
friends, you're thinking ofneighbors, you're thinking of
(41:57):
people that you see often andGod has laid them on your heart.
I wanna encourage you righthere, right now.
Just ask God, god, would yougive me the opportunity?
God, would you give me theboldness?
God, would you give me theopportunity?
God, would you give me theboldness?
God, would you give me thewords to say in the moment God,
(42:19):
would you cross our paths againso I can tell them about what
you're doing in my life and whatyou can do in their life.
And maybe you're here thismorning and you're like that,
one friend of the crowd and youhaven't been clothed with the
righteousness of Jesus yet, youhaven't been forgiven of your
(42:41):
sin, you haven't given your lifeto him.
I wanna encourage you righthere, right now.
I can't pray that for you, Ican't save you, but right here,
right now, you can pray thatprayer and you can pray right
now to Jesus and you can besaved.
You can say Jesus, I need you,I believe in you.
You can tell him, jesus, Ibelieve that you died on the
(43:03):
cross for my sin and I'm askingyou to forgive me of all of my
sin.
Jesus, I believe that you rosefrom the dead and, jesus, I've
given my life to you becauseyou're alive, you're real.
You can tell him.
Jesus, I'm calling on you to bethe Lord of my life.
The Bible says in Romans 10,nine if you confess with your
(43:26):
mouth that Jesus is Lord andbelieve with your heart that God
raised him from the dead, youwill be saved.
Call on Jesus right now.
Jesus, save me, be my God, bemy Savior.
Jesus, we thank you for thattruth.
We thank you for your death andresurrection.
We thank you for your salvation.
(43:46):
Jesus, we love you and we praythese things in your name.
And all God's people said putyour hands together for anybody
that gave their life to Jesus.
This morning, we just wanna saythat we love you.
Welcome to the family.
We're here to help you and Ijust wanna encourage you.
God wants to work in your lifethis week.
(44:07):
Who is it that God wants to use?
Who is it that God used in yourlife to invite you to Jesus,
and who is it that God wants touse?
Who is it that God used in yourlife to invite you to Jesus,
and who is it that God wants touse you to invite others to him
as well?
Let's all stand together and Ijust wanna pray one more time
before we worship.
But we'll all stand.
Let's just ask God's blessingon these last moments together.
(44:27):
Heavenly Father, god, I justthank you so much that you have
so much in store for us.
You have eternity in store forus, and God, we just we can't
wait.
God, we give you all the praise, the honor and the glory.
And, father, thank you thatwe're invited, thank you that
we're included.
Jesus, thank you for making itpossible through your death and
(44:53):
your resurrection.
So, god, we just pray that youwould just ignite a culture of
invite within us, within ourchurch, god, that the beat of
our heart would be invitation,because your heart is salvation.
Lord, we love you, we worshipyou, we worship you.
(45:14):
We give you all of ourselves.
Thank you for giving us all ofyou.
In Jesus' name, we pray and allGod's people said let's sing
one more worship song to Jesus.
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