Dr. Roger Parrott, Belhaven University Chapel Series

Imagine what you would do if the most powerful person in the world invited you to a banquet, a private banquet, not an email.

You didn't get a general invite.

You got it personally with your name on it.

The invitation had a seat reserved for you and a place was prepared for a great banquet hall to be together for this celebration.

Now imagine you got that and you just ignored it.

Not because you hated the person who invited you, not because you objected to who they are and what they're about, not because you weren't interested.

It was because you had something more pressing.

You had a paper due, or you had to study, or you had to get to a practice, or you had to get to work.

Important things.

But because of that, you couldn't go.

You wouldn't insult the person who invited you by just saying no, because that would be rude.

Say, just quietly choose to do something else and ignore it.

And that's the setting for this parable that we're going to talk about, the invitation.

You cannot ignore the parable of the wedding banquet.

Now, Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like.

To start this one.

Now, you remember in all the parables we looked at, he often said, the kingdom of heaven is like, or the kingdom of God is like.

And they were kind of interchangeable because they were about our life on this earth.

But this one is on purpose.

The kingdom of heaven is like, because this is about heaven.

So he said, the kingdom of heaven is like the king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

And the invitations went out and people shrugged, they didn't respond.

They didn't really care.

They were busy.

They didn't argue the theology.

They didn't protest that I don't believe in the king.

They just went back to their schedule.

And, you know, the parable points out that the uncomfortable truth is that the greatest threat to your soul is not atheism.

The greatest threat is distraction.

You will not likely wake up one day and say, I reject God.

I don't want to have anything to do with God.

You probably won't ever get to that point.

You simply keep prioritizing something else.

And that's how the invitations from the king get ignored.

Jesus says in the parable, you see, God designed this world, designed this world to be perfect, designed this world to be sinless, designed this world to be full and abundant, and sin corrupted that.

And so God has prepared eternity with.

With him that restores that.

If you don't know much about heaven, know that it's not up there someplace.

It is this earth restored in the way that God intended it to be.

The way he planned it.

Sinless.

And it breaks my heart to think any of you would miss that invitation.

Please, please, please don't trade the trinkets of this world for God's best.

Don't do it.

It's not worth it.

But if you don't want that, that's your choice.

And God says the same thing.

It's your choice.

He's not going to force you.

But don't miss it just because you didn't respond to the invitation because other priorities were too pressing.

Because you said, well, I'll get around to that.

I'll get around to my spiritual life eventually, or after I'm through this, then I'll get serious.

You know what?

I've lived a lot more years than you have.

There's always another this.

Always, always, always.

If you can't make it a priority now, you won't make it a priority then.

So I want to pull from this story three insights that hopefully are helpful to us.

To understand where Jesus was saying that, I want to ask three questions in response to Jesus.

The first insight is this.

The feast is prepared.

Jesus says, the king has prepared the feast.

Well, I don't know if you've ever had a feast.

I had one that was so memorable, I'll never forget it in my life.

I took my daughter, before she got sick, to Harry Potter World.

She wanted to go to Universal.

She loves Harry Potter, and her brother didn't want to go.

Mom was glad not to go, so I did.

So I took her to Harry Potter World and we had the biggest time ever.

And she wrote everything.

She wore her cape.

She got picked by the guy for the wand.

She'd go get in line and ride a ride, and I'd get in line, something behind her.

So when she came off the ride, she could take my place and go again.

We had the greatest time, and by lunchtime we were starving.

So we went to this restaurant and they had all this stuff you could order and whatever.

And they had a feast for four.

And he started to order.

I said, don't worry about what she wants.

We want the feast for four.

He said, there are only two of you.

I said, yeah, that's what we want.

We want the feast for four.

And we did, and it was fabulous.

Now she's a vegetarian, so I got all the ribs, I got all the meat.

It was fabulous.

I loved it.

We ate so much.

And then they brought four desserts.

It was incredible.

A real feast.

We still teased about the feast for four.

And she wrote on her Facebook, I got to tell you, this was a dad.

She wrote on her Facebook afterward, best day ever.

And I cut that out and I keep it on my desk.

