Turning on the Lights! Friday July 26, 2024. Luke 14 and the banquet of disciples.
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to Turning On the Lights for Friday July 26, 2024.
Today we continue our journey through the parables of Jesus and our walk of discipleship by first talking about what we might be missing it in our churches and then how Jesus taught it in Luke 14.
I pray that this talk both inspires and challenges you, and that if you are not a child of God, you will consider it. If you are a child of God, i hope that you are strengthened and encouraged.
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Friday, July 26, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Friday, July 26, 2024
Good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters. You are looking live. If you are checking in live at the altar of the Church Town Church of God. If you’re listening on the podcast, this is the Church Town Church of God 351 Old Stone House Road South Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania. Let us know where you are and what where you are listening from. If you’re watching us on YouTube, you are looking probably not live at the altar of the church. But that’s okay. You’re looking at the altar of the church and I want to share with you today that I have a very special guest with me. She came over with me out of curiosity. She wanted to she’s been in the sanctuary before and I want to introduce you to her. She’s very shy. She’s a very shy girl, but if you look you can see our beautiful foxhound Graceland. I don’t know how close she’ll let me get because she’s very curious as to why I’m talking into thin air. There she goes. Hey baby. It’s okay. Let’s try to get a good look at Grace. There she is. She’s a beautiful beautiful beautiful girl, aren’t you? Yes, you are and you’re probably going to go away because having the camera pointed at her is something that is very strange. She’s getting used to all of the things of family life. She has a long back story, but it culminates in the fact that she needs to be desensitized to nearly every aspect of normal family life normal life in a town in a house all of the sounds all of the things and the fact that the matter is that we spend a great deal of time in the church. If you haven’t seen her there she is. Just be quiet. And so she’s no Susie. She’s not going to be busting into the congregation begging for her attention, but she loves to play in the morning and so we brought her over. Good morning Sue brought her brought her over this morning to hang out with me and to just sort of be desensitized. Oh, yeah, we had a great trip last week. I talked about it a little bit on Tuesday. There was no doubt that it was brutal in terms of the weather at time, not all of it because we spent a lot of time at higher altitude under the canopy of the Appalachians got as high as 4000 feet, but you know there were times when I wasn’t very nice and I should have bought stock in Gatorade. There’s no doubt about that drank a lot of Gatorade. And very you know water Gatorade Propel fitness water all of those different things don’t want to do a commercial here for them, but good morning Nancy. Good morning. Everybody welcome to turning on the lights. Lord. We do pray that your word will go forth this day and change hearts and minds in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen. So yeah, thank you all for welcoming Grace Lynn to the family. She is doing really well yesterday. Matthew Mark Luke and John. I’m trying to get to Luke fourteen. Yesterday marked her three week anniversary of her adoption into our home and so. Like I said, if you’ve not worked with a rescue dog, you talk about patience you talk about first Corinthians thirteen, you know the way of love and the way of patience and kindness and forgiveness and all of those things. I think every pastor in training probably should work with a rescue dog and try to rehabilitate a rescue dog. All of our animals regardless of what they have been dogs cats, whatever have been rescues. We have had three you hate to use the word damage traumatized. We have had three traumatized dogs. That we have worked with over the course of our marriage, Grace Lynn being the third one and it just takes a lot of time a lot of patience and especially with this one, she needs desensitized to things like even the door closing a person just simply walking not while even walking up to her all everything anything that you can imagine and she’s doing a great great job. She’s very comfortable in the house. She’s actually coming over to see what I’m doing. She’s very very curious. She’s a very very good dog. So we wanted to talk a little bit. We’ve been talking about discipleship and I think that that is a wonderful thing to talk about. It is a wonderful thing to do being that we are called to be disciples and we are called to make disciples. So a lot has been made about this over the course of the history of the church. A lot of is being made of it now. Let me just show you something. There she is. She’s curious. Everybody wants to see you. Oh there she goes. So I wanna get her used to just being around me hearing my voice knowing that what she the sanctuary is safe and all of that. And unfortunately discipleship itself in the church today is marketed. It’s branded. It’s marketed and it is sold as packages to churches. Discipleship you we must make disciples. We’re disciples making disciples. We must make disciples as Jesus commanded discover deploy. I’m afraid you don’t even know what it is discover develop and deploy disciples as Jesus commanded whatever the marketing is whatever the packaging is the discipleship is a thing. That has been it is inherent in the church. It is inherent and behooves Christians to be disciples and make disciples. Thus it is something that has also been processed marketed and sold to churches as well program after program after program on how disciples make disciples book after book after book on making disciples initiative after initiative. You can purchase this. You can do that. You can do this for 9 weeks. One of one aspect of all of this. I think that we miss good morning. Lori in the in the church, especially the advantages that we have as local embedded community churches right and shall we use the word small churches. Ah can you even say that without causing a fight, but one of the advantages that we have is that discipleship. Hopefully if your pastor is in the word and you the people of your congregation are in the word and growing and developing and discovering their spiritual giftings and really interacting with one another and all of those things discipleship is inherent in the body discipleship is inherent in the growth of the church and I’m not talking about numbers. I’m talking about the people that are brought there by God to be a part of that congregation. Are they growing people always want to know right and I’ve said this before many times on turning on the lights and elsewhere people find out you’re a pastor is your church growing and this is this is the metric for nearly everything, especially in the United States. Are you growing? Are you making money? Are do you have numbers? Are you bigger than the next guy and that really is not a metric or a very secondary metric for a congregation that is submitted to the will of God through Jesus Christ. The metric is are you growing from the inside out exactly Jody right growing from the inside out. That’s our job and that is discipleship. When a Christian who is embedded in this congregation and has grown as a Christian and become a well versed well grounded follower of Jesus Christ when they leave this place on Sunday and they’re in their world do in the world doing what they do in their milieu as we say there’s your 50 cent word of the day your milieu. That’s your area of operation. You can behave as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It’s natural and it’s inherent to you because you are a disciple of Jesus Christ not superficially. You haven’t been given a pep talk on Sunday. You’ve gone deeply into the word and you have grown. You have been encouraged by your church leadership and others in the congregation to stay in the word and to grow when you are in your world in the world and you behave as a disciple and people begin to ask you questions. People want to know why this or what church you would whatever the situation may be you can provide more than my church is rocking man like you got it, but you can provide answers about Jesus Christ about salvation about the good news of the completed work of the cross. You can discuss how meaningful it is to be together with other Christians on a Sunday morning. Would you like to join us and see what it’s all about and when an individual who may not be a believer or may have experienced something different in church enters into that local congregation. Our prayer is that they go wow. This is different. We talked about Holiness a couple of weeks ago in the weekly Barbara preached about it while I was on my ride and there should be a feeling of different nests when the individual enters into that congregation. That’s what they say they actually say Rick. It’s a seventy-five to 100 person rule one person to every seventy-five people. I mean fifty is as good a number as any, but this is these are sort of the things that we learned in group dynamics as a teacher and then as pastoral training as well. So an individual pastor of the church if you’re pushing 100 people, you’re pushing your physical spiritual and emotional limit of being able to actually tend to care for and know all of those individuals. So that’s a great question. I mean our great statement because that’s the way it breaks down. That’s why large churches do life groups and small groups and that’s churches within churches and all of that different stuff because they know that that’s the reality and if an individual is not connected to anybody or very very few people that individual is going to drift from that church. But that again Rick is the great advantage of this. We do know one another we do gather in congregation and we do do the things of scripture that we are taught and we read we preach we teach we fellowship we laugh we are very intentional with the ordinances all of those different things that make a church a church. So larger picture discipleship oftentimes we miss the mark by thinking that it is something that is outside done. How do I wanna put this that it is not intrinsic to your experience at church discipleship making disciples growing as a disciple being comfortable as a disciple being all of those things should be intrinsic to your church experience. You should be growing from the inside out. You should not be going to church seeking an emotional experience. You should be going to church seeking a spiritual experience. There’s a huge difference. There is no doubt that emotions can well up. We’ll see people crying in the congregation whenever I strike a nerve or when something in particular has been brought up of course, emotions are brought up, but it’s spiritual connection first that drive an emotional response, not an emotional response first that you think is something spiritual. And we have to be careful as human beings that that’s not what we’re doing. And so we read in Acts 242 about the the clearest the clearest description of what people do when they gather together to worship now we say worship, but we know that our entire lives are worship all of but I’ll use that term as we kind of use it today. We gather for worship when we gather for the service, which I don’t like that word either. I sort of just like the gathering when we gather together for corporate worship. We are singing songs. We are fellowshipping with one another. We are in the word we are teaching and listening to teaching. We are breaking bread together, including the Lord’s Supper all of those things we grow we learn we grow we become and then we go. It’s not a packaged deal. There is no curriculum. There is no eight week study. There is no twelve week process and really you can glean different things from good teaching about this, but the book you should be reading regarding discipleship is the Bible because as you grow deeply in your relationship with God through Jesus Christ as you grow deeply with others, remember Christianity is not an individual sport. It’s a team sport as you grow deeply with others, you become that disciple that Jesus sees Jesus