Best day ever.

When it's lavish and it's so overwhelming, it is the best day ever.

And God's kingdom is a celebration.

Heaven is a celebration.

If you don't know much about heaven, you need to learn about heaven.

There's a great book, Randy Alcorn.

It's called Heaven.

It's easy to find on the Internet.

Find Randy Elkhorn's book Heaven on the Internet.

It will make you look forward to heaven.

I'm probably going to get there before most of you do.

And while I love this life, heaven is amazing when you really understand it.

The kingdom of God in heaven is a celebration.

The kingdom is about joy.

It's not limited.

It's not boring.

It's not sitting on a cloud.

It's about joy and fulfillment of this world as God intended it to be.

But that invitation to that celebration is not earned.

It's just given.

It's freely given.

It's not a prize for being good.

It's the family coming back home together.

But Jesus said in the parable, many refuse to come.

Now we have the parable in Mark, which is read.

Excuse me, in Matthew, which was read first today.

It's also in Luke, because Jesus told these stories over and over and over again.

These weren't, you know, he was an itinerant evangelist, which means he went a lot of different places, so he'd tell the same stories.

So Matthew wrote it down one time from one version.

Luke wrote it down another time, same story, just little different details on them.

But in Luke, he says one couldn't come because they had a field they had to take care of, and one couldn't come because they had a yoke of oxen they had to take care of.

And.

And one couldn't come because he just got married.

You know, none of the excuses are sinful.

None of the excuses are sinful.

They're about work, responsibility and relationships, important things.

You see, the danger of missing eternity is not that you're not doing important things.

It's misordered priorities.

Misordered priorities.

And so Luke says they all began to make excuses.

Made excuses.

That phrase is chilling.

You see, drift is rarely dramatic.

Rarely dramatic.

It's gradual.

It's shared by other people.

It seems reasonable to put it off.

Nobody plans to drift away from God.

They just kind of get absorbed into the current of the culture around them.

And when distraction is normal and busyness is applauded.

In our culture, when urgency is reserved for everything except eternity, drift becomes invisible.

But it takes over when we're not purposeful.

We're not purposeful about the most important relationship in our life.

Drift begins if you're in a relationship, but I'm in a relationship with my wife and I'm not purposeful about that relationship, drift will begin.

The same thing is true with God.

When we just don't pay attention, gravity takes over and we just get pulled away.

If you don't anchor yourself in what matters most, life will slowly pull you someplace else.

All the time.

They won't feel rebellious, it'll just feel busy.

That's what Jesus was trying to tell us.

You see, spiritual erosion rarely happens at a moment of crisis.

It happens through a thousand unexamined decisions.

Just stuff where we just went along rather than really thought it through.

The kingdom of God, Jesus is telling us in this parable, is rarely rejected outright.

It's just postponed.

It's just postponed.

It's the tragedy of indifference.

And then we see the seriousness of refusal in this story.

The king responds with a judgment.

It's pretty harsh.

Hang on.

The master of the house, Luke said, became angry.

Not irritated, not inconvenienced, not frustrated.

He became angry that people wouldn't respond to the invitation.

Why?

Because the indifference toward grace is not neutral.

It's a rejection of God's generosity.

And we cannot treat ultimate things without consequences and ignore them.

You see, grace is free.

We know that.

We've talked about that so many times.

Because Jesus paid the ultimate price for it.

And because of that, it is not trivial.

It's not take it or leave it without consequences.

So Jesus said, when the people didn't respond to the invitation, he said, go out in the streets and invite everybody.

And Luke, he says, bring the poor and the crippled and the lame and the maimed.

Those words are not an accident.

You see, those who assume they belong declined to come because they were busy.

Those who never imagined they belonged were welcomed.

The kingdom entrance is not about your resume and it's not about your family legacy.

And they're all great going church people.

It's not about your spiritual pedigree is built on the high cost of grace, only on the high cost of grace.

You see, exposure does not equal belonging.

Attending chapel is great.

I'm glad you're here.

Growing up in church is wonderful.

Glad you did.

Being around a Christian community like this is great.

But presence is not the same as surrender.