once. So that’s my piece for today regarding discipleship and we’re going to read very quickly here in Luke 14 about individuals who gather together and what Jesus is teaching about who gathers together why they gather together and part of the purpose as to why they gather together. I was at Luke 13. Hearing this well, let’s go back since we said hearing this then he turned to his host when you put on a luncheon or a banquet, he said don’t invite your friends. Brothers relatives and rich neighbors for they will invite you back and that will be your only reward instead invite the poor the crippled the lame and the blind then at the resurrection of the righteous. God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you hearing this a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed what a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God. Jesus replied with this story. We have been into Jesus’s stories in parables. Good morning everyone. A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations when the banquet was ready. He sent his servant to tell the guests come the banquet is ready, but they all began making excuses. One said I have just bought a field and I must inspect it. Please excuse me. Another said I have just bought five pairs of oxen. I want to try them out. Please excuse me. Another said I now have a wife so I can’t come the servant returned and told his master what they had said his master was furious and said go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor the crippled the blind and the lame after the servant had done this. He reported there is still room for more so his master said go into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come so that the house will be full for none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet. Now there is hyperbole built into this story and we need to understand that Jesus is trying to illustrate the point where he is sitting at the dinner and he’s talking about the places of honor at the dinner and he’s talking about the pecking order that is inherent in any group of people. We always look at the rich and the powerful. We look at the individual who may have built the building and they get the seat of honor wherever the building the wherever whatever it is all of those things are true and he is sitting at a dinner and he is looking at the seats of honor and then those who emanate out from the seat of honor and he’s saying. You’re kind of missing the point of gathering together, so he tells the story, especially after the man brings up the the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven. He tells a story that is going to mimic or pair against his current situation, which he often does. He’ll be sitting right beside Pharisees. He’ll be sitting right beside Roman soldiers, whatever the case may be and he’ll tell a parable that will relate directly to the people that he’s sitting beside and he does this. He says, let me tell you about a banquet. You wanna talk about a banquet in heaven. We put out invitations. We put out invitations that covered the land. We put out invitations to individuals who were wealthy individuals who are busy individuals who have prominence and and and statue in in life. And they were so consumed with their wealth and their prominence and their status in life that they chose not to attend the banquet. They were very happy with what they had and what they were doing. They had the same choice as you will see everyone is going to have as a matter of fact for the purposes of this story, Jesus gave that choice to them first simply to illustrate to the individuals who are heading up the current banquet at which he was sitting. How the invitations work so the for the purposes of the story, even though that those invitations went out first and those people that had so much so much prominence so much wealth so much status said no. Thank you very happy where I am very happy with what I have very happy with what I’m doing. I can’t attend so the invitation goes out now. Purposefully remember go all authority in heaven has been given to me go. And make disciples of all the world so we’re purposely the invitation is purposely going out and every individual who read the Beatitudes knows their need for the bread of life to follow the banquet theme. Responds those who do not experience that need for the bread of life. Those who are in love with their wealth, their prominence, their status, whatever they have going on in their lives, whatever they have built whatever they are doing. Do not recognize their need for a savior. So you see what’s going on here. He’s telling the people that he’s sitting with the way that human society is structured in the way that you’re doing it is not the way of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, the invitation goes to all because all have fallen short of the glory of God. All are in need of a savior. Now, where do you stand in your knowing that where do you stand in your response to that? That’s the question. Whether you are rich or whether you are poor, whether you are in good health or whether you are in poor health. Jesus makes a point of describing the poor and the crippled and the lame all those things, but whomever you are, do you recognize your need for a savior? Do you recognize the fact that in the kingdom of God, the only seats of honor are father, son, Holy Spirit. Do you understand that God our triune God is sovereign? He sits at the seat of honor. We are all invited and there is no hierarchy in the kingdom of God. He makes that clear to his disciples then later. And this is something that is a message for every professing believer to know to understand to ask themselves every single day. What is your response? Some of you listening some of you watching have a lot some of you listening some of you watching have a little. And the point of the parable is spiritually you are the same spiritually read the Beatitudes. You are in desperate need of a savior spiritually. You must respond to the invitation that you are given and that invitation is through Jesus Christ. Now many of these things that are being taught by Jesus will be fully understood post resurrection. But the core of his purpose is to help us understand that