Like we sang this morning, surrender.

You can't enter the king's banquet without surrender.

A transformation.

And that's what he talks about when he talks about how one guest came and was there in the banquet and didn't have on the right clothes.

You see, in those days, it was very traditional for people to have just wedding clothes.

The only place they'd ever wear it was the wedding.

Or the host would provide clothes for everybody to make them included in the family.

So nobody stood out as not being properly dressed.

And that was important.

But the scripture says, the guy came and the king said, why aren't you in wedding clothes?

You know, when women get an invitation, I don't know if this makes sense.

It does it in my house.

Women get an invitation to something really fancy.

The first thing they think is, I don't have anything to wear.

Guys go, I just put on whatever.

It doesn't matter.

But not for women.

I got to have the right thing to wear.

Well, that's a pretty good concept for all of us.

If you're going to come to the banquet, the feast that Jesus is offering, there has to be the right thing to wear.

The transformation.

But God provides the transformation.

We don't have to.

We just have to accept the invitation.

And when you come, he gives you the wedding clothes.

And as you saw heard in the scripture, if you don't wear them, the consequences are enormous.

Well, it's an invitation you can't ignore because it's personal.

The preparation is complete for the banquet.

The excuses are predictable, Jesus says, but the consequences are real.

And transformation is necessary.

I surrender.

All is necessary.

You see, the difference is not access to the banquet.

The difference is the response.

Some are too busy.

Some are too casual about it.

Not that big a deal.

No, it is.

Some are hostile, and some are surrendered.

You've been invited into the joy of the king in the kingdom.

So three questions.

First is, what excuse are you using to delay your response?

What excuse?

Excuses sound reasonable.

Can't build a resume and avoid the reckoning.

If you keep postponing Christ, postponement becomes your decision.

You don't have to decide.

You did just by postponing over and over and over again.

So the question is, what in your life outranks the best thing in your life?

Because if you're not connected to God and your relationship is not growing in Christ, something else is more important to you.

Is it achievement?

Admirable.

Is it independence?

Is it comfort?

Is it your reputation among friends?

You see, delay feels harmless, but it hardens us against God.

We get corroded and it's harder to get back.

The danger is not that you say no to God.

The danger is you say, not now.

Not now.

I will, but not now.

What excuses are you using to delay your response?

Second question.

Is this.

There we go.

You're trying to attend the banquet without putting on the garment.

You see, proximity is not transformation.

Chapel attendance is not surrender.

Christian culture at a Christian university is not Christian faith.

The man without the garments was inside.

He was inside.

And Jesus said, no, you're not dressed properly.

You're going where there's gnashing of teeth.

You can't enter the kingdom wearing self reliance.

Christ provides the garment, but pride refuses to put it on.

The most dangerous place you can be is to be close to the truth, but unchanged by it.

Hear that?

The most dangerous place you can be is to be close to the truth like you are here, and be unchanged by it.

Are you trying to attend the banquet without putting on the garment?

Just being around it doesn't get you there.

Scripture's clear.

Well, the third question.

If you understood the urgency, would your life look different?

When something's truly valuable, urgency follows naturally.

Heaven is not indifferent.

It's insistent.

You got to be ready.

What you treat as urgent reveals what you believe, ultimately, where your core values are.

And if grace isn't amazing to you, the invitation's not going to move you.

You have to understand how amazing grace is.

That we are sinners, separated from God, who is holy and pure, and we can't be reconnected with God.

Except that Jesus paid the price on the cross for our sins.

We should be on that cross.

He paid the price on the cross for our sins and gives us grace to be rejoined with the Father who made us and loves us.

Grace is amazing.

Don't ever let it not be amazing to you.

Well, it's an invitation we really can't ignore.

So the question is not whether God has spoken now.

These are words of Jesus.

He's real clear.

The question is, will you respond to the King?

Will you receive the grace provided?

Will you treat it as urgent?

The excuses are reasonable.

The drift is quiet.

Nobody's going to notice.

Maybe you won't notice.

And the delay feels safe.

The delay feels safe until it's not.

Let's pray together.

Our benediction.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

God bless.

Have a good day.