he is creator and we are created. He goes on and this is not coincidence after he talks about this and he makes it clear that the only seats of honor in the kingdom of heaven are father son Holy Spirit Yahweh triune God and he goes and he talks about the all those who have responded to come to the banquet. Here you go you think oh wow that’s fantastic. That’s wonderful. I’m saved. This is great. That’s the end. That’s not the end my brothers and my sisters. That’s the beginning. A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them if you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison your father and mother wife and children brother and sister. Yes, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my disciple now. He just invited the the weak the poor the lame to the feast of the king. He said they responded in knowing their need they responded in the affirmative and they’re sitting with the king and he said immediately says good for you. Here’s what this looks like you understand your need for a savior you understand that I am creator and you are the created this opens your heart to understand the gulf that is between creator and created and the great mercy that has been demonstrated by God through Jesus Christ. That great mercy that great love that great the the act of redemption itself. Should create within us another sort of gulf if you will and that is the idea that is the knowledge that is the wisdom that as a child of God, I am his first just had this conversation with the couple that’s being married in a couple of weeks and we talk about marriage and we talk about the marriage bubble and we talk about nobody being in that bubble except God by the power of his Holy Spirit. Of course, you’re turning to God first the husband and the wife must be in complete unity. Your children are not in that bubble. Your exes are not in that bubble. Your friends are not in that bubble. Healthy children are going to be raised by healthy parents. Healthy parents are going to have a healthy marriage. A healthy marriage is going to be unified by the power of God’s Holy Spirit alone and those individuals acting upon it. So when Jesus says if you want to be my disciple by comparison, there’s nobody else. It’s you and me, he says it to use the image that I just created with marriage. It’s you and me in this bubble. So even the husband and the wife their personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ without that at the very center of their lives, they cannot go on to be good wives, good husbands and then together unified. They cannot go on to be good parents and they cannot go on to be good role models, good truck drivers, good friends, good what you know disciples of Jesus Christ. I hope that that makes sense and that the stark contrast that we have gone from the very first story being at an actual physical banquet and people bragging about the seats of honor and Jesus Christ saying that there will be no seats of honor. Let me tell you a story. I invited those who would sit at the seat of honor and they were all fascinated with their own lives. They denied me. I invited the weak and the lame and the poor understanding their need for a savior and they responded to me. And responding to me means that you will seek me first and all that you do and by comparison, everything in this physical world, including your relationships are a distant second. Because of the great mercy that has been demonstrated to you. So we talk about the cost of discipleship. There are many examples in scripture of the cost of discipleship. Good morning Nikki. But don’t begin until you count the cost for who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it. Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say there’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it. Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the army of 20,000 marching against him? And if he can’t, will he send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away? So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own. Counting the cost of discipleship is among one of the things that I primarily preach the cost of discipleship and again with the couple that I was speaking with yesterday. If you choose to create a godly home and be unified by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, if you choose to be subject to him individually and then as a as a marriage as a couple, you have put that spiritual target on your back. The opposer of God’s will hates that. We’ll do anything to divide that. We’ll do anything to get other people inside that bubble. We’ll do anything and we must be completely aware that even the slightest little distraction or diversion could be a tiny little pebble that the opposer of God’s will is tossing into that marriage bubble. The cost of discipleship is spiritual warfare and we speak about that all the time. We are not afraid to speak about that here at Church Town and to gather together in unity so that we may be strengthened by the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the fellowship of believers. To live in that environment every single day, the cost of discipleship is your life as you know it now. That’s the truth. Father, we pray that the truth will set many free today because to become a slave to righteousness is to become free. Be freed as a human being. So in Jesus’ name, we pray that this will indeed be the case as your word goes out today, as your word goes out throughout this weekend, the church universal and the church local will be inextricably woven together by your word and your word alone. Amen. Let’s go see if we can find that pesky dog one more time. She’s been walking all over the place. I’ve been super happy with that. Do you wanna see her again? Let me go find her. I wonder where she is. Okay, hold on. Let me flip it around. Hey, Gracie. Where’d she go? I don’t have any doors open. Oh, maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Maybe I lost my dog. Oh, here she is. There she is. I’m gonna put her on her leash. Tell her that she was such a good girl and we’re gonna go for a little walk. Okay, Grace. You’re a good girl. God bless you guys and we will see you in church.
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